Despite all of your talk of digital innovation and changing landscapes of television, it turns out you’re just an old person who wants to know when your program is on. A recent study “Conquering Content” by Hub Entertainment research shows that:
Sixty percent agree they “need a universal listing that lets them find shows across all TV sources”, vs. only 9% who disagree. Forty eight percent say they are more likely to choose sources that make discovery of new shows easy, vs. only 9% who aren’t.
Really? We (or I do, for that matter) forget that appointment viewing is still kind of a thing — you have to know when to DVR a show or when to find it on Hulu after it airs. Smart TV manufacturers and content providers take note: give consumers easy, beautiful TV guides and they’ll notice. The study also reports that:
Helping out TV marketers are those viewers getting hooked to new shows online. Many will generally follow those shows vs. traditional TV: 61% of viewers — and 72% of younger millennial viewers — have watched a show on live TV after they discovered it online. Netflix and Hulu Plus viewers in particular have pushed this — with 68% and 73% respectively, following shows to traditional TV.
So the second screen doesn’t replace broadcast television and if anything, it might be giving it a boost. You can download the full report here. This particular one was conducted during Novemeber as an annual tracking study of 1250 United States viewers with broadband.