Nielsen yesterday released research demonstrating that the more twitter volume there is during a show’s live airing, the more viewers it captures within the live +7 (the live airing plus the seven days after) window.
Scripted shows as a whole have larger audiences in the +7 window than during the live airing, but highly social scripted shows – think ‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘American Horror Story,’ and ‘Scandal’ – get an even bigger boost during this window. For “low social” programs, +7 audiences are 16% larger than live audiences. For “high social” programs, though, +7 audiences are 36% larger than live audiences.
The research shows how important it is for networks to pay attention to growing delayed audiences. At the same time, it also shows that they must continue to put resources towards social TV activations during live airings.
Below, more insights from Nielsen‘s research:
– Some networks see over 50% of viewership among people aged 18-34 coming in the seven-day window after the live airing, which explains why time-shifted viewing has become increasingly important to networks and advertisers.
– To understand +7 viewership for any series’ episode, we evaluated 11 different variables across five categories. An episode’s live audience tune in was found to be the most important factor changing how viewers watch later, accounting for 42% of variance in +7 TV audiences. So, just under half of the difference between the live and +7 audiences can be explained by the size of the original live audience.
– Interestingly, all 11 variables tested proved to be statistically significant. In other words, all measurements and characteristics we looked at affect time-shifted viewing. In fact, this integrated model explains 72% of the variance in the +7 audience, significantly higher than what the live audience could explain alone.
– Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings (NTTR) impressions were significant, even after accounting for the effect of the other 10 variables. Specifically, a 10% increase in NTTR impressions corresponded to a 1.8% increase in the +7 audience, indicating that social media activity around TV programming is playing a role in driving viewers to watch programming later in the week.
– More social shows see a greater boost in time-shifted audiences than less social ones: For ‘high social’ shows, +7 audiences are 36% larger than live audiences while ‘low social’ shows’ +7 audiences are just 16% larger than live audiences.
