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Industry Research

Industry-Research

Finding success in 2022’s competitive streaming market

The pandemic influenced business and consumer ecosystems worldwide. New behaviors include wide spread adoption of cashless transactions, contactless shopping, Zoom calls, and virtual conferences. Today’s world differs significantly from the pre-pandemic norms of 2019. Deloitte’s new Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Report looks at our transformed landscape and offers insight into consumers’ TV viewing habits and video consumption and predictions for 2022.

TV evolves

While overall television viewing increased during the pandemic, that growth did not occur on linear TV. Deloitte’s report sees this year’s impact on TV broadcast as a tipping point. It attributes this to the changing television landscape to new platforms and rich content. The report cites declines in the U.K. and forecasts further decreases in 2022 across TV broadcast live, time-shifted, and on-demand. In all, the share of viewing in the U.K. for TV broadcasters will account for only 50% of video viewing on all screens.

As a result of declining viewership, broadcasters and cable networks are launching streaming businesses (i.e., Discovery+, Disney+, and Paramount+) to add reach and compete for viewers’ attention. Approximately 80% of U.S. households now have a paid streaming video-on-demand (SVOD)subscription, with roughly a 35% churn rate this year. Deloitte expects the younger European SVOD market to replicate the US model.

Managing SVOD 

Consumers are price-sensitive and likely to find less expensive ad-supported offerings to manage their wallets. Deloitte estimates that at least 150 million paid subscriptions to SVOD services will cancel worldwide. However, Deloitte forecasts that consumers will add more subscriptions than cancel in markets with high churn. In fact, the average number of subscriptions per person will increase. Deloitte sees churn rates at 30% in the U.S. for 2022 compared to 35% in 2021.

Attracting and retaining audiences 

Deloitte forewarns publishers that content development and acquisition costs are likely to increase. Therefore, the pressure to attract and retain audiences is a top priority. Their recommendations include:

Multiple tier offerings

Multiple pricing tiers will help protect against churn. Asia/Pacific offers multiple tiers from free, ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) to premium. They also provide service bundles with video, gaming, and music. Bundling different services allow providers to aggregate large audiences for advertising and helps prevent churn. Deloitte expects to see more multiple-tier and bundled offerings in the U.S. and European markets.

Partnerships

Partnering with telecom and cable TV operators offers access a sizeable mobile market. Partnerships can help SVOD providers with distribution, customer costs and offers a compelling bundled choice. Partnering with studios can help manage content development and attract a broader audience.

Better data usage

Use data to understand a customer’s lifetime value can develop more enduring relationships, especially with more-profitable age groups. Identify and track customer segments to create compelling content personalization, acquisition, and retention tactics. Establish a strong understanding of price sensitivity and content preference to find valuable subscriber segments.

Learn from the experts

Telcom and MVPDs spend years learning and managing churn. Leverage and learn from their expertise in maximizing customer lifetime value.

Manage a positive experience

Publisher SVOD services must deliver a valuable and positive user experience. It’s crucial to offer a good user experience from sign-up to cancellation.

Deloitte also reminds publishers to be flexible, be the prized alternative to the constraints of cable subscriptions and pay-TV. Churn is inevitable but controllable as competition grows in the marketplace.

Industry-Research

Evaluating audience engagement post-pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic drove a surge in digital media usage. However, as consumers slowly return to work and to everyday life outside the home, digital media consumption been impacted. New research from GWI, Connecting the Dots, finds that the gradual shift to our pre-pandemic habits has downshifted digital consumption.  

However, GWI sees the present as an interim period. For now, it remains unclear whether consumers will return to their previous content consumption levels — or perhaps reach new heights. This report offers an early look at consumer’s media behavior and attitudes as they slowly resume post-pandemic life.

Consumer attention serves as a commodity in today’s media marketplace. The attention metric took on new importance during the pandemic. Marketers and advertisers seek digital properties that offer large viewer and reader data that exhibit high levels of time spent. However, the attention economy concept as currency is only part of the advertising equation. GWI believes understanding consumer attitudes and feelings is a necessary part of the calculation and offers insight into their behavior.

Multiple streaming services add up

Television consumption increased during the pandemic and so did consumer spending on subscription services. Though GWI’s research finds that some consumers think they spent too much money. Over one-third (34%) of consumers state that TV services are too expensive in Q2 2021 compared to 27% in Q2 2020, an increase of 26%. In addition, in May 2021, a quarter of consumers were thinking of canceling or already canceling a streaming service.

Gaming grabs consumer attention

The pandemic ignited a period of exceptional growth for gaming. GWI cites a Google Trends’ analysis that compares the popularity of video gaming to a TV program, a theatrical release, and a new album release. The analysis tracks the popularity of Animal Crossing, a social simulation video game series, Tiger King, a popular Netflix program, Tenet, a new movie release, and Folklore, Taylor Swift’s album release — from January 5, 2020 to September 27, 2020. Tiger King, Tenet, and Folklore each had short-lived peaks, while the popularity of Animal Crossings, after an initial peak, maintains relatively steady interest.

Gaming is a strong contender for consumer attention, especially among Generation Z. According to GWI’s survey in Q2 2021, more than half (54%) of Zers are interested in gaming compared to 42% in Q2 2020. In contrast, Gen Z’s interest in television declined from 44% in Q2 2020 to 42% in Q2 2021.

Audio is screen-free

GWI’s report also shows audio entertainment, including streaming music and podcasts, is an integral part of consumers’ lives, especially when at home and during exercising. Interestingly, based on Q2 2021 data, streaming music is the only media type outperforming its Covid peaks that took place during lockdown.

GWI suggests that one of the reasons for audio’s success is that it doesn’t compete for screen time. Audio streaming offers an escape from screen fatigue. Using different screens all day may boost usage of audio media at the expense of visual media platforms.

Attention retention

As out-of-home activities become the norm once again, media channels need to think about re-engaging consumers. Transitioning from a pandemic mindset to a new normal is not easy for anyone. Media companies need to rethink their success and sales metrics and move beyond consumer attention. Offering quality content, positive experiences, a relatable community, opportunities of fandom, and possibilities of escapism, can present new opportunities of engagement.

Industry-Research

Track reader regularity rates to optimize subscription success

Reader-revenue strategies offer publishers a recurring revenue stream and positive audience relationships. A strong subscription business requires measuring and monitoring the core metrics of consumer engagement. More than likes and clicks, though, true subscriber engagement is characterized by regular usage. The Medill index developed by the Medill Spiegel Research Center provides insights to identify this important metric of at-risk subscribers for local news outlets.

The research includes data from close to 50 news outlets. On average, across all publications, 95% of subscribers pay for their subscriptions each month. However, they do not visit the sites that they subscribe to daily. And that could spell trouble.

Know your readers

The Medill’s subscriber index segments readers into three tiers based on outlet size to identify at-risk subscribers.

  • Tier 1, large newsrooms, shows a monthly retention rate of 95.4% and visit an average of 5.7 days per month.
  • Tier 2, mid-sized newsrooms, shows monthly retention at 95.7% and visit an average of 9.2 days per month.
  • Tier 3, small newsrooms, shows monthly retention at 96.2% and visit an average of 10.5 days per month.

Subscribers in smaller communities tend to look at their local news organizations for multiple purposes. These include local news events and sports sports, as well as national and international news. In contrast, many readers of medium and large newsrooms turn to secondary sources for national and international news.

Deep dive into audience analyses 

The Medill index tracks both subscribers and registered non-subscribers to assesses whether they are “at-risk” or “established” based on their regularity. “At-risk” is defined as two or fewer visits per month, while “established” means more than two visits. The research concludes that regular visits to a website is more important for retention than the number of stories subscribers read. Building toward habits of daily usage is a necessary retention metric.

Engaging with at-risk subscribers is vital to keeping retention high. Tim Franklin, Senior Associate Dean and John M. Mutz Chair in Local News at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, suggests getting subscribers engaged through regular communications. This connection point can be a newsletter, a news alert, an email from the editor or the publisher, or even emails about events. Reader retention needs to be a central focus and play a prominent role in a publisher’s strategy.

Experiment to engage

In addition, experimentation is essential to evaluate the effect of different pricing offers on churn. Lenfest’s Herts, a former Finance VP of the Dow Jones Consumer Media Group, recounts an experiment at a major metro news outlet. They offered an introductory price of $1 for six-month access. A higher number of sign-ups for the long-term introductory offer resulted in more total subscribers after one year than previous short-term offers.

Understanding cross-platform consumption is also crucial in understanding the total engagement picture. How often a reader engages in the site, app, newsletter, comments, etc., all represent an integration into the reader’s lifestyle experience. The publisher’s goal is to make its product a constant touchpoint and — as such — valuable to the subscriber.

Identifying and engaging with at-risk subscribers is necessary for reader retention. The Medill Index demonstrates the importance of publisher attention to reader regularity to build a long-term relationship with a core cohort of paying subscribers

Advertising | Industry-Research

Surveillance advertising isn’t just problematic, it eats publisher profits

Tracking and profiling remain standard practices and big business for ad-tech firms in digital advertising, though publishers don’t see much of the money. A new report, Sustainable without surveillance, from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), reviews the practices of tracking-based advertising and its impact on the digital ecosystem.

The report, written by Dr. Johnny Ryan, highlights how tracking-based advertising diverts data and revenue from publishers to ad tech intermediaries, notably Facebook and Google. In addition, Dr. Ryan shares results from European publishers when they turn off tracking-based advertising.

Tracking-based advertising devalues publishers’ audiences

The report outlines how real-time bidding (RTB) and auction-based environments allow thousands of companies to receive profile data about a person from a single ad. Tracking-based advertising diverts data and revenue from publishers to ad tech and, as a result, turns publishers’ audiences into commodities. Advertisers can now buy a premium publisher’s audience cheaply on low-value sites.

The research also recounts how tracking-based ads make ad fraud easier and how they trick advertisers and ad networks into paying them. Early estimates of ad fraud by HUMAN (formally White Ops) found Russian cybercriminals used Methbot to extract $3 to $5 million in video ad revenue from premium publishers. Methbots created fake pages on which they run real ads from actual advertisers. The bots simulated human activity (i.e., cursor movements and clicks) to mimic human action to make it appear as if a human impression occurred. HUMAN identified over 250,000 URLs that Methbots generated across more than 6,000 publishers.

Dr. Ryan also cites the 2016 Guardian study that used tracking-based ads to buy sales inventory in their newspaper. A detailed analysis of this media transaction found that for every ad dollar spent programmatically on the Guardian, they received only 30 cents. Intermediary technology firms executing tracking-based advertising received the remaining 70 cents. Each ad tech firm taking part in the transaction collects a fee, often hidden.

Publishers profitable without tracking-based advertising

The report presents evidence from European publishers that have profitable advertising businesses that do not rely on tracking-based advertising.

  • When Dutch publishers NPO Group replaced tracking-based ads with contextual-based ads, their advertising revenue increased 149%. Revenue continued to grow even with Covid-19’s significant impact on advertising spending.
  • The Norwegian news publishing group earned an average of 391% more over 12 months for contextual ads than tracking-based ads for websites it operates.
  • Further, TV2, a primary Norwegian news website, earned a 210% higher average price for contextual targeting than competing tracking-based ad targeting.

Time for change

It’s time for publishers to rethink their involvement in tracking-based advertising. With little potential for substantive yield, publishers must calculate the risk of data leakage and fraud. Supporting Dr. Ryan’s analysis is the U.S. based report, Online Tracking and Publishers’ Revenues: An Empirical, from lead researcher Alessandro Acquisti. It found that tracking-based advertising earns publishers only 4% more revenue than context-based advertising. It is clear that data tracking underpins the digital media economy and there are far more profitable, and less problematic, solutions.

Industry-Research | Research

Algorithmic image recognition and “what’s important”

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter use algorithmic processing for image analysis and sharing. The platforms try to understand the content of these images, and they algorithmically detect the persons and objects within these images at the pixel level. Benjamin N. Jacobsen’s research, Regimes of recognition on algorithmic media, examines how algorithmic media shapes and controls how people see the social world. He defines the concept of regimes of recognition as the algorithmic tools, techniques, and practices that social media platform use to decide recognizability within their platforms. 

The platforms use algorithms to crop images to generate engaging content. Applicable to Jacobsen’s research, the algorithm systems learn to detect and weight certain features in images rather than others. In other words, the algorithms actively generate what is recognized. He agrees with researcher Louise Amoore, who believes social platforms decide what images are interesting and recognizable. Amoore states, “they actively generate recognizability as such so that they decide what or who is recognizable as a target of interest in an occluded landscape.”

Twitter’s detection algorithm

In September 2020, consumers complained that Twitter’s image-cropping algorithm favored white faces over black faces. One example showed that the algorithms consistently cropped out images of former president Barack Obama. Experiments with stock photo models, cartoon characters, and even white and black dogs resulted in similar detection biases. Eventually, Twitter’s chief design officer, Dantley Davis, agreed there was a racial bias in the algorithm. He added, “the algorithm is not explicitly racist since it does not make its decision based on particular faces but rather on the contrasts that are calculated from the pixel values of the image.”

According to Twitter engineers Lucas Theis and Zehan Wang, the company first used facial recognition to auto-crop images. However, it often awkwardly cropped faces not centered within the picture. Twitter then moved to use deep saliency prediction networks to find the “most interesting part” of the image. Saliency maps use predefined areas of images to evaluate the pixel contrasts between different image regions. These data-trained neural networks and other algorithms find and then crop around the most engaging area of the image. Unfortunately, as the algorithms decide what is uploaded, they also determine what is nonrecognizable and set conditions for who is visible on the platform.

Deciding recognizability

The algorithm disregards socio-cultural contents and context in its processing of images. Regimes of recognition can easily make certain people non recognizable — focusing on specific features of an image and ignoring others. Algorithmic media platforms produce rules for what is visible and what is not visible.

Jacobsen questions the shaping, organizing, and automating parameters of cropping images. He sees decisions of inclusion and exclusion as a fundamental political question. Saliency detection algorithms rest on the assumption that some things deserve attention and others do not. Further, Twitter’s role in cropping people’s images (algorithmically) decides what elements in images are redundant. This begs a larger question as to why social media platforms need to edit people’s uploaded images at all?

Social media platforms algorithmically shape and organize people’s factors of attention. Twitter offers a prime example of the algorithmic processes in how it cropped out out black faces because it did not recognize the image. This sends a signal that that what is non-recognizable is unimportant. Further research is needed to examine the role (and potential biases) of algorithmic cropping, techniques, and results of these tools on other social platforms.

Industry-Research

More people are streaming, but how sticky are SVOD services?

The pandemic amplified the value proposition of video streaming — giving consumers rich menu of high-quality content. Deloitte’s new research, Digital media trends, 15th Edition, finds that consumers are enjoying the diverse diet. They report an estimated 21% boost in consumer spending on subscriptions in the first half of 2021.

Increased viewership

According to the report, almost half of all respondents (48%) spend more time on online entertainment than six months ago. While digital entertainment consumption increased during the pandemic, there are distinct differences across generations. Boomers and Gen X watch TV shows or movies at home while Gen Z plays video games and listens to music.

Subscription services

Eight in 10 (84%) respondents now pay for a subscription video-on-demand service (SVOD). The average household has four subscriptions, consistent with one year ago. Consumers prioritize their sign-ups by new original content, a broad content library, and a low enough cost to subscribe.

While SVOD services release quarterly growth numbers, the number of people who canceled, or both added and canceled, a paid SVOD service is flat at approximately 38%. Deloitte surmises that a few top-tier SVOD services keep subscribers while other services are added and canceled.

Cancellation

Subscribers report that their top reason for canceling a paid SVOD service is high costs. (Note the opportunity for ad-supported subscription tiers.) Led by Gen Z and Millennials, there’s a growing market of ad-supported video tiers. Almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents report using free ad-supported video services. In fact, according to nScreenMedia, drive ad revenue earned by virtual linear channels will double in size from $2.1 billion in 2021 to $4.1 billion in 2023.

The second most common reason people cancel a paid SVOD subscription was that they finished the show they signed up to watch. Deloitte notes that this “churn & return” behavior — canceling and resubscribing to the same service later, is most common among Millennials (47%) and Gen Z (34%). Respondents note their top reasons for resubscribing include a new release of their favorite show, managing costs, receiving a free or discounted rate, or the content they wanted to watch moved to a different service.

Recommendations

Gaming and social platforms also offer entertainment choices for consumers, especially for Gen Z and Millennials. While streaming video services will continue as a dominant force in the entertainment industry, SVOD players must focus on attracting, keeping, and maximizing subscribers’ lifetime value. Deloitte’s recommendations include:

  • Introduce more pricing tiers while keeping premium content for full-paying subscribers. Further, consumers like the idea of loyalty programs that offer discounts on other services and products. Specifics include membership and loyalty programs that allow users to earn access to content and VIP programs that offer exclusivity to the highest-paying tier.
  • Create bundling options for paid subscribers but ensure there is freedom and flexibility with each offering.  
  • Work with creators and influencers to create social connection points to content. Being part of social conversations offers new dimensions to the subscriber experience.

Today streaming video services offer a singular experience — lean back and view quality content. They may need to evolve their ecosystem to generate stickiness among younger cohorts. Developing and experimenting with connections to social, gaming, or music platforms is essential to growing their media and entertainment ecosystem. 

Industry-Research

Which platforms are “best” for spreading conspiracy theories?

Conspiracy theories have a long history in society, and social platforms offer a fresh new breeding ground for them. Yannis Theocharis, Ana Cardenal, and Soyeon Jin examine which social platforms effectively propagate fake news and conspiracy theories. Their study, Does the platform matter? examines the relationship between social media platforms and the spread of Covid-19 conspiracy theories. The analysis focuses on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, in a two-wave study across 17 countries.

Symmetrical or asymmetrical followership

The research correlates the spread of conspiracy theories to the construct of a communication environment. In other words, it looks at the structural features of followers within each platform. The authors classify a structural design as either symmetrical or asymmetrical followership.

Symmetrical followership environments imply that information is shared with friends and not with strangers. The primary use of this type of platform, like Facebook, is for socialization and entertainment; people predominantly follow people they already know. People see a symmetrical way of connecting as safe and in a comfortable environment — they know the connection points well. Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp connections are socially homogeneous.

An asymmetric follower structure runs on weaker social connections, and it’s a follower-based platform where most exchanges between users occur publicly. Twitter is an example of an asymmetric social platform. It is more heterogeneous, mixing in political views and information knowledge.

Interestingly, YouTube’s follower structure is primarily tied to people’s interests and not based on close social connections. Like Twitter, YouTube has an asymmetrical follower structure. Recommendations, including algorithmic ones, create new connections. YouTube’s design also encourages content generators to build audiences and promote themselves. This asymmetrical follower design makes it easy for YouTubers to share content around fringe ideas with their followers.

Research hypotheses and analysis

The researchers developed four hypotheses to test:

  1. There is a negative relationship between using Twitter for news and holding conspiracy beliefs about Covid-19.
  2. There is a positive relationship between using Facebook for news and holding conspiracy beliefs about Covid-19.
  3. There is a positive relationship between using YouTube for news and holding conspiracy beliefs about Covid-19.
  4. There is a positive relationship between using messenger services (Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp) for news and holding conspiracy beliefs about Covid-19.

The researchers conducted a two-wave panel survey. Both waves measured core independent variables (use of social media platforms and messenger services) and controls. After the outbreak of Covid, wave two measured the dependent variables — six Covid-19 statements, three were related to conspiracy theories about the origin of Covid-19.

Depending on their affordances, platforms influence conspiracy theory beliefs (CTB) differently. More precisely, Twitter will have a negative effect on CTB, while Facebook, YouTube, and messenger services (WhatsApp and Messenger) will all have positive effects on conspiracy theory beliefs.

The analysis shows the relationship between social media platforms and messenger services with conspiracy theories. The platforms’ interactive and networking features supply active environments to spread conspiracy theories, and some social platforms offer more effective settings than others. The findings show that usage on Twitter is less effective and negatively affects conspiracy theory beliefs, reducing it by 3% on the conspiracy scale. In contrast, Facebook, YouTube, Messenger, and WhatsApp positively increase conspiracy theories, between 3% and 5%.

The takeaway

Social platforms offer different architectural features and consumer relationship designs: symmetrical and asymmetrical.  Follower designs affect how consumers interact with conspiracy theories and intensify their beliefs. Understanding the spread of conspiracy theories and how it differs across social media platforms and messenger services offers insight into strategies to combat this situation.

Industry-Research

Local newspapers are changing. Here’s how journalists feel about it

Local news publishers understand the need to evolve their newsrooms. To attract advertisers, subscribers, and younger readers, change is essential—from digital conversion to newsroom diversity. The Tow Center for Digital Journalism’s new report, Life at Local Newspapers in a Turbulent Era, examines transformation progress at local newspapers through the eyes of those making the news.

The authors, Damian Radcliffe and Ryan Wallace, provide a candid industry perspective when they check in with newsrooms to look at the state of local publishing. The survey respondents include more than 300 U.S. editors, reporters, publishers in small-scale newspapers. It’s important to note that reporters and editors (section/managing) accounted for 66% of total respondents, and more than half of the sample (53%) worked 10+ years in the industry.

Local news landscape

Local news outlets are closing at an alarming rate. In the past 15 years, more than one-fourth of the country’s newspapers have disappeared, with 300 newspapers closing in the past two years. Further, during the first year of the pandemic, approximately 37,000 U.S. news media employees were laid off, furloughed, or had their pay reduced. However, while the pandemic brought many challenges, it also added relevance to local news. 

Overtime is the norm for journalists. More than one-third of respondents (37%) report working more than 50 hours a week, and a half (50%) work 40 to 50 hours a week. Forty-five percent feel secure in their jobs, although they feel less secure than at the pandemic’s start. Given the overtime, it’s not surprising that half of the respondents (49%) report that they’ve increased the number of stories they produce each week compared to the 2016 survey results.

Transformation in progress

With the transition to digital, more than half of respondents (57%) state they spend more time on digital products than three years ago. Interestingly, the increased time spent on digital is not offset by spending less time on print. 

Further, many reporters are wearing more than one hat. As one respondent noted, “An editor also has to be a reporter, photographer, newsletter writer, and social media expert, and a graphic designer also has to be the webmaster, community outreach point-person, and legal notice compiler/writer.” Unfortunately, wearing more than one hat and increasing workload concerns cause high burnout rates.

Focus on social, new tools and audience metrics

In addition, 62% of those surveyed believe that social media platforms are growing in importance to their newspaper, followed by increasing local coverage (36%) and the diversity of sources and voices (32%).

More than two-thirds of respondents (67%) report learning about new tools and technology through articles in publications like Nieman Lab, Poynter, and CJR. Use of new technology and tools include:

  • Analytics and metric tools 50%
  • Newsletters 44%
  • Video reporting 39%
  • Live video services (e.g. Facebook Live) 37%
  • Alerts and push notifications 36%
  • Chat and messaging apps 24%
  • Podcasts 21%

Investing in the future

Unfortunately, many respondents report low interest in (1-2 out of 5) in new tools and technology. Forty-two percent show low interest in learning more about automation, 35% report low interest in Story formats on social networks, and 31% show low interest in alerts and push notifications.

Local news media companies to experiment with new revenue models, adding revenue diversification and moving away from their reliance on advertising revenue. The pandemics’ spotlight on local and hyperlocal news was a catalyst for a renewed interest in subscriptions. Now is the time for local newspapers to fully engage in digital platforms, new technology and tools, and sustainable business models.  

Industry-Research

Subscription strategies to convert light readers

The pandemic was a key driver of new subscriptions from news and gaming sites to entertainment streaming services. As a result, publishers registered record subscription growth. For digital media businesses, once 100% reliant on advertising revenue, the question now is how to sustain this growth over time.

Publishers naturally encourage heavy readers to convert to paying subscribers. These readers offer a high lifetime value and are an excellent market for new products, upgrades, and cross-sells. However, heavy users were not the only segment showing an increase in subscriptions during the pandemic. Casual readers also increased their subscriptions sign-ups. 

Greg Piechota highlights strategies to convert and retain light readers after the pandemic in the International News Media Alliance (INMA) new report, Light Readers: Digital Subscriptions’ Next Growth Path. Publishers should think differently about light readers and develop a value proposition and marketing mix that fits this target audience.

Open a door for casual readers

Publishers grew their subscriber base last year. High-interest news events such as Black Lives Matter and the U.S. presidential elections, in addition to the pandemic, signaled light readers to learn more. As a result, casual news consumers were part of the wave of increased traffic to news sites.

Recognizing the historical events of 2020, many publishers responded with looser paywalls during Covid. They recognized the value of trading content for reader registrations. Once readers registered, it allowed publishers to track and understand their content preferences. It opened a valuable communication channel to push content to causal readers via e-mail, paid ads, etc. — hopefully leading to new subscriptions.

The standard acquisition funnel may not be the right path for casual readers; they may need more passes in the first stages of the relationship to trigger registration, engagement, and subscription.  

Insert chart optimize customer journey

Developing a new habit

Onboarding new subscribers need to be centered around developing a new habit of regularly visiting publisher’s content. Piechota cites research from University College (UCL) that suggests “people are most likely to adopt new habits after 66 days of repetition.” In other words, publishers have approximately two months to engage light readers daily to become a regular habit.

Developing a new behavior is a critical step in creating a long-term subscriptions relationship with light readers. Further, trial lengths should include sufficient time to adopt this new habit-forming behavior.

Learn about the light reader

Publishers must focus on engaging light readers in both content and site design. Segment personalization in many content management systems (CMS) can offer different homepages to different reader segments. A homepage design for casual readers can include explanation sections, added news analyses, and 24-hour recaps.

Light readers, by definition, are more limited in what they read on sites than heavy users. Heavy readers often look at everything. Therefore, it’s more challenging to figure out what is truly interesting to them. Given the disparity between these two cohorts, it may be beneficial to focus on the overlap of their content interests. Finding this intersection can serve light users well while maximizing the reach of content.

Further, increasing engagement of light readers can be more critical than maximizing heavy-reader engagement. Piechota points out increasing heavy readers from 50 visits per month to 60 may not affect their engagement. However, moving a light reader from two visits a month to 10 is likely to affect their engagement significantly.  

News publishers see casual readers as a valuable audience. A renewed focus on this cohort, understanding their behavior and knowing their unique characteristics offer an opportunity for growth and a gateway to engagement.

Advertising | Industry-Research

Premium VOD advertising placements outperform YouTube and Facebook

Researchers continue to prove that ads viewed within a premium publisher environment drive greater advertising effectiveness. Each of the studies (here, here and here) offers insights and empirical data proving ad performance is better in premium content environments.

A new study to add to this notable library is the second phase of The Benchmark Series, the largest cross-media advertising effectiveness study conducted in Australia.

It’s important to note that the first phase of research showed that ads in premium environments offer 1.8 times better recall and 2.8 times the brand lift than short-form video on run of the internet. Further, ads in premium content also deliver 1.8 times higher recall than Facebook video. It appears that the brain processes ads differently depending on where an ad is seen. When people see ads in an environment that helps contributes to memory encoding, ad effectiveness is maximized. Premium editorial sites offer this context.

This new research supplies a unique perspective on advertising performance in premium long-form using Broadcast Video on Demand (BVOD). The VOD broadcasters’ included were 7Plus, 9Now, and 10 play. The study compares BVOD to YouTube, Facebook, and run-of-the-internet sites. It uses core ad effective measures likeability, brand recall and lift.

Both phases of the study were conducted by MediaScience, which is well-known for their expertise in neuro-measures (i.e. biometrics, facial expression analysis, eye tracking and EEG) methodologies. It included more than 5,350 participants and campaigns ran across 252 websites in Australia.

MediaScience defines premium content as:

  1. Professionally produced content.
  2. A media brand that people know and trust.
  3. Brand safe environment.
  4. Meaningful scale for advertisers.

Overall, the new research shows that ads that appear in BVOD are more effective and outperform video advertising across YouTube, regardless of whether the ads align with short or longer-form content.

Recall

Ads in BVOD environments are remembered better (1.3 times) than ads aligned to YouTube videos of any length. Further, when ads in BVOD are compared to YouTube videos shorter than 9 minutes, they generate 1.5 times greater unprompted recall.

Further, BVOD advertising delivers better unprompted recall (4.7 times) than Facebook video ads and 2.5 times better recall than run of internet short-form video.

Likeability

In terms of likeability, ads in BVOD generate 15% greater likeability compared to YouTube short-form. Dr. Duane Varan, CEO of MediaScience explains, “advertising in premium long-form video environments benefits from the content the ads sit alongside with premium content boosting their impact.” He adds, “The content is priming you for certain emotions and that benefits the ads that follow.”

The research shows that not all digital video environments are equal when it comes to advertising performance. Quality content environments matter when advertising and there’s plenty of research to support this statement. The reality is that it’s long overdue for advertisers to reevaluate where they place their ad dollars and their micro-targeted ad campaigns.

Industry-Research

Subscription growth continues globally, but competition is fierce

Streaming services continue to rack up subscriber growth in the global marketplace. In fact, Juniper Research forecasts nearly 2 billion active subscriptions globally to on-demand video services by 2025. That’s an increase of 65% compared to the end of 2020. Domestically, USB analysts believe that Americans will add 50 million net new video subscriptions this year, up from a 47 million increase in 2020.

To gain insight into the market breakdown of global streaming marketplace, Finder.com conducted a survey with close to 30,000 consumers across 18 countries. In total, approximately 56% of consumers report having access to at least one streaming service. Finder.com is a content site focused on helping consumers make informed decisions in categories such as credit cards, mortgages, health insurance and others.   

Streamer concentration and service popularity

New Zealand and Brazil represent the highest concentration of respondents using at least one streaming service (65.3% and 64.6% respectively). On the opposite end, France and Pakistan report the least number of streamers in their countries, 45.2% and 44.6%, respectively.

Respondents were asked specifically about three global services: Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+. Netflix is by far the most popular streaming service among the three with more than two in five (40.1%) consumers subscribing to it around the world. Nearly 14% of those surveyed subscribe to Amazon (13.9%) and 13.1% subscribe to Disney+. Ireland had the highest number of respondents reporting that they subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime (56.9% and 19.9%, respectively). The U.S. ranked the highest in Disney+ subscribers at 32.8%.

Demographic appeal

Women tend to consume more on these platforms with an average of 57.2% reporting at least one streaming service compared to men at 55.6%. Countries with highest female usage are Ireland (69.2%), Brazil (65.9%) and New Zealand (65.3%). The U.S. ranks fifth with at least 63.9% of women reporting that they subscribe to at least one streaming service. In terms of popularity, Netflix is the most popular streaming service among women (45.2%) followed by Disney+ (14.7%), and Amazon Prime (13.8%).

U.S. streaming close up

The survey included Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, and YouTube TV when asking U.S. respondents about streaming services. Again, Netflix leads with 45.4% of respondents saying they use it, followed by Amazon Prime (32.8%), Hulu (22.3%), Disney+ (18.1%) and YouTube TV (7.4%). 

Hands down, Netflix is the most popular platform in the U.S. across each age group. Sixty percent of people aged 18-24, 54.0% of 25-34-year-olds, 53.1% aged 35-44, 50.2% of 45-54-year-olds, 42.3% of 55-64-year-olds, and 38.2% of those over 65 all report that they use the streaming service.

Subscribing to video streaming services is the norm for today’s consumers. But competition is fierce. These services not only need to attract subscribers, they must also hold on to them. With an increasing number of subscription services, retention is critical to market growth and expansion. Importantly, subscription services need to employ strategies that build loyalty, provide added value, and offer personalization to compete in the global marketplace.

Industry-Research

A Covid-era study reveals best practices for automated reporting

Though automated journalism is not new, the pandemic — characterized by a slew of data driven stories — accelerated adoption for some newsrooms. By in large, automated approaches use a natural language generation (NLG) application to automatically transform data into human-readable text. It has long been used for weather and sports, as well as financial market updates. However, it has been making significant in-roads at a wide range of newsrooms and other coverage areas over the past decade.

Early adopters included The Los Angeles Times, which used NLG to for earthquake alerts and to report on homicides, and the Associated press, which used it for corporate earnings. Today, numerous media organizations are adopting automated journalism in their newsrooms and a wide range of storytelling practices.

In a new report, Samuel Danzon-Chambaud, a Knight News Innovation fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, examines how automated news has been used to cover the pandemic. Covering COVID-19 with automated news outlines use cases at nine news outlets in eight countries to reveal both opportunities and stumbling blocks in adopting automated storytelling processes.

The media organizations include:

  • Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavaria’s public service broadcaster, Germany);
  • Bloomberg News (news agency, United States);
  • Canadian Press (news agency, Canada);
  • Helsingin Sanomat (newspaper, Finland);
  • NTB (news agency, Norway);
  • Omni (news service, Sweden);
  • RADAR (news agency, United Kingdom);
  • Tamedia (media group, Switzerland); and
  • The Times (newspaper, United Kingdom).

Rethinking the process

Using automated storytelling tools requires newsrooms to rethink their process from data sources to workflow and operations. For starters, it’s important to ask the following questions:

  • How will the automated content serve readers?
  • What metrics are needed?
  • Who are the data sources?
  • How often will you update the data?
  • How will you upload the data into a usable information?
  • Will your CMS allow easy data integration?
  • How does the automation process fit into the current workflow?

In terms of the pandemic, automated news coverage offered timely updates on the spread of the virus. News outlets were able to provide audiences with dashboards and newsletters as well as automated or semi-automated graphics. Publishers also created new news products such as an automated-live blogging platform.

Case studies show challenges met in real-time

Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Bavaria’s public service broadcaster questioned which metrics to track. They started by tracking absolute increase in Covid cases and total numbers of cases. However, early in the process they realized the data did not allow them to track the evolution of the virus. They quickly pivoted and switched their focus to access more detailed data points such as doubling times, reproductive numbers, and 7-day incidence rates. This allowed for more robust reporting and updates on the virus.

For some news outlets, CMS issues can prevent full-on automation. At The Times, a newspaper in the UK, the process could not be completely automated. After the text was generated and edited, it had to be copied and pasted it into the newspaper’s CMS. Unfortunately, the numbers were often outdated by the time the story was ready for publication. The data and interactive team were called upon to change their workflow until the automation process could be integrated into the CMS. The new workflow allowed journalists to update the data in their articles without an editorial review, unless the story’s lead changed. 

Similarly, the automated tool built at the Canadian Press (CP) asked journalists in the field in different regions to input different Covid statistics into a master spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was exported into a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file which stores the information in a simple data structure. The data is then transformed into automated stories and graphics but on separate webpage. Again, the need for  copy and paste was necessary to place CP’s automated content in their CMS. CP will soon have a CMS that will generate and integrate an automated story using a simple Slack command.

Using automated news to develop new workflows

Bloomberg News, a news outlet in the U.S., uses their automated news process to extract relevant information on companies’ financial statements and reports. The automated system is connected to an AI-powered system to analyze the data through “knowledge graphs.” These graphs combine different data silos and illustrates the relationship between them.

Bloomberg’s process includes machine-learning elements in the analysis of the knowledge graphs. However, it’s also important to point out the human effort is needed in writing scripts in advance to prepare for the potential scenario in the analysis. Bloomberg News was able to include their business insight in their Covid-19 analysis to assess the economic impacts of the pandemic. Their Covid-19 analysis included assessment of metro riders to flight reservations, restaurant bookings, and supermarket visits.

Automated news invites new technology — and opportunity —into the newsroom. Increasingly, newsrooms are thinking of new ways to incorporate automated practices into their product development roadmap. Next steps include ideas such as an alert system to inform teams when new data is being released and cloud storage services to keep track of historical data.

The more that media practitioners engage with automated news systems, the better their ability to manage the process and foresee potential disconnects. Importantly, keeping reporters involved in this process will ensure that journalistic standards are encoded into the automated content creation process.

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