But I’ve been hearing scuttlebutt about how the recent WGA strike has shaken up the industry worldwide, and I’m here to bring it to you.
It looks like international broadcasters are ahead of Hollywood (big surprise) in understanding how technology like PVRs and satellites are changing our world. In a 24-hour society, “appointment TV” is dying a painful death. So casters are becoming more interested in online on-demand services, and they’re buying blocks of your favourite shows to lure you in.
iPlayer, which promises to “make the unmissable, unmissable,” is offering all BBC content for free for seven days after the original broadcast. So if you’re down the pub instead of home for Torchwood, you’re still good to go. And the BBC is not alone. Similar services exist all over Europe and Asia, and many are backed by major studios such as Sony and Warner Bros.
On-demand services that can hoard seasons of shows such as CSI and Heroes have a leg up on traditional broadcasting that is forced to a standstill when labour action like the WGA strike shuts down production. Even the American networks are realizing that they need to move to a year-round premiere schedule to reduce their risks and keep audiences consistently in front of the box.
But it turns out that maybe they don’t need to be as worried as they thought. A study released last week by ratings guru A.C. Nielsen reveals that primetime network ratings went down only six per cent over the 100-day strike. Even more, er, striking is that TV usage actually went up 0.5 per cent during that same period of time. So even if people weren’t watching programs, they were playing videogames or watching DVDs. 37.5 and 17.4 per cent more, respectively, in fact.
The study also showed that for all the chest-thumping and hand-wringing, there was only a 6.5 per cent decrease in original content on the tube in that time. The networks were quick to compensate with reality programming and well-poised midseason replacements, which makes sense considering how clear it was all summer long that a strike was looming.
I guess we’re a culture that’s not used to boredom. I have to wonder if those numbers would have been any different had the strike not straddled the dead of winter.
Of course, any study by Nielsen has to be taken with a handful of salt. It’s not like the company has any vested interest in reporting healthy ratings for its client companies. Nosiree bob, not at all.
Nielsen is feeling a little defensive these days. After Google’s announcement last fall that they would begin selling TV advertising based on their own audience measurement systems, Nielsen is naturally clinging to what power its data and methodologies still have. Google and Nielsen have since partnered in this endeavour, sharing data in order to make buying ad time more efficient for sponsors.
Nielsen’s been shopping for potential competitors such as Telephia and BuzzMetrics lately, and hoarding them in the closet in order to stay dominant, if not relevant. Pretty soon the company will be able to tell ABC not only how many people are watching Lost, but also downloading it, buying the DVDs, and e-mailing their friends about it.
And they say Big Brother is dead. Well, maybe not dead. Just available on demand.
