Do We Even Really Know Who’s Watching TV?

NAB

Think that cord-cutters are primarily younger viewers? In fact, most cord-cutters within the last six months are 35-49 years old.

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This is one of a dozen insights from TV data gathering and analysis company TVision, which sets them all out in a new report.

The report’s data was collected from an opt-in panel of 5,000 homes across the United States. The company says that every time a person walks into the room, its technology detects who the viewer is, where they are in the room, and what their eyes are looking at.

In other words, there are things in its data that could provide a more accurate picture of who is watching what, when and for how long rather than other ratings or ad impressions data.

Other “myths” the agency seeks to bust include the following:

That young people only watch CTV. TVision’s data suggests younger viewers are more likely to tune in to CTV, but also tune into linear.

That older viewers watch more TV. In fact, Baby Boomers spend the most time watching TV overall, but Millennials tie with these older viewers for CTV.

While it is true that men are more likely to watch sports, this gender divide is less prevalent among younger ages. Although women are generally more likely to tune in to reality TV.

It’s widely thought that when there are more viewers in the room, people pay less attention to ads on TV. TVision has quantified this, suggesting that co-viewing doesn’t have a major impact on attention until there are more than three people in the room.

The report also examines assumptions by marketers when media planning. For example, too many showings of the same ad reduces its effectiveness, right? Attention increases with additional exposures, finds TVision, but it takes 6-10 exposures for shorter ads to “wear in” with linear viewers.

Shorter ads are found to retain attention for a greater portion of the creative, potentially lowering their cost-the-cost per attentive second.

And is the Super Bowl really the best media opportunity of the year? The event may have the highest reach among all major TV events, but TVision data points to viewers of other events being more attentive.

“Between the rapid adoption of CTV and calls for more reliable currencies, the way we watch and measure TV is radically different from even just a few years ago,” the report states. “With that in mind, it’s essential that marketers challenge previously held assumptions about who their audiences are, where to reach them, and how they engage. After all, many of these may no longer be true. And even if they are, there may be new nuances that merit a closer look.”