Room214 Sample Research: TV & Entertainment

Digital Shifts:
How New Media Is Changing TV

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Introduction

About This Presentation
This presentation is a joint effort between Room 214 and Crimson Hexagon. Using Crimson Hexagon data, as well as
publicly-available data, we have attempted to uncover insights into the changing landscape of television
entertainment.
For more than 50 years, traditional television broadcasters and more recently, cable networks, have held sway with
global consumers. Today, technology is rapidly shifting this power structure. Broadcasters are more challenged than
ever to adapt to viewers’ quickly evolving tastes for new kinds of content, as well as to emerging channels and vehicles
for that content.
This landmark study from Room 214 and Crimson Hexagon examines technology’s growing impact on television
audiences and viewership and provides readers with a path to understanding and embracing the industry’s fast-
changing norms. Understanding these changes is vital if you are involved in television programming, content creation
(including broadcast advertising), or delivery.

We hope you enjoy this report. If you would like to discuss the implications of this data on your business, or inquire
how Room 214 and Crimson Hexagon can help solve your business problems, please contact lmaynard@room214 and
wayne@crimsonhexagon.com.

DIGITAL SHIFTS: HOW NEW MEDIA IS CHANGING TV

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Introduction

Changes In Behavior
Two signiﬁcant behavioral changes are redeﬁning the entertainment landscape and require networks to evolve rapidly
to keep their shows, content, and ad buys relevant to a demanding consumer set.
•  People now consume television via time-shifted DVR, online (legally), online (illegally), mobile device, internet
streaming to TV, and a wide variety of other methods.
•  Viewers now consume multiple forms of media at the same time, such as watching TV on a television while
checking Facebook on a computer.


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Introduction

Changes In Engagement And Delivery
•  Consumers expect networks to deliver content where they want it and when they want it. If the network doesn’t
comply, they can simply ﬁnd the content through illicit sources.
•  Many new products on the market make watching live television through a traditional provider an increasingly
irrelevant experience. A recent study suggests that over half a million households have opted to forgo cable for
online content1.
•  We continue to see the funding and growth of products focused on multi-source consumption of entertainment. A
great example of these efforts is Blip.tv’s mission, “to bridge the gap between the computer and the television and
to bring quality online content everywhere.”2

1Cheng, Roger, “Cutting the Cable Cord Gets Easier”, WSJ.com, October 13 2010
2Warren, Christina, “With Internet TV Booming, Blip.tv Raises $10.1M”, Mashable.com, May 2010


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Changes in Consumer Behavior

Changes In Touchpoints


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TV Should Work For Us
With this change in touchpoints comes a change in consumer expectation. A recent comScore study found that viewers
who watch online-only or a mix of TV and online desire TV to be ﬂexible to their needs:
•  75% “selected online over TV because they were able to watch the show wherever they wanted”
•  74% “selected online because they were able to watch the show on their own time”
•  Additionally, for a viewing audience under 50, the majority watch time-shifted TV

Majority view time-
shifted

Majority view live

Marketing Profs, “Online TV Viewers Tolerate Ads Well”, April 5, 2010. http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3522/online-tv-viewers-tolerate-ads-well


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The Power User
As of 2009, Pew has tracked a consumer group they call Four Or More. This techie group owns and uses four or more
devices that connect to the internet. While this is, of course, a small portion of the population, it’s a growing portion as
well. This group’s behaviors signal trends we can see for the future of entertainment consumers overall:
•  This group is predominantly male and slightly more affluent than your average internet user
•  40% are 18-29 and 49% are 30-49
•  91% go online daily
•  Over-indexes on content creation with 39% on Twitter (vs. 19% average) and 24% blogging (vs. 11%)
•  With increased smartphone penetration and an explosion of tablet PC’s, this highly-connected segment will grow
significantly in the next five years. This growth means a huge increase in users at potential touchpoints between
networks and consumers

Source: Madden, Mary, “Four or More:The New Demographic”, Pew Internet & American Life Project, June 27, 2010


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Entertainment Should Be Everywhere
USC’s Henry Jenkins developed a concept he calls Transmedia Storytelling, which is the act of telling a story on
multiple disparate media platforms, often simultaneously.
This concept is central to our understanding of tv entertainment in the new media landscape. It allows us to
understand how a network can support an individual show through tv, print, web, and social platforms in a way that
drives proﬁt.
Currently, many networks and shows are at odds with the web, as the nature of free and shared content removes the
networks’ ability to make advertising dollars. But, to Jenkins’ point, we are now in a world of Transmedia Expectation.

“People are pissed if they go and seek out a
place on the web that they think should be
related to a television show and it turns out
that there isn’t rich transmedia content
there.”


The Research:
Consumer Behavior

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Watching TV And...

Engaging In Multi-Screen Viewing
On the following pages, you can see an in-depth look at just how different each of these platforms are. In each case,
we are examining users who are online while they watch TV. As consumers now use multiple forms of technology,
simultaneously, to get the most of a TV viewing experience, we can capture how they discuss this experience.

•  Viewers can now simultaneously share opinions, discuss content, text votes, etc. with other viewers, known and
unknown to them, while watching live

•  Networks have the ability to deliver a rich media experience outside of the TV itself, one that drives real-time (vs.
time-shifted viewing) or prolongs the experience past a speciﬁc weekly time slot.

•  Blogs, forums, Facebook, and Twitter are used very differently when people are viewing live, which means that
network strategy needs to always take this into account.


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Watching TV And...

Updating Twitter
Twitter requires nothing more than a 140-character attention span; it’s easy to Tweet and watch TV at the same time.

•  People are watching TV and talking about being bored, being in bed, eating and even, self-consciously, noting
they are on Twitter
•  Few mention consumption method (DVR, for example), but 14% do make state they are watching a show or movie
online through both legal and illegal platforms
•  Little discussion of actual show content; users are more focused on sharing what they are doing in addition to
watching TV


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Watching TV And...

Updating Facebook
Users on Facebook are, predominantly, just letting us know they are watching a TV show. However, because Facebook
allows more information to be shared, conversations are longer and more detailed.

•  22% of users share additional information about their lived, either through context (where they are watching, who
else is with them, etc.) or by sharing a list of all their activities throughout the day, including the media the
currently consuming
•  19% of users are starting a conversation about the show


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Watching TV And...

Discussing On Forums
Forum users often come to share a specific expertise or discuss a specific topic. Based on this, a large part of
conversation in forums focus on viewing setups and technical specifications.


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Changes in Engagement

Multi-Screen Apps: What Consumers Say
•  Users mainly discuss two things, the shows they are watching or the badges they have received
•  90% of the overall conversation comes through automated Twitter messages
•  Very low discussion or usage outside of brand-mandated messaging


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Changes in Network Engagement

Changes in Advertising
This shift in viewing habits and viewer demands has also changed the way we deliver, and can measure the impact of,
advertising in television. Additionally, we are now seeing that the content itself can be used as advertising, from
Facebook posts to webisodes.
•  There is not a strong correlation between Nielsen ratings and social media buzz.
•  SocialSenseTV’s Network Ratings Report suggests that social buzz should be considered in ad buys. High
buzz could suggest a strong relationship between viewers and a given show, even if not reﬂected in ratings .
This also means that media buys for lower-rated shows with high online buzz can produce signiﬁcant impact
at a lower price
•  Branded content integration provides a great example of the relationship between advertising and social
media. When Modern Family used an iPad in an episode prior to iPad release, the network was able to
measure $516k in earned media through mentions that included both the show and product directly after
airing1
•  Online-only ad buys may also be a route for achieving more eyeballs.
•  A recent comScore study suggested that online viewers tolerate 6-7 minutes of advertising per hour, versus
the 4 minutes per hours for regular2
•  Anecdotally, we’ve observed that some shows, like Project Runway, have more advertising in recent On-Demand
episodes than they do in older On-Demand or live episodes

1. Neely, Dan, “Use Social Media Ratings and Analysis to Inform Upfront Buys, imediaconnection.com, May 18th, 2010

2. Marketing Profs, “Online TV Viewers Tolerate Ads Well”, April 5, 2010.
http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3522/online-tv-viewers-tolerate-ads-well


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Delivering On Transmedia Storytelling
Jenkins identified 7 individual characteristics that allow a story to catch hold in this transmedia environment. Proper
utilization of characteristics can drive additional, meaningful, user engagement. In the following pages, I will
elaborate what these look like when put into practice:
•  Drillability: The ability for a story to create “fanatic fandom”, allowing fans to dig deeper and deeper into a
story on their own time and through their own efforts
•  Multiplicity: A storyline doesn’t need to be continuous anymore. It can branch out on multiple platforms, with
variations in plot and characters proceeding forward and not relating to each other. Example: Spider Man has
multiple story executions across multiple continents that do not relate.
•  Immersion/Extractability: At times, we desire to be pulled into the fiction of a plotline, and at times we pull
the fiction of the plotline into our own world. Good plots allow viewers to take advantage of this.
•  World Building: Potential for complexity in relationships that force us to chart the geography/relationship of
things.
•  Seriality: The story can be told in chunks. You now see strategies in pre-show buildup as part of an overall
serial structure. This also allows for a situation where the story in our head can be slightly different than the
actual plot.
•  Subjectivity: We can access the viewpoints of different characters through blogs, Twitter handles, and
Facebook posts from individual characters or actors.
•  Performance: We take this content, build on it, and play it out in our own life.


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Inﬂuencer Communities
•  The Discovery Channel and USA have developed unique inﬂuencer communities focused on engaging those most
passionate about their network/show. These communities allow for individuals to develop expertise, complete tasks,
get points, and gain recognition.
•  Concepts Used: Drillability, Seriality, Subjectivity


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Live Chats
•  Live chats allow fans to interact with talent and those related to show. Talent, in character, give color to live
episodes or provide additional information outside of an episode. Previously, this information was only speculative
or up to gossip and entertainment sites
•  Concepts Used: Subjectivity, Immersion/Extractability


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True Blood, as a whole
•  HBO launched a widespread campaign prior to show launch that told a story through many different forms of
media. Bloodcopy.com served as a blog and social feed, pulling in information from pre-approved journalists,
inﬂuencers, and the general public. The show had an extensive media buy, presenting print ads that advertised
goods and services for actual brands, but targeted at vampires. They also bought out a Page 6-esque spread in
Vanity Fair that shows vampires and celebrities together at events.
•  Concepts Used: Drillability, Multiplicity, Immersion/Extractability, Seriality, Performance


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Plot Expansion
•  AMC manages over 90 Twitter handles related to Mad Men, and used their agency Brand Fiction Factory to take 17
of those handles and enact an entire plot line that was alluded to in-episode, but never actually ﬁlmed
•  Watch it here
•  Concepts Used: Multiplicity, Immersion, Subjectivity


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Multi-Screen Apps
Three applications have come into market in the past year that are focused on Foursquare-like check-ins specific to
television.
•  GetGlue, Tunerfish, and Miso ask users to check into a specific show, web video, or form of entertainment
•  Check-ins are shared in a news stream and allow users to browse and discover trending content.
•  Allows consumers to bring that experience into their own lives through badges and stickers

•  Concepts Used: Immersion/Extractability, Performance


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Changes in Delivery

New TV Emerges


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Changes in Delivery

TV Delivery
When we take a look at the way consumer discuss New TV, we find that there is not a large amount of conversation
driven by individual consumers. This is partly due to the barrier to entry: pulling entertainment from the internet
involves multiple devices, and is still in a stage of early adoption.

•  Viewers stream movies online, download movie torrents, or watch them from Netflix On-Demand
•  Streaming to TV is supported by XBox 360, Wii and other gaming platforms
•  Much of this conversation about newer platforms like Google.tv, Apple.tv, Roku, Boxee, Slingbox, etc. happens in
blogs or forums, where users are discussing device strategy and configuration


The Research:
Behaviors by TV Type

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Discussion: Reality, Comedy, Drama
While we are aware that many other categories of TV exist, we chose to limit this conversation to just these three. Why?
Because, outside of sports, these three are the three most-watched categories on network and cable TV. For this study,
we’ve selected top-rated shows in each category and used those shows as a way to dive deeper into multi-screen
viewing and viewer’s use of technology around entertainment.


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Sources
We can make an assumption that different TV formats drive different types of conversations, but it also seems they
drive conversation on different types of platforms.
•  People are 12% more likely to blog about Reality TV than they are about Comedy TV
•  Twitter is used more to discuss Comedy TV than it is to discuss Reality or Drama


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Sources
Certain trends in overall volume are also very revealing:

•  You can see the “Glee effect” happening in comedy TV; overall conversation, especially on Twitter, spikes during
and directly after an episode
•  On a show-by-show basis, you can track conversation to understand how spikes relate to actual air time, and
uncover a show’s relationship to live viewing


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Intent to View, Viewing, and Viewed
•  Intent to View and Viewing statements are a way to measure buzz prior to, during, and post episode


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Intent to View Data
•  Overall, there is less conversation post-viewing than there is prior to or during.
•  73% of Drama, 69% of Reality, and 84% of Comedy conversation comes from Twitter, which may drive updates
about intent to view or current activity, but not reviews of things that happened in the past


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Content
What viewers are discussing really is different based on TV type.
•  With Drama and Comedy, individuals discuss the intent of speciﬁc characters or, for especially shows that have
frequent guest stars (Glee, CSI), the actors themselves
•  People love to hate Reality TV. Viewers consistently state they hate the content of or characters in a show, but
continue to watch it.


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Conclusion

A Few Thoughts to Take Away
•  A major shift in consumer expectation has taken place, and consumers will be unforgiving
to networks and cable providers who do not embrace new media platforms and
technologies
•  Look for continued adoption of alternative methods of watching TV (Boxee, Roku, Wii,
Playstation, etc.) as well as practice of multi-screen viewing
•  Networks and advertisers are just starting to embrace new ways to deliver content and
drive additional engagement; those who do so successfully with see greater success with
target consumers
•  The major network and advertiser winners are embracing creative campaigns and taking
risks to engage audience
•  Mining social conversations for insight into consumer behavior around a given show,
advertisement, or product placement is of the utmost importance to properly target new
media content and measure response to that content


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Conclusion

We Invite You To Learn More
In this new age of Television, consumers are their own broadcasters—continuously
expressing their thoughts and opinions online while simultaneously engaging in other online
behaviors. Therein lies a massive opportunity to capture a greater share of audience and
attention. A deep understanding of the data surrounding this audience and its new habits is
critical to reaching and captivating these television viewers.

These trends impact all departments, from marketing to media planning and from research
to programming. If you are interested in learning more about these trends, or exploring how
these trends are impacting your business, speciﬁcally, please reach out to us. We would love
to help you solve your business problems.

Lauren Maynard Wayne St. Amand
Room 214 Crimson Hexagon
Director of Research Sr. Director, Marketing
lmaynard@room214.com wayne@crimsonhexagon.com
@lpmaynard @WayneSaint
303-444-9214 x123 617-547-1072 x101


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About

About Room 214
Room 214 is a Social Media Agency. We help companies connect to the people that matter
most, creating value through social experiences that integrate intelligence, social network &
mobile technologies. You hire us to help with: Social media research and monitoring,
campaign ideation, planning and management, Application development (Facebook, mobile,
dashboard), search advertising and social search optimization.

About Crimson Hexagon, Inc.
Crimson Hexagon, founded in 2007, is the leading provider of real-time social media
monitoring and analysis to brands, agencies, media ﬁrms and their partners. Powered by
patent-pending technology developed at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social
Science, the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform overcomes the limits of traditional
market research by delivering a real-time view of how engaged online consumers truly think
and feel about a brand or issue.


Room214 Sample Research: TV & Entertainment

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