1. SVOD Services Go Big On Linear

As noted in our weekly Data Dose email (subscribe here) many of the major SVOD services are doubling down on their use of linear channels. 

Discovery+, Peacock and Paramount+ have all rolled out linear channels and there is an expectation that the remaining mega SVOD services will soon follow suit, especially once they roll out their ad-supported tiers in earnest.

It’s sort of a no-brainer. These services have hundreds of library series that tend to get buried in their interfaces in favor of originals, exclusives and other more recent programming. 

They’ve seen how popular linear channels are on the FASTs and so they know that there is consumer demand for them. 

And, most importantly, they are aware that linear channels increase time spent on platform, which is key when you are selling advertising and want people to see as many ads as possible.

Why It Matters

Back when “is this subscriber going to keep renewing” was the only metric anyone cared about, no one was particularly bothered if said subscriber only tuned in for an hour a week or 12 hours over the course of two days. As long as they didn’t cancel the subscription, everything was copacetic.

But now that these services are selling advertising, they have other concerns, mainly to ensure that people are watching often enough to justify those high CPMs.

While viewers will binge watch originals, steadier, longer-term viewing often comes from library content, those four episodes of American Dad you watch while checking emails and Instagram four times a week

And linear channels are a great way to enable that behavior and turn it all the way up to 11.

As several executives explained to me, why make someone pick a new episode of American Dad every time they turned on the TV, when you could just give them an American Dad channel and let them watch it that way?

The popularity of linear channels on the FASTs was surprising to people who expected streaming to be exclusively ad-free binging. They’d neglected to focus on the part where streaming was something people watched in addition to traditional linear—not instead of it. 

So while originals filled the role played by prime time series and/or HBO, linear channels on the FASTs filled the role played by linear channels on cable. (Hence the name of our report, FASTs Are The New Cable.) The channels allowed viewers to find their favorite comfort food series and watch them indefinitely, without having to make a decision at the end of every episode.

While the FASTs all have compiled extensive libraries, the SVOD services libraries are often more impressive, filled with exclusives like The Office and Friends, as well as long-running classics like Law and Order, SVU.

And so the more they can do to surface those shows, the better it is for them on several fronts.

On the advertising front, they can get viewers watching both longer and more frequently. They can also maintain a slightly higher ad load on their linear channels (versus their originals) which will provide the additional inventory everyone’s been looking for.

On the subscriber front, they can get viewers used to seeing them as the source for all their TV viewing needs—linear channels for the lean-back experience and bingeable originals for the lean-in.

One final note too: as the SVOD services lean more heavily into news and sports, they will, by necessity, have some program that is by its nature, more akin to linear. News is already linear (and both Peacock and Paramount+ have rolled out local news from their O&Os as linear channels) and sporting events are live and thus happen at a specific time.

So there’s all that, plus the fact that viewers, at least older viewers, still like the experience of clicking through channels. Whether that’s something younger viewers will embrace as well remains to be seen.

What You Need To Do About It

If you are one of the other SVOD services and you have not yet started thinking about linear channels, now is the time, for all the reasons listed above. They are easy to implement, let you show off your curation chops, and give you something else to promote. The whole notion of originals + library + linear as a complete TV experience has been underplayed and is likely to be the marketing message your competitors use going forward. (If it was up to me, anyway.)

If you are one of the SVOD services with linear channels, that’s some good free advice—pitch yourselves as a complete TV experience. People don’t only want originals or linear, so the more you can be all things to all people, the better.

If you’re talking about TV, remember that the nomenclature is pretty simple: there are two business models: Free (FAST) and Not-Free (SVOD). Within each business model, there are two delivery methods: linear and on-demand. And within the Not-Free sector, there are two subscription models: ad-free and ad-supported. That leaves the term “AVOD” out in the cold, but given how much confusion it can cause, with people unsure whether it means subscription, free or both, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. (“FAST channels” also falls by the wayside, as both SVOD and FAST services now have linear channels.)

If you’re an advertiser and you’ve been losing sleep over the fact that there’s not all that much inventory on streaming, this is good news: the more linear channels there are across FAST and SVOD, the more inventory there is likely to be.

Finally, if you like watching how this all shakes out, here’s something to keep an eye on: as linear services become more popular with viewers, does anyone try to sell dayparts again?

Stranger things have happened for sure.

2.  iSpot and Conviva Join Forces For Unified Network Ratings

iSpot and Conviva announced that they will be sharing data in order to give networks a unified data set across streaming and linear. 

This is a big step forward for TV measurement in that it incorporates linear, on-demand and time-shifted viewing data from broadcast and cable networks (iSpot) with data from those networks’ streaming apps (Conviva), in order to provide a more holistic cross-platform view.

In practical terms, that means that NBCU, which is already using both companies' data, is now able to get unified ratings that include Peacock as well as all of its linear properties. 

This, in turn, allows iSpot to provide complete cross-platform, advertising and program ratings the industry can use to verify person- and household-level viewership trends, establish benchmarks and transact on a P2+, P18 or advanced audience-based currency.

Why It Matters

Now that it finally gets the value of ACR measurement, the TV industry is having a field day figuring out all the cool things it can do with it.

Second-by-second ratings is a big one, especially given that the prior standard was every 15 minutes by every 15 minutes.

But given today’s hybrid ecosystem, where viewers watch an ever-shifting combination of streaming and linear, the ability to provide a unified number across both may prove to be even more significant.

Especially as the lines between network prime time and streaming continue to blur, with rumors that all or parts of the broadcast networks prime times line-ups will be available on streaming as well.

Equally significant is that by accepting the combined iSpot and Conviva data as currency-grade, the notion that there is Life Beyond Nielsen now has boots on the ground, if you will, and the conversation about alternatives is no longer theoretical.

There is a strong need for the industry to figure out the current measurement mess, something that almost everyone agrees is keeping ad dollars from following eyeballs to streaming. 

Which is why this deal is worth noting as it is yet another step in the right direction.

What You Need To Do About It

If you are an advertiser or agency, you need to understand how this all works, where Conviva gets its data from, where iSpot gets its data from too. If nothing else, it will make you feel better about using that data to transact on, and the good news is that both are based on something more trustworthy than “40 thousand people who have these diaries…”

If you are Conviva and iSpot, well done. Recognizing the right partners and then making those deals happen and positioning them in a way that the industry understands why they are a step forward is a good thing and much harder to pull off than it seems. So kudos.

If you are trying to figure out how measurement is going to work when most everything is watched via streaming, join the club. While this deal is significant, there is still much work to be done and much to be sorted out across the board before we reach anything resembling a final answer.

But it will all get sorted out.

Eventually.