Cut Through The Fragmented TV Streaming Landscape [REPORT]

MAGNA Media Trials and Roku released new research that explored how brands and viewers can find their way in the increasingly fragmented TV viewing landscape. The report called “From ‘Power On’ to ‘Power Off’ Understanding the Streaming TV Experience” shed light on viewers’ mood, motivations, pain points, and journey to content, as well as what this new landscape means for advertisers.

Whether they want to re-watch a favorite movie or catch the new season of a hit series, most streamers run into issues trying to navigate to the content they want to see. There are so many apps, and seemingly too little time for them all.

“We are excited to partner with MAGNA to uncover consumer behaviors throughout the streamer’s journey,” said Jordan Rost, Head of Ad Marketing, Roku. “Streamers are seeking ways to reduce friction and enhance content discovery during their browsing journey, and brands that help address these needs have a real opportunity to drive awareness and action at key moments.” So how can viewers – and brands – find their way in an increasingly fragmented TV viewing landscape?

According to MAGNA, the media intelligence and investment unit within IPG Mediabrands, ad sales for premium long-form streaming (CTV, AVOD, FAST) is expected to grow by +13% in 2024 and will reach the $10 billion milestone, which represents 22% of total national TV. (source: MAGNA U.S. Ad Forecast, March 2024)

With this growth on the horizon, brands have an opportunity to tap into the report’s insights to breakthrough the crowded TV streaming space. The report showed that 3 in 4 streamers face challenges when choosing content, and fragmentation across TV streaming platforms has added to the complexity of their journey.

Here are a few ways brands can action along the streaming journey:

• Advertisers can drive awareness and action by reducing friction in key moments throughout the streamer’s journey.
• Given that browsing is a common behavior among streamers, brands can leverage the interface as an additional touchpoint to reach streamers beyond the content itself.
• The start of the streaming journey is prime time for ads. This means pre-viewing ads are a premium – pre-roll ads (61%) and homepage ads (48%) garnered higher receptivity compared to product placement (37%) within content.
• Use ad formats that assist with content discovery to reach streamers and help guide them to the content they love, especially when interested in younger demographics, because streamers are more likely to discover new content through a streaming service’s homepage (2.8x) or a trending playlist (3.8x) than from a word-of-mouth recommendation.

Kara Manatt, EVP of Intelligence Solutions at MAGNA, commented: “Through our research we are able to bring real quantitative data, rigorous understanding, and actionable solutions to address some of the industry’s most pressing challenges. This study looks at TV streaming fragmentation from multiple angles, and it puts forward insights that could help both advertisers and streaming platforms set strategic direction and engage more effectively with viewers.”

Key Research Findings

Mood and Motivations:

• Streamers are feeling good when they tune in: 73% of respondents started the journey in a positive mood.
• Happy streamers are good news for marketers because they are more receptive to ads: 54% of participants were very or somewhat open to seeing ads while in this positive mood, as compared to 35% receptivity by those who reported a negative mood.
• Interestingly, both news (82%) and sports (82%) were streamers go-to content types when in a positive mood: Both content types were above the index average of 75%.

Browsing and the Streamer’s Journey:

• The Streamer’s Journey Starts with exploration: 44% of streamers browse before selecting what to watch, even though half of these content browsers already knew what they wanted to watch, indicating browsing could be an engrained behavior for streamers.
• Browsing is a multigenerational behavior, Gen Z (48%), Millennials (49%), Gen Z (41%), and Boomers (40%), with Gen-Z spending the most time (30% spent 10-minutes or more browsing)
  Luckily, streamers are a persistent bunch: 45% of participants indicated they were willing to explore more options, and 42% were satisfied to watch something else, if they couldn’t find or access the content they wanted.

To download report, CLICK HERE.