Managing Fandom Competing For Audience Attention Across Content Formats

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The 20,000 Foot View: In the distributed digital landscape audience overlaps are sometimes unexpected and nuanced; the competition for attention goes beyond the simple binary choices of one TV show or another – i.e. video subscribers can be gamers too. The battleground is about time spent with content – of a broader type, including games. Video streamers over index for gaming behaviours, particularly Amazon WAUs, indicating that when planning release schedules and considering audience, this overlap should be taken into account. Failure to take this onboard can undermine releases, as with the Stranger Things and Assassin’s Creed launch, where the Stranger Things season premier occupied Assassin’s Creed audiences, leading to lower than expected results for the game’s release. Additionally, release schedule planning needs to account for the spread of TV audiences across networks and providers with video streamers likely to have multiple subscription necessitating capturing audiences from outside one’s own platform to ensure optimal release KPIs.

Key Findings

• TV shows are not just competing with other TV shows for audience attention, they are now competing with games too due to audience overlap
       of Amazon Prime Video weekly active users (WAUs) and        of Netflix WAUs play games on a games console, compared to a consumer average of               of Amazon Prime Video WAUs and        of Netflix WAUs watch games related videos compared to a consumer average of       
• A majority of Assassin’s Creed fans        are fans of Stranger Things 
• Scheduling the release of Assassin’s Creed and Stranger Things on the same day undermined the performance of Assassin’s Creed 
• Fans were forced to choose to spend their digital time with one piece of content over the other - Assassin’s Creed or Stranger Things
• Fans of a TV show are likely to be dispersed across a range of TV networks, suggesting the need for a holistic approach to marketing TV shows
       of DirecTV app WAUs are fans of Man In The High Castle, compared to        of Amazon Prime Video WAUs, despite it being available exclusively on Amazon Video

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Amazon Prime Video, Assassin’s Creed, AT&T Satellite, Comcast, DirecTV App, Fios TV To Go, Hulu, Luke Cage, Man In The High Castle, Mr Robot, Netflix, Stranger Things, Top Gear, Verizon, Westworld, Xfinity Stream