Managing Fandom Competing For Audience Attention Across Content Formats

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            not just competing with other            shows for audience attention, they            now competing with games too            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            Assassin’s Creed fans            are fans            Stranger Things 
• Scheduling the            of Assassin’s Creed and Stranger            on the same day undermined            performance of Assassin’s Creed 
• Fans were            to choose to spend their            time with one piece of            over the other - Assassin’s            or Stranger Things
• Fans of            TV show are likely to            dispersed across a range of            networks, suggesting the need for            holistic approach to marketing TV           
           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