Faced with a multitude of ways of finding and accessing television content, how do audiences find their way to content and how might that change in the future?

1. an
asi
conference
The 2013 European Television Symposium
Understanding behaviour in the new digital age
7th
8th
–
November
@asi_radiotv
Sponsored by:

2. Understanding behaviour in the digital world
November 2013
Jonathan Fletcher, Managing Director, Illuminas
Margo Swadley, Head of Audiences , BBC

3. Faced with a multitude of ways of finding
and accessing television content, how do
audiences find their way to content and how
might that change in future?
Slide 2

4. Hypothesis #1 - The EPG will go (it’s just a question of
when)
Hypothesis #2 – The schedule will no longer be key –
audiences will self-curate
Hypothesis #3- Children today watch everything online
Hypothesis #4 - Audiences search for content by genre (“I’m
in the mood for a comedy”)
Hypothesis #5 - Channel brands are not important anymore
(or at least much less important)
Slide 3

5. The Behavioural Economics perspective
Fundamental
human needs/
motivations
Biases &
shortcuts in
decision-making
Varied needs
NOT
Abstract utility
Satisficing
NOT
Maximising

6. The Behavioural Economics (BE) perspective
on TV channels in the digital age
Fundamental human
needs/ motivations
Shortcuts & biases affecting
decision-making
Sociability
Priming & recognition
Synchrony
Physical interaction
Sensory stimulus
Rules of thumb
(Heuristics)
Inertia

7. Fieldwork to test the hypotheses
• Live + video ethnography to capture fine detail of behaviour
• 60 audience “safaris”
• 3 hour sessions
• Observed and videoed whilst viewing content
• Verbal protocols and questioning
• Media consumption diaries
• Based on households (including children)
Slide 6

8. Ensuring hypotheses were truly tested
• Sample skewed towards emergent behaviours (e.g. online only, on
the go viewing, and early adopters) but including a strong sample of
mainstream
• Hypotheses informed where we looked at and how to look but not
what to look for
Slide 7

9. . . . Findings
Slide 8

10. General themes uncovered in the research:
Sociability
“TV as the
‘modern hearth’
“TV content as
social currency’”

11. General themes uncovered in the research:
Synchrony & Sensory stimulus
“People want
‘live’”
“The middlescreen”
Slide 10

12. General themes uncovered in the research:
Inertia
“TV is mainly
used for
relaxation”

13. General themes uncovered in the
research: Content search and selection
Physical interaction
aids thought
“As long as it allows smooth interaction the
EPG is an optimal means of searching and
selecting TV content”
Priming and
recognition
“EPG as the Point of Sale is supported by low
involvement processing of marketing
communications from other sources ”
Heuristics help
problem solving
“Viewers use shortcuts and cues to help them
choose content”
Slide 12

14. There was an overwhelming consistency to the journey
Do I know what I want to watch?
YES
NO
OTHER:
RESIDUAL
Find through
EPG
Start from top of EPG, look
for programmes
Use paper guide or go up/
down through channels
WATCH
OTHER:
NEW NICHE
A few search by
genre not channel
Do I find a programme I want to watch?
Wallpaper
channel
YES
NO
WATCH
Start again from top of EPG, look for interestingsounding programmes on channels I like
Do I find a programme I want to watch?
YES
NO
WATCH
Slide 13
Wallpaper
channel

15. OTHER:
NEW NICHE
A few (busy people, parents with
small children) start from PVR
Check PVR
Do I find a programme I want to watch?
YES
NO
OTHER:
NEW NICHE
WATCH
Go to catch-up/ on demand, search for
programmes I missed
Go to Netflix or on-demand
before/instead of PVR
Do I find a programme I want to watch?
YES
NO
WATCH
Look at most popular choices
Slide 14

16. Key findings & implications
1.
2.
3.
Everyone’s preference is
watching live TV on a big
screen, even young
people
Almost all TV viewing starts
with live, even that of the
young, smart TV owners
and tech savvy
People mostly look for
programmes first –
heading to the channel
with that content
Slide 15

17. Key findings & implications
4.
5.
The EPG remains
critical and will be
hard to supplant
The linear schedule is
still important.
Slide 16

18. Things might change….
If it becomes very cheap and easy to
send content between screens…
If the best content is available OTT…
If getting on demand content on the
telly is quicker and easier
On demand might leapfrog PVR in order of preference
Audiences might move much more quickly through the linear EPG
(just to do a cursory check they aren’t missing anything rather than in
the hopes of finding content to view).
Slide 17

19. Pace….

20. If audiences move to on demand channel
brands will weaken
•
•
•
When using catch up, viewers are aware of the master channel brand and
the associated OD player - not the individual channel (e.g. 4OD rather than
E4)
Channel brand is diluted, even lost on pre-recorded and especially
downloaded content on mobile devices
Presence of D.O.G.s on OD search thumbnails and the actual content itself
is inconsistent. Even when they are present, they are not clearly visible
Slide 19

21. What could bring more radical changes?
Government regulation/changes
The PSBs could lose their prominence on the
EPG and then the logical nature of the EPG
might be disrupted.
If social media becomes the way of
finding out what is on.
Then live television, and the EPG, would
become less critical
If News shifts entirely online (no
linear news in the TV schedule)
News is a key reason to view live and a main
hook to the live schedule. If news on the
television becomes redundant then this could
erode the power of live on telly (but there
would still be sport…)
Slide 20

22. Not dead, just different.
How cinema
reconfigured itself around fundamental needs
1930s-1950s
1960s-1970s 1980-Present
Information
Entertainment
1976
“The death of
cinema”
predicted
Sensory stimulation
Personal preference
Physical comfort
Social experience
Slide 21

23. Final Thought…
• Audiences are happy with television!
• It meets deep seeded needs in a quick and easy way
Slide 22