Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1469966
D E PA R T M E N T 35 KEYFRAME opposite page: Intensive research into the natural environment was essential for designing Moana's authentic landscape. this page: The color of water in different circumstances helped develop the mood of various scenes. STAYING POWER "What causes people to stay? Most people talk about the originals," says Fuhrer. "The originals are just a part of the puzzle. It's the acquired content that really keeps people around." He explains that acquired content like The Simpsons—with more than 700 episodes—is more effective for retention than original content. "If somebody starts watching it, they tend to stick around and continue to watch it," he says. Related to this is repeat viewing, an area where animation, and especially kids animation, excels. It has strong repeat viewing audiences, and repeat viewing heavily influences subscriber retention. "A kid will watch Moana an infinite number of times. If you think about it, it's very different than adult movies," Fuhrer says. "I'm not a child psychologist, I'm talking from a viewing perspective. It's very unique." IN THE WEEDS In 2017, Nielsen released its first Subscription Video On-Demand (SVOD) ratings to the public. Then in mid-2021 it introduced The Gauge, a measurement of total TV viewing (broadcast, streaming, cable, etc.) derived from two separately weighted panels: 1. Data for linear sources (broadcast and cable) and usage classified as "other" comes from Nielsen's national TV panel as a whole. 2. Streaming data comes from a subset of TV households in Nielsen's national TV panel that are enabled with the Streaming Meter on their television sets. For the month of April 2022 (see graphic), The Gauge reported that streaming made up 30.4% of all programs viewed on TV sets in Nielsen households. Cable made up 36.8%, broadcast 24.7%, and other 8.2%. Nielsen measures streaming video usage from any and all streaming video platforms. The Gauge graphic indicates streaming platforms that have surpassed the threshold of 1% share of total TV viewing. Streaming platforms that have not yet reached a 1% or higher share are included in streaming's "other" category. We know how Nielsen gets its information. Meters attached to TVs. For Parrot, the company collects and analyzes the activities, interactions, and behaviors related to relevant content from over two billion people every day, gathering information from P2P media networks and relevant third-party social networks. "Demand is calculated on a daily basis," says Engelhardt. "Even if a show isn't currently airing, we measure the demand for that show today, and how audiences are still engaging with that content. This then has multiple applications, for example, with licensing or acquisition strategies." Another way the demand data is applied is for understanding the market landscape across streaming platforms. "Each platform, such as HBO Max or Netflix, knows the viewership of their shows that are on their platform," Engelhardt says. "But they don't really know how that viewership is performing in relation to shows on other platforms. We're able to provide a macro- level view of the market landscape, of how shows are performing across platforms. Our demand metric is platform-agnostic and market-specific. It's a single metric that we're able to apply consistently across all regions of the world. And because we look at it on a per capita basis, we're able to create an apples-to-apples comparison of how content is performing across different markets." APRIL 2022 TOTAL DAY PERSON 2+ 9.2% OTHER STREAMING 6.6% NETFLIX 6.1% YOUTUBE including youtubetv 3.3% HULU including hulu live 2.5% PRIME VIDEO 1.7% DISNEY + 1.0% HBO MAX CABLE 36.8% STREAMING 30.4% BROADCAST 24.7% OTHER 8.2% Graphic courtesy of Nielsen. SUMMER 2022 35