Posted In: Media by
Jenn Ferrier,
November 1, 2023
We’ve all heard the news about how linear TV is on the decline but does that really mean we should stop all TV advertising?
Alicia Lai, Media Account Manager
There’s been many news reports flying around following Ofcom’s release of their annual Media Nations 2023 report where they found that broadcast TV’s weekly reach fell from 83% in 2021 to 79% in 2022. They also found that viewing of broadcast TV fell 12% YoY and was 16% lower than pre pandemic levels. It’s clear to see that the way we watch TV is changing. But does this mean we should pull the plug on TV advertising?
According to GWI data, 35.7% of adults typically find out about new brands and products through Ads seen on TV, second to using search engines. Though linear TV figures may be falling, it still delivers incredible reach and scale compared to other channels with IPA Touchpoints indicating that Commercial TV still reaches over 40 million adults a week.
Also, as noted in our webinar a few weeks ago in conjunction with Thinkbox, TV drives long term effects and helps to build our brand. This is crucial for growth!
Don’t forget to note the other benefits that TV brings: it’s a trusted form of advertising. In a time where we’re being bombarded with ads everywhere, it’s hard to know what to believe. TV is consistently seen as the most trusted media form as all adverts are subject to regulation from Clearcast.
TV also affects your other advertising with Thinkbox’s “Demand Generation” study showing that TV produces the biggest multiplier effect across all other channels and can boost other channels by up to 54% compared to 8% across other ones.
However, we can’t ignore that linear TV figures are declining… so what should brands do?
Introducing BVOD
BVOD viewing has increased from 4% of total broadcaster viewing in 2017 to 10% in 2022. Investment is also rising in BVOD with £800m spent on this in 2022, expected to grow by 4.4% by 2023.
ITV Hub recently relaunched as ITVX and has attracted more and more viewers with Monthly Active Users increasing by 29% YoY. In April 2023, Channel 4 announced that more than 5 billion minutes of content had been streamed that month which was their biggest month ever for streaming.
BVOD also offers many benefits, one of the most important being that BVOD builds incremental reach and allows brands to reach light viewers of TV, who are mainly the 16-34 audience which are a very attractive but hard to reach group.
This doesn’t mean brands have to choose between one or the other – research conducted by Thinkbox found that brands who choose to use both linear and BVOD together can be up to 10% more effective than using just linear TV alone.
One client of ours used BVOD to increase their incremental reach and target a niche audience to reduce audience wastage. Through the broadcaster, they were able to target people who were interested in Homes and Property, making it more relevant to their product offering. This meant they could layer their BVOD targeting on top of their linear TV reach to reach people who were contextually relevant.
To summarise, whilst linear TV viewing figures are decreasing, TV is still the most effective form of advertising, consistently delivering the highest ROI. Comparatively, TV delivers scale and reach unrivalled to other channels and can help boost your other advertising. To maximise campaign impact, brands should invest in BVOD as well as linear TV. This will boost effectiveness and makes sure their ad is always in front of the right people, at the right time!
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