7plus is growing its audience at a 30% rate year-on-year thanks to partnerships, personalisation and premium content.
One trend that’s driving this growth is viewers outside of a show’s typical audience profile discovering content through the BVOD service’s extensive library, according to Seven Network’s chief content officer Brook Hall.
“A lot of our audience is finding shows from five to seven years ago that they've never heard of and watching it on our platform – that’s similar to how Netflix, began as a content library,” he said.
“We really over-index with the performance of drama and there's a flow-on effect, because Home and Away is our biggest streaming show on the platform, but it brings a whole bunch of people in who are then watching other content too.”
7plus’ head of content, Andrew Green, similarly said that Australian dramas from decades ago – the likes of Blue Heelers, All Saints, Packed to the Rafters and Winners and Losers - are all finding new viewers, with half of the audience profile for such shows made up of females under 50.
“It's a much younger audience profile than you would expect from such old dramas, but Australian drama really does a fantastic job for us,” he said.
A recent study from Telsyte showed Australians are allocating more time for free and ad-supported streaming services due to the rising cost of living, with 40% (up 8% year-on-year) claiming they are relying more on free services due to budget constraints.
The average total weekly video entertainment consumption increased by 4% year-on-year to 47 hours.
With 70% of 7plus’ audience under 50, shows that debuted in the late 1990s, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Law and Order: SVU, are finding new audiences with the key 18–29-year-old demographic, who make up a notable percentage of viewership.
Newer programs like The Rookie and Jamestown are also consistently topping the viewing charts for the platform, with Hall saying that both trends serve as a testament to the power of partnerships.
“Our biggest focus with 7plus, alongside big new exclusives to the platform, is trying to wrap up deals with all of the major international studios,” he told AdNews.
“We've got relationships with Bravo, which is pumping out that premium reality content from the US; NBCUniversal, which is predominantly drama-focused, but also some documentaries alongside a vast library of content; as well as E1, Lionsgate, Disney and Fox."
Aside from the Bravo collaboration, all of those partnerships are exclusively for 7plus, which Hall said is “probably a complete flip from five years ago”, where all of the network’s big content deals and outputs were driven with a broadcast lens.
Green said that 7plus’ personalisation engine – built with Amazon Web Services and announced at last year’s Upfronts event - also helps to drive viewership, with each user receiving a different homepage experience, customised recommendations and enhanced content discovery.
“We're able to have programs surface to one person that is most appropriate for them, to be able to capture them into another series and watch the content on platform longer,” he said.
“Even at the level of promotions and being able to serve different content to existing viewers, everyone has a different experience with the with the promos that are served, depending on what they're watching and their demographic profile.”
Hall said that one advantage the BVOD services have over the likes of the international streaming giants is the breadth of local dramas, reality, sport and news on the platforms.
“The streamers are dabbling their foot in it, but they don't have any news and sport. They don't have much local reality and drama compared to us. We dominate there,” he said.
“Where they have dominated is overseas content, but we're not going to let them own that space anymore. I think we all made a mistake about 10 years ago in retreating from that. There is so much choice in content, so we're just offering that same vast choice, but we're offering it for free."
Advertisers have responded positively, with the revenue in the overall BVOD market up 12.7% to $441 million in the year to June, according to industry body ThinkTV.
Advertising investment in BVOD platforms - including 7plus - increased 12.9% to $212 million for the six months to June.
Sports may be one of the main drawcards for viewers of 7plus for the rest of the year, as digital rights to the AFL and cricket are arriving as soon as next week in the case of the AFL.
Hall said that the majority of growth in the overall streaming arena (whether free or paid) over the last 12 to 18 months has come from live content, and while 7plus is “doing really well” with on-demand content, it’s managed to keep pace with the market at a 30% rate of growth without that marquee live sport on the platform.
“We're expected to see that side of the platform just have exponential growth, and we’re very excited, not just for us but also for viewers, because there are more and more people that don't have an aerial in their home,” he said.
“If you don't subscribe to a sports service at the moment, and you don't have an aerial, then you can't watch AFL or cricket and while that was not many people five years ago, it's a fair chunk now - it's nearly a third of the population.”
It isn’t just the sports you’d expect where viewership is rising – Hall said a lot of sports haven’t been at a level that’s commercially viable for the network to put them on its linear offering, but are now suddenly seeing increased exposure to audiences on 7plus.
“Hockey and the local athletics are sports that have really good streaming results because there is an audience out there, but you couldn’t watch them before unless you literally went to the ground, but now suddenly 13 million Australians can log in for free and watch,” he said.
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Green said that 7plus has 50 new titles coming between September and December, including a bevy of premium, first-run content.
“Pam and Tommy is coming to 7plus from Disney later this year and we've also got a series called Mrs. America with Cate Blanchett, which is a limited series from Hulu,” he told AdNews.
“We’ve got Murder in a Small Town, which is premiering in the US next week - that'll be a 7plus exclusive title; The Crow Girl is coming from ITV either late this year or early next year; Suits L.A. which is the spin off to Suits, will be coming exclusive to 7plus in 2025; and The Americas, a high level production documentary with Tom Hanks narrating, is also on its way.
“These are just a few of the big, exclusive titles that we have for 7plus in the premium content zone coming up and it's something that we're looking to increase our focus on in future.”
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.