Imagine watching your favourite primetime TV show one night. It heads to an ad break, only for the TV to pause, flicker and a loading icon to pop up. When the TV program finally resumes, the ad is pixelated, the sound quality is poor, and the experience is jarring.
This would be a disaster for broadcasters and their advertisers. Yet this viewer experience is all-too-common when it comes to online catch-up TV services. Poor resolution, technical glitches and poor quality ads can make it painful to watch a full episode smoothly or to take the advertising message seriously.
Either consumers become complacent or they have learned to accept a lower quality online video than what they see on broadcast TV — after all, the internet often has glitches and buffering issues, right? But in 2015, the technology is now available to mitigate these issues.
Broadcasters and advertisers should not regard catch-up TV services as an afterthought, as adoption of catch-up TV services is quickly gaining momentum. According to Nielsen statistics, during the third quarter of 2014 in Australia, viewers spent an average eight hours and eight minutes watching catch-up services on their television — up nearly 60 minutes from the same time in 2013 — compared to 96 hours of live television.
Amid the excitement surrounding video-on-demand services like Netflix and Stan, catch-up services remain vital. A recent Venture Consulting survey found that consumers are more interested in TV shows than movies when it comes to catch-up services. Yet the majority of current–run TV series on free-to-air network available on-demand after the show airs, often subsidised by ads.
The line between the television screen and online is all but disappearing, as smarter TVs and media streaming gadgets like the Apple TV and Chromecast make it a cinch to flick whatever you are watching on your phone, tablet or laptop to the big screen. That technology progression is serving a customer base with a pent-up demand and expectation for a better experience in catch-up television, where viewers expect the content to be as good as live television.
The recent release of Network Ten’s tenplay catch-up service on Apple TV shows how broadcasters can offer an experience on par with linear television. While the quality of the content being streamed is the same as the mobile and desktop versions of tenplay, the AppleTV app seamlessly moves from content to ads and back again, with no pauses or buffering. It is this kind of seamless experience that needs to be delivered to consumers across all platforms.
Importantly, Tenplay means Network Ten’s connection to its viewers does not end at the 30-minute or one hour block. A catch-up service is not merely another way to provide access to the same content — it is all about creating more touch points with the audience, providing a greater opportunity to interact with them and learn from their habits. Treating it as another one-way, ‘flat screen’ medium that fails to take into the account the world of smartphone and tablet-toting consumers we now live in, is to waste an opportunity.
The launch this week of HBO Now in the United States is proof enough that even the biggest television networks no longer see online as an afterthought. It does require a significant change in how media publishers map out their business models, and whether its ad-funded or on-demand subscriptions based or a blend of both.
Just as importantly, it means a significant change in the priority they place on technology. A service that focuses purely on content but skimps out on technical capability, or provides a jarring experience, is unlikely to beat one that strikes the right balance.
Broadcasters need to pay closer attention to the catch-up space. With consumers opting for catch–up TV services, it is vital that the broadcasters ensure that both content and advertising are delivered in a seamless manner.
By Mark Blair
Vice President Asia-Pacific at Brightcove