Insight

In March, we looked at how broadcasters’ programmes on a Saturday night are often viewed in the company of others. These ranged from films like The Italian Job (1969) on ITV4, to family-friendly programming like Channel 4’s Taskmaster with Greg Davies.

Building on this, we’re now able to look at shared SVOD viewing in the same way with analysis provided by PwC.

Table 1: SVOD programmes with highest co-viewing audience
Source: Barb. December 8th 2021 – June 11th 2022. Monday – Sunday. Minimum audience 250k. Analysis via PwC.

Table 1 makes clear that children’s programming like Encanto or Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania is likely to attract multiple people to view. This makes sense as parents view with children who are either too young to be left alone, or as part of a shared family experience. This is particularly true around the Christmas holidays when families are more likely to be at home together, watching the likes of The Muppet Christmas Carol.

We could also argue that The Adam Project, a movie in which Ryan Reynolds travels back in time to interact with his younger self, is aimed, at least in part, at children and parents. Again, this leads to more co-viewing and so a higher viewers-per-view factor.

We can’t make the same argument about Don’t Look Up being aimed at children. However, a film about humanity passing up all opportunities to save itself from destruction does seem to fit quite nicely with the adage that misery loves company.

Finally, we come to Stranger Things, Hawkeye, After Life and Obi-Wan Kenobi. As newly released series, it makes sense that viewers gather to watch. In each case, the four episodes here are being viewed on their day of release. As people seek to avoid spoilers, even from those they live with, these appear to be the times when people will be most likely to view together.

Stepping back from programme-level data, we can get an overall view of how people watch the SVOD services together. Taking all programmes viewed in the four weeks between May 2nd and May 29th this year, the average viewers-per-view is 1.5 on the big three SVOD services (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+). This compares to 1.36 on broadcast channels.

This, however, is slightly misleading.

When we look at the proportion of people watching alone by genre, we see a different picture. Doing this shows that a greater proportion of solo viewing takes place when certain programmes are watched on SVOD services as opposed to when they are viewed on broadcast channels (chart 1). In fact, we see that four of the five most-watched genres are more likely to be viewed alone when viewed via an SVOD service.

Chart 1: Proportion of solo viewing by genre. Broadcast vs SVOD.
Source: Barb. Date: May 2nd –May 29th 2022. Any broadcast programme, on any channel. Any measured programme on Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video. SVOD analysis of Barb data supplied by PwC. Five genres attracting most viewing on broadcast channels.

In this case, a comparison of the median viewers-per-view factor is instructive. That figure is 1.06 for the SVOD services and 1.12 for the broadcasters. So, people are more likely overall to watch broadcast programmes with someone else than they are SVOD programmes.

While comparing at a genre level is close to like-for-like, the actual programming within those genres reveals more interesting findings.

Generally, studios are still in the process of pulling programmes back for release on their own platforms. Yet there are still examples of shows that appear in multiple places. Friends is one of the best examples of this, appearing on Channel 5, Comedy Central and Comedy Central Extra, as well as on Netflix.

And charts 2 and 3 reinforce the idea that SVOD viewing can be a more solitary experience. We can be sure this is a good read on viewer behaviour as the audience to Friends is significant regardless of where it is watched. In aggregate, the audience over these four weeks in May was 25 million on Netflix and 19 million on the broadcast channels.

Charts 2 and 3: Proportion of solo and co-viewing to Friends. Netflix vs broadcast channels.

Source: Barb. Date: May 2nd –May 29th 2022. Any Friends episode broadcast during period. Any measured Friends episode on Netflix SVOD analysis of Barb data supplied by PwC.

Understanding which programmes people choose to watch together provides great insight. If, as seems likely, SVOD services begin to carry advertising, an understanding of when people view in the company of someone else is valuable. Advertising in programmes with more co-viewing is helpful for products that require a joint decision, or indeed for brands that want to increase how much people talk about them.

We may well guess that programming aimed at children or families is likely to be watched together. But even the most well-informed guesswork is seldom acceptable to stakeholders from any part of our industry. The Barb panel, reflecting the behaviour of real people across the UK, makes it possible for us to put a value on the level of co-viewing and the degree to which it varies by channel/service, genre, series and individual episode.

Ultimately, shared and solo viewing is prevalent across SVOD services and broadcast channels. But, for now at least, shared viewing is more likely to take place in a broadcast environment. Barb data will allow us to keep a close eye on how that develops.

Doug Whelpdale, Head of Insight at Barb

Note on data sources:
Co-viewing and viewers-per-view data can be obtained from Barb-registered data-processing bureaux for broadcast channels.

These data exist within the data files produced for SVOD services at a programme level but cannot currently be produced using Dovetail AdvantEdge. Barb worked with PwC to create these data for the SVOD services that are currently reported at a programme level.