Peak TV and earning an audience
When I first started out in Television, an audience was a given. People watched TV and had a choice from five networks. If you were lucky you’d have access to Foxtel but even then it was scheduled viewing and not on demand. Although the ratings system showed only a snapshot, we had a pretty good understanding of where our audience was and what they were watching. We’d often compare the competition, which was whatever else was on at 8.30pm on a Wednesday night. If one state was down on numbers we’d discuss the reasons “it was the first night of daylight savings, people were out and about” as if we knew the every move of our dear viewers.
Those simple days are well and truly gone and the change has happened relatively quickly. As I watch my husband binge watch the entire series of ‘The Sopranos’ for the third time, it dawned on me that the competition has never been greater. Instead of competing with whatever was scheduled against us, we are now competing against Every. Single. Series. Ever. Made!!!
Although we’ve knew the tides were changing for some time, as an industry we haven’t adapted. Our audience that were once there at home waiting for us are consumed with not only more TV than you could possible watch but Youtube, Instagram and TikTok. Trying to get in front of our audience is difficult, convincing them to watch our content - even harder.
I’ve been guilty of scrolling the TV looking for something to find and giving up and instead scrolling on my smaller screen be it TikTok or Instagram because it’s easier than making a decision. We all known the saying ‘my TV is the background noise to my endless scrolling’ and it’s true! We need to work so much harder for an audience and we need to start where they are spending 17 hours per week - on their phones.
But there are a couple of silver linings to all of this.
People LOVE talking about TV and Films. You could be waiting in line, at a bbq, chatting to in laws or on a first date and the best ice breaker is always ‘watched anything good lately”. This is a huge advantage for us as a sector. People enjoy talking about something there’ve watched or watching or they want to hear about what someone else is watching. Social media is the new water cooler. What conversations are you having with your audience? Get them talking about it, give them a forum and a space to discuss THAT KISS or THAT STORYLINE.
28% of businesses claim the demands of making content impact their ability to post. Our advantage, CONTENT is our business! Clip up as many scenes and moments as you can to get in front of those eyeballs and entice the viewer to watch more! Show them the actual product and reel them in (they’re called reels for a reason!) An episodic still does not do your moving image product any justice.
Making Film + TV is interesting and seems glamorous, even though the reality is quite the opposite! If businesses can go viral and have a huge following with warehouse packing videos then we have a pretty good chance of entertaining, informing and engaging with our audience.
What we’re doing now, or not doing for that matter, isn’t moving the dial. You can’t break what’s already broken so why not embrace digital content, evolve together and work as hard as we can to entice our local viewers?
