As many people will testify, a common topic of water cooler conversion is what people have been watching on TV – though the decline of linear TV has dampened that trend in recent years.
And as lockdown measures became commonplace in 2020, fewer found out about new TV shows from word-of-mouth, as revealed in a report from TiVo.
Though discovery through workplace word-of-mouth has no doubt decreased dramatically, the rise of virtual happy hours and family and friends video chats has likely taken its place, though it is only a guess as to what degree.
Another wrinkle in the word-of-mouth discovery channel is the fact that peer groups do not always subscribe to the same streaming channels, so discussion of what’s new on Netflix is not very helpful to the Hulu-only friend.
Unchanged is that ease of use and discovery of new content are shown to be as important as ever to a great viewing experience.
When it comes to finding out about what to watch next, the majority of the consumers surveyed (all of whom had at least one monthly subscription service) discover content through commercials or ads that run during other TV shows (55%).
In Q1 2020, slightly fewer (49%) reported finding new content via word-of-mouth, compared to 52.5% in 2019.
Social media is the next most common discovery method (33.5%), followed by the 1 in 5 discovering shows via news articles or stories, though this latter figure is down from last year.
The percentage discovering new content via pay-TV or live TV provider suggestions has remained fairly stable, at around 1 in 6.
Even though not everyone takes advantage of these forms of recommendations, viewers are increasingly aware of them. Read the rest at Marketing Charts.
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