The CEO of Mediaset España, Alessandro Salem, already said this last week at the presentation of the new season of Telecinco: Traditional broadcasters find their strength and differentiation in live broadcasts compared to the new à la carte offers. However, this does not prevent time-shifted consumption from becoming increasingly relevant for broadcasters such as La 1, Antena 3 and Telecinco. The lists of the 25 most-watched programs after their first broadcast have a clear winner every month: the public broadcaster appears in almost all places.
Since the introduction of on-demand content platforms and Freeview channels and the rise of recent digital offerings such as YouTube, TikTok and Twitch, traditional networks are seeing the audience pie being divided among more and more guests. Added to this fragmentation is the high level of competition in the field of RTVE, Atresmedia and Mediaset España this season, which is full of new signings, premieres and program changes. This is why procrastination is so important. A clear example is Thursday’s complicated night. If a viewer wants to follow MasterChef Celebrity on La 1 and Gran Hermano VIP 8 on Telecinco (or the interviews of the footballer Joaquín on Antena 3), he has no choice but to catch one or more of these programs at another time of the week on the On -Demand content service of the channels, as they coincide in broadcast.
The characters that star in the content of these spaces are also duplicated. Last week, controversial Tiktoker Luca Dazi appeared both in the public broadcaster’s culinary talent show, recorded weeks ago, and as a participant in Mediaset España’s live-streamed coexistence reality show.
Something similar happened with one of the favorite spots on free-to-air television: Ana Obregón. The actress, who has been very present in the media in recent months due to the controversial surrogacy of her granddaughter, gave interviews to the three channels. When Antena 3 announced that the new season of Joaquín, the newcomer, began on Thursday, September 14, with the presence of Obregón, its two rivals counter-programmed to break the exclusivity, simultaneously broadcasting the interventions of the presenter Day before on Blood Ties (La 1). with Jordi González and El Musical de tu vida (Telecinco) with Carlos Sobera. Resorting to delayed viewing would be the only way to see everything the protagonist of “Ana and the Seven” says.
Ana Obregón in “Joaquín, the newcomer”, broadcast on Antena 3.
Delayed consumption trends
The Delayed Audience captures the non-linear consumption of television content in the seven days after the live broadcast as well as the delayed consumption on the same day of the live broadcast. According to the latest monthly report from Barlovento Comunicación based on data collected by Kantar Media, the number of unique viewers of this consumption was 20.4 million in August 2023, showing the clear dominance of La 1 over the private chains.
According to this monthly study, time-shifted consumption is six minutes per person per day, which corresponds to 4% of total television consumption. The profile that consumes traditional television in this modality is that of women (in 55% of cases) and viewers between the ages of 45 and 64 (in 45% of cases). Although the report tracks consumption for the seven days following broadcast, a large proportion of this audience (64%) catches up on shows either the same day they air on TV or the next day.
Traditional TV viewers prefer live broadcasts, leaving recorded shows for later viewing. The series “ACI: High Intellectual Capacity” (pictured) was the most viewed delayed content on Antena 3 in August 2023.
The trend highlighted by Salem for the strength of live television in traditional television is captured in the consumption data below. Even on the main channels, viewers prefer to watch the programs offered live and save the recorded content for later. Cuatro Estrellas, broadcast in prime time on La 1, opposite the almighty El Hormiguero on Antena 3, was the series that gained the most late viewers in August. There were 310,000 views added on the first day. Also notable is the afternoon soap opera on the public channel La Promesa, which had 339,000 views on Friday August 11th. Both products increased their viewership by a quarter compared to data recorded by audiometers. The most watched time-shifted content of the month on Antena 3 is also a series, the French ACI: High Intellectual Capacity.
The public institution also achieves good results on the à la carte content platform (which includes not only the aforementioned linear channels, but also other exclusive à la carte content). The RTVE Play platform recorded an average of 9.4 million monthly unique users last season, between September 2022 and June 2023. That’s two million more than the previous season, according to data from RTVE itself. Compared to the two private versions, which require a monthly fee, it is free. When GECA was surveyed in July 2023 about platform penetration in Spain, it found that RTVE Play reaches 26.4% of households that have access to payment platforms, compared to 25.1% for the free version of AtresPlayer (Atresmedia) and 17.2% for the free version of AtresPlayer (Atresmedia). Free version of MiTele Plus (Mediaset España).
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