Almost 1 in 3 Have Been Persuaded to Watch A TV Show Based on Social Buzz

June 25, 2015

Digitalsmiths-Social-Impact-on-TV-Jun2015Some 31% of US and Canadian adults (18+) say they have at some point chosen to watch a TV show or movie because of all the buzz it was getting on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, according to the latest quarterly video trends report [download page] from Digitalsmiths. But growth in this area appears to have slowed, based on a review of past editions of the study.

Indeed, going as far back as Q3 2013, a similar 30.8% of survey respondents said they had watched a show or movie due to social buzz. And while more than 1 in 7 respondents (14.8%) to the latest survey said they post about what they’re watching on social networks, that is actually slightly down from the percentage saying the same in Q3 2013 (15.4%). It’s possible that some of that may be due to seasonality, as the 31% this past quarter (Q1 2015) choosing a show based on social buzz is up from previous first quarters (2014; 29.3% and 2013; 18.6%). Similarly, the 14.8% posting about shows is up from 13.2% a year earlier, suggesting that social’s influence on TV is still growing, albeit slowly.

The figures are similar to those recently released by ShareThis, in which 1 in 6 TV viewers were found to share content about shows online.

In other notable results from the most recent Digitalsmiths report:

  • Almost one-quarter (24.2%) of respondents are unsatisfied with the level of value they’re receiving from their cable/satellite service provider, most commonly due to increasing fees for cable/satellite (71.7%) and internet (46.4%) services;
  • Respondents are as likely to have increased/added to (18.4%) the level of their cable/satellite service in the past 12 months as they are to have decreased/eliminated it (18.2%), with premium channels the leading reason for increasing (36.4%) service and the second-leading reason for decreasing (44.1%) service;
  • The ideal pay-TV line-up, per respondents, is 17 channels, for which they would pay $38 a month;
  • Almost half (48.7%) of respondents estimated watching at least 3 hours of TV per day;
  • Some 69% of respondents watch 2 hours or less of recorded TV per day, compared to 51% who watch 2 hours or less of live TV per day;
  • By comparison, just 16.6% of tablet owners report watching at least 3 hours of TV shows, movies or video content on their device, per week, with the comparable figure among smartphone owners being just 7.4%;
  • One-third of respondents feel overwhelmed by the amount of channels available to them, up from 29.1% in Q1 2013; and
  • Of the channels offered to them, 81.7% watch between 1 and 10 typically.

For more on pay-TV trends, see the following articles:

For more coverage of TV audiences, viewing trends, and advertising influence, see:

About the Data: The survey was fielded in Q1 among 3,155 consumers aged 18 and older.

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