New Research Illustrates the Impact of Using Streaming Ads in Combination with Linear TV Ads to Drive Greater Audience Reach

Effectv’s New TV Viewership Report analyzes 20,000 cross-platform advertising campaigns to reveal that 57% of streaming reach is incremental to linear TV reach.

Report also finds that consumers spent an average of 6+ hours per day watching TV in 1H2021, with 88% of that time spent watching live linear TV, and 70% spent on cable TV.

Today, Effectv, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, released the latest edition of its TV Viewership Report. The report explores viewership trends for the first half of 2021 based on Comcast aggregate household viewership data, as well as insights based on Effectv’s campaign ad exposure data for both traditional TV and streaming content.

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“Viewership will no doubt continue to evolve, and advertisers can no longer rely on TV or streaming alone to reach their audience – they need both. Understanding how viewers are watching is essential to knowing how to best use TV and streaming together.”

According to an analysis of more than 20,000 Effectv cross-platform campaigns, streaming consistently served as a strong complement to traditional TV campaigns in the first half of 2021. In fact, 57% of reach from streaming in those campaigns was incremental to linear TV campaigns. Additionally, streaming impressions were +209% more likely to be served within households that viewed little or no traditional TV. This proves that complementing traditional TV strategies with premium long-form streaming will grow incremental reach and increase exposure with households less likely to be tuning in the traditional way.

“Our latest report continues to demonstrate the tremendous ability of linear TV to reach audiences, but it also reinforces how smart advertisers use streaming as a way to expand reach,” said John Brauer, Vice President, Insights & Analytics, Effectv. “Analysis of Effectv’s cross-platform audience solutions confirm what the industry has long suspected: streaming advertising consistently extends traditional TV campaign reach in meaningful ways.”

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Looking at consumer viewing trends overall, the report found that live TV viewership grew in the first half of 2021, reaching 88% of all TV viewing. This was true both on weekdays and weekends, as an overwhelming majority of programming, including sports, was watched live on TV rather than on DVR or Video on Demand.

In total, the findings revealed that Comcast households are spending on average 6 hours and 2 minutes with TV daily, totaling 15 billion hours of TV viewing during this time period. Of that time spent with TV, 70% was spent with cable TV, higher than previous recorded years.

Viewers spread their consumption of premium video content across multiple networks and devices, and at different times of day. In fact, nearly 70% of live viewing occurred outside of primetime hours. Meanwhile, TV consumption happened across networks: according to the report, Comcast households watched an average of 30 different networks during this period, and the top five networks only accounted for only 31% of all viewing in 1H2021. This suggests that advertisers shouldn’t rely on the “most-watched” networks or primetime alone to achieve scale.

The report also uncovered interesting differences in how and when viewers choose to watch TV versus streaming their favorite shows. For example, viewers were +214% more likely to watch news and +73% more likely to watch sports on traditional TV versus streaming. In comparison, they were +153% more likely to watch young adult content via streaming instead of TV.

Overall, the report found the TV is still the device of choice for viewers, even when watching streaming content. According to the study, 76% of streaming viewing still occurred on a TV screen in 1H2021.

“The past year has caused a major upheaval of our lives, and that includes in the way we consume media,” added Brauer. “Viewership will no doubt continue to evolve, and advertisers can no longer rely on TV or streaming alone to reach their audience – they need both. Understanding how viewers are watching is essential to knowing how to best use TV and streaming together.”

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