Event Television – The Multi-night Viewing Phenomenon
It wasn’t that long ago that there were only three channels and recording anything was a painful time consuming process involving programming your VCR and hoping that your video tape didn’t un-spool and the final of your programme was lost forever!
Fast forward to 2014 and downloading the full series of a programme you love – from a range of site options – is perfectly normal. You never have to miss anything, and often you’re up to series three before series one has even started in NZ.
With the gradual decline in PUTs (people using Television) over the past few years, networks have had to think of new ways to keep audiences tuned into linear (or time shifted) Television viewing. Airing the programmes within a day or so of them airing in their country of origin has helped win back some audience, but the real success story has been multi-night reality programming.
Big Brother was one of the first multi-night reality series to hit households. This evolved into shows like Survivor, Treasure Island, X-Factor, American Idol, NZ’s Got Talent, Top Chef and The Voice.
Cooking and renovating are currently the most watched types of multi-night viewing. The most recent My Kitchen Rules (Australia) attracted outstanding audience levels and social media interaction. Viewers had no choice but to watch it live as they didn’t want to be behind for the next episode (or to be told on Facebook who was eliminated).
With the end of MKR Australia, viewers trolled social media asking what they would replace it with. The Block NZ and MKR NZ have recently started, but so far only have around half the audience that MKR Australia boasted.
Looking at the data from the last week of MKR Australia and the first week where MKR NZ and The Block NZ started – MKR Australia had an AP 25-54 audience share of, on average, 41% (46% for the final). This audience appears to have literally split into two, with 18%-20% watching each of them. Having the Leaders Debate up against the third episode of The Block, pulled 28% of audience share away from TV3.
After TVNZ losing significant channel share to TV3 during the previous two seasons of The Block NZ, they have purposely put MKR NZ up against it to retain share.
Generally multi-night reality programming picks up momentum as time moves on and more viewers become addicted to the characters, the drama and the suspense over who will win (or who will cause the biggest scene)! In saying this, as human beings we have short attention spans and constantly search for the next big thing. It will be interesting to see what the next ‘event television’ series will be… stay tuned!
– Kirsty Heywood, Blackfoot Senior Media Planner/Buyer