Technological advances have contributed to the quality of productions and generated interactivity between models; young prefers to choose content
The streaming service is undergoing restructuring to try to reverse the historical decline it has suffered in recent months. Caio Luiz de Carvalho, general director of communication and corporate affairs at Grupo Bandeirantes de Comunicação and professor at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV-SP), analyzes the current situation, saying that, in the first place, it is necessary to take into account the reality Brazilian socioeconomics. Open TV is still, for the vast majority, the main source of information and entertainment. The fact that it has an enormous national reach and is free of charge still makes it the first choice for most of the population, he assesses.
He makes a slight assessment of the segment and recalls that the pay-TV market, mainly due to economic issues, has been suffering successive declines year after year. In 2022, according to data released by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), the market fell by 7.2%, totaling 12.48 million subscribers. a brutal setback when we remember that the customer base in 2016 reached 19 million. Streaming, which had been showing significant growth in recent years, has suffered declines in 2023, he says.
To prove what he says, the executive reports data from the national survey by Kantar Ibope Media. Streaming audiences dropped 4% in February and 5% in March, while open TV audiences rose. The result includes not only TVs, but all devices available within a household (cell phones, tablets and computers). In February, Band was the free-to-air broadcaster that grew the most in the 24 hours of the day: 10%. Competitors register much smaller growths: Record (4%), RedeTV (3%), SBT (2%) and Globo (1%), presents the executive, adding: The reality that everyone has to produce content, which must be on all platforms to be watched anywhere, anytime. Streaming is the new normal, but I do not believe that, in a continental country like Brazil, open TV is neglected by the public. With an antenna for R$25, anyone has access to digital images throughout the country. The cost of streaming is higher and, many times, it requires more sophisticated equipment, with broadband access, he ponders.
Alarico Naves, multiplatform commercial superintendent of Grupo Record, agrees with the executive of the competing broadcaster. He also recalls that linear TV has a high penetration in Brazil and reaches more than 93% of the population with an average consumption time of 5h37 per person. In addition, according to Kantar Ibope, genres such as journalism, soap operas and football are among the most watched by Brazilians, all free of charge. We have also followed some technological advances in recent years, which have been adding more and more quality and interactivity to linear TV, which reinforces a growing consumption behavior of open TV, which has been reinventing itself and following new market trends.
Migrated
Lilian Prado, country manager Brazil at ShowHeroes, says that, globally, consumption has been migrating from linear TV to streaming platforms, and it is pay TV that has lost the most audience and subscribers to streaming services. The younger public is more in favor of consuming content with freedom of choice, without the programming grid that is characteristic of linear TV. At the heart of the change is the consumer, who has realized that streaming platforms offer more variety and freedom of choice. On the other hand, live broadcasts, mainly sports, are still a challenge for these platforms. The delay, even a few seconds, can frustrate the user experience, she argues.
Grupo Band’s communications director adds that linear TV in a country with the socioeconomic reality of Brazil is for everyone. Already streaming is for the few. This is the main difference, for him, between traditional and on-demand TV.
Dado Lancelotti, Grupo Record’s multiplatform executive director, explains that linear TV and streaming are forms of transmission of audiovisual content. According to him, in the case of linear, looking at the Brazilian scenario, there is a giant penetration in the national market. The linear format is, and will continue to be for a long time, the access and democratization of entertainment and information in the country. As for streaming, we understand that the evolution of this transmission. It’s the way to reach new people, individually, understanding that each one’s time is increasingly competitive, he says.
For Lancelotti, with the arrival of new technologies, such as TV 3.0, there will be a great convergence between broadcast and broadband. This evolution will allow the user not to worry about how the content is reaching him, in addition to providing new interactivity experiences.
The country manager Brazil of ShowHeroes states that, from the point of view of the advertiser, there is a big difference between the attention of the linear TV audience and the streaming service. She claims that they did a study that shows that users are more attentive to ads shown on streaming platforms on connected TVs (CTV), when compared to linear TV. On CTV, viewers remain engaged 51% of the time. Already on linear TV, only 34% of the time, she points out.
Regarding the movements that broadcasters are making to increase the interest of both the public and the market for the platforms’ contents, the directors affirm, for the most part, that sports and journalism programs lead in terms of audience preferences. Caio Luiz de Carvalho, from Band, reveals, for example, that the group carried out a survey, commissioned by the broadcaster from Paran Pesquisas, in five markets in the country (So Paulo, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre) and reached conclusion that in journalism and sports, Band is in second place in the preferences of residents of these regions. This is a source of great pride, as they are two important pillars of our programming, along with family-oriented entertainment. In the latter case, just compare the quality of Fausto’s content on Band with the competition. This begins to be noticed. Numbers matter, but we also want a qualified audience, he declares.
Alarico Naves, from Grupo Record, says that, more and more, Record has been using its channels in an integrated way, whether linear, streaming or digital, in order to provide a multiplatform experience to the viewer, who is increasingly multimedia. What has also been very well used by the market are the projects developed by our brand and content integration area, which means that partners are effectively inserted in our content, creating greater relevance when talking to the viewer, in addition to the possibility of being on more than one channel, he comments.
Lilian Prado says that producers and distributors are organizing themselves to make their content available on all screens and formats, but with a greater effort on connected TVs, where the user experience on the big screen is more complete. On the other hand, the migration of the audience to this environment starts to attract the attention of the advertiser, favoring free services with advertising, she believes.
Read the full story in the April 24 issue
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