In the first of a new series of partnership pieces from ThinkTV and Mediaweek, we are profiling the FTA network’s VOZ “super users”.
In the first feature, we are hearing from Gareth Tomlin who is responsible for research, data strategy, analytics, and insights across Network 10, including the content, advertising sales and digital divisions.
Tomlin joined Paramount ANZ from The Nielsen Company’s television audience measurement division as research manager in September 2012 and was appointed head of research in November 2016.
In July 2018, he was appointed general manager of data, insights and analytics, responsible for building 10’s data-driven advertising capability and embedding the new data and analytics departments. Tomlin is Network 10’s director on the board of audience measurement company, OzTAM and a member of the IAB Measurement Council.
Network 10’s Gareth Tomlin
Mediaweek started the conversation asking Tomlin about some of the programming revelations that VOZ has unearthed.
“At the moment, agencies and clients don’t have visibility on the top programs on BVOD, beyond network press releases and some of the public VOZ reports. Most of the time, the top BVOD programs are as you’d expect – big reality formats, premium drama and live sport and news. But there are plenty of BVOD-exclusive or BVOD-first programs that can outperform broadcast content.
“Survivor South Africa and Survivor US on 10 Play are in our top 15 shows. Love Island UK on 9Now and A Country Practice on 7Plus – are examples of programs that generate hundreds of millions of minutes of viewing and are beating primetime broadcast shows on BVOD. Five of the top 15 programs on BVOD last year were either BVOD-first or BVOD-exclusive.”
Results like that open up some new opportunities for advertisers, said Tomlin.
“What’s most interesting for advertisers about these hidden top programs is their opportunity to extend reach within or beyond a program sponsorship, even when the program isn’t on air.
“If it’s December and you want to reach Survivor fans, you can pick them up with the South African season – and the audience will be younger and more affluent than on TV. BVOD is a time machine to extend a sponsorship.
“The depth of the libraries of the BVOD sites is also highlighting new opportunities for advertisers looking to align to particular content. There are classic Aussie dramas like Prisoner on 10 Play which was our fifth biggest show on 10 Play in January and is finding new fans 40 years later. Who knew that in 2022, we could sell a sponsorship on Prisoner, which hasn’t had a new episode since 1986!
“For clients who want sport, there’s premium sport like Bellator MMA on 10 Play which you can’t buy on TV.”
VOZ is showing how all programs are growing with BVOD, across all genres – even topical shows like Have You Been Paying Attention? lifted 84% in on-demand viewing last year and its total audience ended up 2% higher than 2016.
Have You Been Paying Attention?
Information from VOZ data helps 10 in the program decision-making process. “For 10, the VOZ data is also informing our content acquisition and placement strategy,” said Tomlin.
“Most networks including us have launched programs on BVOD before TV, but the VOZ dataset will ensure we’re tracking and reporting on every viewer across the lifetime of a program, no matter how it was broadcast. That’s particularly important for us, as we’re investing and commissioning more for 10 Play every year. Being able to track viewing outside of the fixed seven and 28-day time bands of broadcast TV is essential.”
Live streaming growing in early evening too. “The story of 2021 was the incredible growth in live streaming. We often focus on seven-day on-demand viewing when we talk about BVOD, but some of the live numbers last year for major sports and entertainment programs were massive. We’re excited about the growth of live streaming in early evening – topical programs like 10 News First and The Project are too immediate to get big on-demand numbers, but they’ve seen a doubling of their live stream audience in the past year.”
Tomlin noted that recent trends are continuing into the new year.
“The start of 2022 was where we expected it with the sport performing well and I’m A Celebrity once again as the #1 entertainment program so there was some predictability to the top of the year. Obviously, BVOD is growing, up 81% so far in 2022, and we’ve seen BVOD records for shows like Australian Survivor.”
10 is looking into the data this year to better understand changing viewing habits.
“The most interesting thing to look at in VOZ will be the TV and BVOD viewing of programs beyond seven and 28 days,” said Tomlin.
MasterChef Australia judges Jock, Melissa and Andy
“Taking a show like MasterChef Australia, and being able to see on-demand viewing of the prior season before the new season starts, or the continued viewing of the latest season deeper into the year. This opens up so much potential for scheduling and for sponsors to keep active in a show after its broadcast is concluded.”
The new learnings from the VOZ data allow broadcasters to work closer with advertisers to leverage the information.
“It can’t be overstated – just having national TV audiences in one dataset is a huge step forward for advertisers, particularly national brands. No more adding things manually and no more double counting reach across overlap areas like the Gold Coast.”
Tomlin added: “As networks and agencies get more tools and software to analyse VOZ, we’ll be able to report back to advertisers an independent, gold standard, total national reach across multiple screens – no other media can do that.”