Wolk’s Week in Review: NBCU’s Super Bowl victory, ViacomCBS is now Paramount

1. NBCU’s Super Bowl Victory

While a well-placed pass late in the fourth quarter gave the Los Angeles Rams a victory, from a TV industry perspective, the real winner last Sunday was NBCU. Not only did the Super Bowl see a massive ratings rebound regardless of who was counting, but the network’s decision to rely on iSpot, the first of several alternative (e.g., non-Nielsen) measurement providers it is looking at, wound up seeming more prescient than ever.

Why It Matters

Nielsen first announced its linear ratings on Monday, at which point people started to point out the curious fact that ratings in both Los Angeles and Cincinnati were down from 2021. 

“Ooops!” said Nielsen. “JK. Let us take another look.” 

Then iSpot released their numbers, which showed viewing was up across the board, in both Los Angeles and Cincinnati and the rest of the U.S.

Some interesting stats from the iSpot numbers:

• Most viewing (90%) was still happening on linear, though the 10% who watched on streaming was a sizable enough contingent, well over 10 million people. And given the whole “Everyone Is Streaming!” narrative that’s playing out in much od the media, the fact that of the 56% of US households that tuned in to watch the Super Bowl, the vast majority were watching via old school linear is worth noting. 
• Viewing went up during the halftime show by 12.5%, with 10.5 million net new average minute viewers joining.
• 30% of those watching via streaming also had a traditional pay TV subscription. Whether they were just checking things out or whether they actually had decided that streaming was a better experience is anyone’s guess, though once again it turns out that streaming broadcasts were as much as a full minute behind the linear broadcast which, TBH, was probably only really a problem if you were watching while checking Twitter.
• The success of the halftime show meant that ads running between the halftime show and the start of the third quarter had a completion rate of 99.5%
• Overall, commercial attention rate was 36% higher than the average across all networks and shows that day, though given the attention that Super Bowl ads get (not to mention the star-studded casts) maybe that’s not so surprising.

The good news for NBCU was that when Nielsen finally did release their ratings, as per the chart below, they were pretty much in line with the iSpot data, which provided advertisers with more granular feedback on how the ads (which they paid millions for) performed.

So, a win for NBCU in terms of proving that TV can indeed offer up digital-style metrics, for getting millions of people to pay to watch via Peacock and mostly for proving the value of live events as a way of both boosting linear ratings and creating a shared national experience, if only for a few hours.

As always, the ads during the game are in many ways an ad in and of themselves for the power of television advertising and its ability to use sight, sound and motion to create the sort of emotional connection you just can’t get from a banner ad.

Whether it leads to a boom in crypto investing is another story, but Larry David dressed as a Continental Congress member asking if “even the stupid ones” would be able to vote is something that will put a smirk on my face for many years to come.

What You Need To Do About It

If you have any interest, financial or otherwise, in linear TV, the game was a good proof point as to the value of live events on linear, regardless of how that linear TV is delivered. Just be aware though, that with the continued issues around tentpole awards shows like the Oscars and the Emmys, you’ll want to put some time and effort into promoting other events to tentpole status.

If you’re the Rams and the Bengals, well done. That was a great game and good entertainment all around.

If you’re Nielsen, props for acknowledging that something was off and coming back with the correct numbers. It’s such a better move than the Zuckerbergian “we have to try and do better.” You didn’t just try—you actually did.

If you are NBCU and iSpot keep on keeping on. Improving TV measurement so that it is more granular is key to stealing back budget from digital and you are off to a great start.

If you are Fox, and you have both Tubi and the rights to the next Super Bowl, time to figure out your alternative measurement strategy as well so that advertisers can continue to get more value out of the spots they are spending millions on.

2. ViacomCBS Is Now Paramount

ViacomCBS got out ahead of its Investor Day event by announcing a corporate name change to Paramount. The new name reflects their new priority, which is to double down on their array of streaming services, which now have a revised goal of 100 million streaming subs by 2024, a big jump from the previous goal of 65 to 75 million.

The company has been steadily adding subscribers, now has 56 million subscribers across all its properties, including 32.8 million on Paramount+, up from 16.5 million in Q1.

In addition, Pluto, the company’s popular FAST aggregator service added 10 million monthly active users (MAUs) globally. Bringing that total to 64 million while growing revenue by a whopping 45% YOY.

Why It Matters

Viacom said all the right things about its streaming properties: they will offer a combined Showtime/Paramount+ subscription, they are partnering with CanalPlus (the OG “Plus”) in France to expand internationally, they are going to stop giving away streaming rights to all of their properties (Yellowstone, which is on Peacock) and they’re even launching a new series in the Yellowstone franchise to be called 1932, they’re launching a new Star Trek movie and doubling down on a lot of Viacom’s kids properties, everything from Dora the Explorer to SpongeBob to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Much of which falls under the category of “what took you so long?”

The real story here though, is Pluto, as that is going to be Paramount’s ticket to all those emerging economies where people just don’t have the money to pay for a TV subscription.

Pluto, in addition to being a well-designed aggregator app, has rights to decades of very popular Viacom properties that will play very well on a FAST platform. 

There are all those MTV and VH1 shows, many of which are already international, plus all of Nickelodeon’s popular 90s and 00s kids shows. There’s the BET llibrary, Comedy Central, Showtime and, of course, CBS. Making for a very full service that will have much appeal throughout the world and can be used to, say upsell someone on a one-time mobile rental of the Star Trek movie.

FASTS are going to be the future of streaming, not just in emerging economies, but in the US and Europe as well. (Look out for an upcoming TVREV report on the FASTs this spring.)

What You Need To Do About It

If you are Paramount, well done. Next step is to more closely integrate Pluto, so that you have a three-tier system that more closely resembles what NBCU has done with Peacock—FAST, AVOD and SVOD. It’s the way of the future. Trust us.

If you are one of the other Flixes, time to reexamine your streaming strategy, especially if you want to compete globally.

If you’re a Millennial, rejoice—all your childhood favorites are being rebooted. Just in time for your kids to get hooked.