Why streaming social media platforms should look to music, sports and kids content
The below is written by Guy Bisson of Ampere Analysis, and is part of a new monthly series for Found Remote. Founded in January 2015, Ampere Analysis is a new breed of media analyst firm. The company’s experienced team of sector-leading industry analysts specialises in pay and multiscreen TV and next generation content distribution. The company's founders have more than 40 years’ combined experience of providing data, forecasts and consulting to the major film studios, telecoms and pay TV operators, technology companies, TV channel groups and investment banks.
Live streaming platforms are hot right now and they’re moving increasingly into professional content with rights deals that, not that long ago, would have been the domain of traditional broadcasters. Snapchat’s recent three-year agreement to share live moments from the Wimbledon tennis tournament and Twitter’s deal with the NFL in the US are indicative of a directional change in rights dynamics in this sector.
The strategy makes sense. Our consumer research shows that the ‘lost’ Generation Z segment over-index for (skew towards most heavily) video sharing and streaming apps like Instagram, Vine, Periscope and Snapchat. It also shows that the profile of these app users skews heavily towards Gen Z and younger Millennials in age and profile. Reaching this audience is key.
Getting the content mix right will be crucial though. It’s interesting that an analysis focused specifically on users of social video apps (Vine, Periscope, Facebook Video, Snapchat) pushes sport to the fore as we’ve generally found sport to be a less important driver for the most connected millennials than for the older traditional pay TV subscriber.
Other genres are also important though, with music a stand-out favourite. Music is, of course, also incredibly well placed for live streaming so deals in this sector seem inevitable. Children’s content is also important to this segment as is another genre well suited to live streaming:
Device-wise, this group of users favours Apple and Samsung tablets and phones but are also heavily connected through games consoles of all kinds as well as OTT streamers like Apple TV and Chromecast.
What’s clear is that live broadcast TV is not dead for this segment, it’s just moved to platforms with a social and sharing focus.
The results on this data are based on a survey of 10,500 people across 10 countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Respondents were all aged under 65, living in households with Internet access. It was conducted online in February 2016.