by Tobias Fröhlich
What do you estimate, on which device do people most often consume video content?
Most of you are now probably thinking about the smartphone, possibly also the tablet or even the desktop PC. But you are wrong. Because in fact, television is still in the lead. And clearly so. As a recent analysis by Park Associate shows, people in the USA consume about 20 hours of video per week on TV (as of Q1 2020), which is 39 percent more than in Q3 2017. The corona pandemic also serves as a catalyst. By comparison, mobile consumption was about five hours of video per week in the first quarter of 2020; even less than the computer with ten hours.
And yes, the preference for television applies to Generation Z as well. For although TikTok, Instagram, and Co. are very popular with the younger generation, they too consume video content according to the motto "biggest screen possible". Our children don't necessarily want to watch all their videos on their smartphones - but often have no alternative. They lack the money for their own television set and the device in their living room is occupied by their old parents. Believe me, I have children myself and know what I am talking about 😉.
And indeed, the GenZ sees more when we count individual contents. Many small, short videos, but the length of stay, the depth takes place in front of the 10foot device.
The televisions are smart, the content, unfortunately, remains dumb
Mobile video consumption in Generation Z is growing by an impressive 100 percent every year. And this is due in part, but not only, to the lack of availability of a television of one's own. Because another problem is that GenZ is always looking for a personalized experience with opportunities for interaction and participation. And that is something they simply do not find on most television sets. Because although the devices are now smart in the TV segment as well, the content remains largely dumb.
We must change this and "tiktokinize" television from the ground up.
We must ensure that viewers can find everything they need on their television sets immediately. For example, if they are watching a football match, we must give them relevance at the touch of a button: missed highlights, statistics on teams and players, information on the context of the competition. And now it becomes important: not on the 2nd screen, this must be done on the 1st screen. This is exactly what we are aiming for at TVXRAY.
We want to make the content on a TV smart and thus prevent viewers from wandering off during the TV program, serving their own needs on an additional device. Because that is exactly the reason why our children, and often enough we ourselves as well, use smartphones during the actual TV program.
I will talk in more detail about the problem of first and second screens and how we can solve it in my next article.
