The timeshifted viewing cycle of television programmes after their linear broadcast in Spain

Abstract

This research examines the timeshifted viewing cycle of television shows in Spain after their (traditional) linear broadcast. Two hypotheses guide the study: H1: the timeshifted viewing cycle of TV programmes depends on the genre and it is shorter in the case of programmes dealing with news and current events; H2: the timeshifted viewing of fiction shows is the most distributed after their day of broadcast and this justifies extending of measurement of viewership beyond the eighth day. The study is based on the analysis of the 10 shows with the highest timeshifted audience in Spain of every day for nine months, which yielded a sample of 2,750 units. The results confirmed both hypotheses and led us to conclude that the timeshifted viewing of all genres decreases as the days pass by, and that this decrease is faster for current-events-based genres and non-existent for children’s programming. We propose improvements for the current audience measurement system in Spain. Finally, the general objective of the research is to analyse for the first time the evolution of the timeshifted TV audience according to genres, taking into account that the data provided by Kantar Media registers audience over an eight-day period: the day of broadcast (VOSDAL: Viewing On The Same Day As Live) plus the following 7 days