For many MECers Monday evenings are conquered by Game of Thrones fever. Tuesday mornings are spent debating the intricacies of Westeros war politics, the mystery of who killed Joffrey and whether winter will ever actually arrive.
But for many, the appointment to view time slot doesn’t fit in to busy schedules. Here in AV we are always striving to understand the constantly evolving patterns of viewer behavior and new developments in the market, and how this will affect viewer engagement with TV content.
Sky have provided some interesting viewing patterns for the first episode of the new series. It premiered simultaneously with live broadcast in the US, at 2am GMT on Monday 7th April, and was repeated at 9pm the same day. The chart below demonstrates the growth of viewing figures across the many platforms Sky provides.
9,000 individuals watched the live simulcast cast at 2am, with more than 40 times that number recording the 2am premier and watching it as live on the same day (Viewing On Same Day As Live). A further 170,000 watched the 2am recorded programme within a 9 day time period (Time-Shifted viewing).
The 9pm premier was watched live by 406,000 individuals, but nearly double that amount recorded the episode and watched it later (Prem VODSAL and TS)
Viewing of repeats, the On Demand and Sky Go services increased impacts by a further 677,000 to accumulate to a total figure of almost 2.5 million viewers.
This highlights the mandate for convenient on demand viewing that suits diverse audience needs. Time-shifted viewing, On Demand and the mulit-platform Sky Go service allows Sky to increase their viewership far beyond the appointment to view audience at live broadcast.