Reconfiguring the “Hits”: The New Portrait of Television Program Success

in the Social Media Era

Allie Kosterich @allkost

Rutgers University School of Communication & Information

The World Media Economics and Management Conference New York, NY May 3, 2016

Hypotheses

Theoretical Framework Method Results Conclusion

H1: The “hit” television programs portrayed by social TV analytics will compose a greater variety of genres than the “hit” television programs portrayed by traditional Nielsen ratings.

H2: The “hit” television programs portrayed by social TV analytics will compose a greater diversity of network sources than the “hit” television programs portrayed by traditional Nielsen ratings.

H3: There will be greater performance volatility within the “hit” television programs portrayed by social TV analytics than within those portrayed by traditional Nielsen ratings.

Theoretical Framework Method Results Conclusion

Genre

Theoretical Framework Method Results Conclusion

Table at left: Genres represented by TV’s “hits” (n = 1040).

Table at right: Weekly charting placement for each genre.

Notes: All figures are mean shows/week; standard deviation indicated as s.d.

***Sig. at p < 0.01 **Sig. at p < 0.05 *Sig. at p < .10

Source

Table at left: Diversity according to program source (n = 1040).

Table above: Charting placement for different network sources. Notes: All figures are means, standard deviation indicated as s.d. *Significant at p < 0.01

Theoretical Framework Method Results Conclusion

Volatility

Table above: Volatility in the number one position.

Notes: All figures are means, standard deviation indicated as s.d. **Significant at p < 0.05

Theoretical Framework Method Results Conclusion

Discussion - Social TV analytics as information source for programming and ad-buying decision-making.

-  Greater array of content? -  More competitive landscape? -  Greater diversity of successful program sources?

-  Future Research: -  More comprehensive approach to assessing volatility. -  Examination of the extent to which social TV analytics are integrated into content production, development, and distribution decision-making routines. -  Analysis of future content genres and sources picked up to air; analysis of ad prices for content.

Theoretical Framework Method Results Conclusion

Thank You! Allie Kosterich

@allkost