Broadcast doesn’t have a ‘fragmentation’ problem. It has a TikTok problem

Opinion: 100% Media 0% Nonsense

TikTok is not simply a substitute of viewers’ attention from traditional media formats. The rise in demand for ‘snackable’ content presents a much bigger cultural shift, writes the editor.

When you grasp your remote control or find something to watch on your smartphone, do you see a “buffet” of media choices?

This was the exact analogy made by Ofcom’s research chief last week as the regulator unveiled its latest annual Media Nations report. Of course if you’re reading this column you know this report is a big deal, but, in case you need context, it’s “basically Christmas for media planners”, according to media agency EssenceMediacom’s strategy chief Richard Kirk.

Read The Media Leader’s report for a snapshot of the findings and read the full thing here, but in essence it’s yet more bad news for broadcast linear TV, which is falling even quicker than it was before.

But streaming services also saw declines in subscribers. People have been cutting back on luxuries such as pay TV amid spiralling inflation and rising interest rates.

Despite there being lots of choice on today’s media menu, the data suggests we should have strong doubts over whether consumers are still interested in having a balanced diet.

Attention: competition or reinvention?

It’s almost become cliché to suggest that broadcasters are having to deal with a fragmentation of audiences as more online players challenge fewer offline incumbents.

But Media Nations paints an even worse picture.

It’s becoming quite clear is that all media is being threatened by the ubiquity of short-form, or snackable content. Short-form video (which Media Nations classes as videos shorter than 10 minutes) was watched daily by nearly four in 10 (38%) of online adults in Great Britain aged 15+, from late 2022 to early 2023.

Let that sink in for a second — nearly four in 10 people you know are watching short-form videos every day.

And, let’s face it: if you work in media or advertising, it’s probably more like nine in 10 (we’ve known for a while that this industry is “not normal” when it comes to media habits).

If you strip out people aged 15-24, the number of people watching short-form every day doesn’t rise that much: 68% of 15-24-year-olds claimed to watch short-form videos daily. Nor does it dwindle all that much for those aged over 65: over one in seven (14%) of this older cohort claims to watch short-form content every day.

‘Just one more video’

It’s at this point that someone from ITV or Sky is reading this and rolling their eyes.

Perhaps because they think:
a) social media content is mostly rubbish; or
b) time spent on TV is still much bigger (2 hours 38 minutes for broadcast TV); or
c) the big broadcasters’ VOD services, namely BBC iPlayer and ITVX, are seeing double-digit are showing strong growth.

That all may be true, but the “competition for attention” story is more dramatic than users switching from ‘linear’ telly to on-demand online streaming. That trend has already been happening for a while.

What’s more, the fact that Netflix and Disney+ have both launched cheaper subscription options with ads should remind you that:
a) the plateau already came last year; and
b) consumers are much more price sensitive and the streamers can’t rely on price increases to keep growing.

Yes, we’ve had YouTube for nearly two decades. But we didn’t have TikTok.

And TikTok’s user experience is extremely effective at getting people to watch ‘just one more video’ — it’s preference-weighted algorithm is like crack cocaine for the young, attention-deficient mind, with an endless cycle of short-form videos, which generally last for between 15 and 60 seconds.

I don’t use the comparison with crack lightly: TikTok is highly addictive.

The ‘For You’ page is designed for you to scroll through an endless amount of targeted videos. There is no waiting time in between each video, all users need to do is swipe to watch the next one. Compare that to YouTube, where users only watch a short amount of videos that are often longer in duration and contain ads.

Is it any wonder that Tiktok said this year it would introduce a one-hour a day limit feature for young people, in an effort to improve their wellbeing?

TikTok is not simply a substitute for makers of TV and movies. It’s a potential destroyer.

A media nation of snackers

So the real ‘buffet of media choices’ looks like this.

On one side of the room, you have some very big counters with some big, expensive-looking meals prepared by a team of chefs. You can either pay for your meal outright or have it discounted by being interrupted with ads (professionally produced ads that show up at reasonable times between courses).

On the other side of this dining hall, you have a load of beanbags where food is just thrown at you relentlessly — who knows where most of the food is made, a lot of it tastes horrible, but some of it is great.

What’s so seductive about the low-quality side? It’s always FREE and you don’t have to choose — an algorithm does it for you. It’s like playing a content slot machine — I wonder what will happen next?! And sometimes it’s not even clear what’s advertising and what’s not.

In short, viewers are transitioning from meal-eaters to snackers. The media equivalents of restaurants need to be on alert.

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