On Demand Weekly

CBS Polices TV On Demand As The Bad Girls Rampage The Top 10 (VOD TREND SPOTTER)April 25, 2011

VOD Trend Spotter is a new weekly column where Kendra Anderson explores the most watched TV Series On Demand. Sometimes the trends are obvious; other times, she adds her own spin to the psyche of the time-shifting audience.

CBS Polices TV On Demand As The Bad Girls Rampage The Top 10 (VOD TREND SPOTTER)
By Kendra Anderson

This Week In TV On Demand

1. Hawaii Five-O - CBS
2. NCIS- CBS
3. CSI: Miami- CBS
4. The Bad Girls Club - Oxygen
5. Survivor: Redemption Island - CBS
6. Blue Bloods - CBS
7. Parenthood - NBC
8. Tosh.0 - Comedy Central
9. CSI: New York- CBS
Source: Comcast Xfinity and Rentrak On Demand Essentials (Week Ending April 17, 2011)

• "NCIS" dominates the top 10 most watched series in TV On Demand for 5 consecutive weeks, typically breaking into the Top 5. CBS, the show’s home, has itself ranked consistently in the top 5 most watched networks (TVbytheNumbers) during primetime.
- The "NCIS" franchise is the most watched scripted series on TV (The Hollywood Reporter), and they’ve just signed up for 3 more years, suggesting that Americans aren’t tired of police procedurals. - KA

• Oxygen’s "Bad Girls Club" parks it in the Top 4 most watched in TV On Demand 5 weeks in a row.
- I am baffled by this trend, and heartened only by the fact that it’s beat out MTV’s "Teen Mom 2" during the same 5 weeks. - KA

• Comedy Central gets its basic cable moment in the sun with both "Tosh.O" and "South Park" trending in the top 10 most watched for 5 weeks and 4 weeks, respectively.
- "Tosh.O" (Comedy Central) got a huge boost when it posted the viral Rebecca Black (Comedy Central) video, and "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker just opened a new Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon. - KA

• In HD TV On Demand, CBS nearly shuts out all other networks, taking almost all the top slots for the past 5 weeks.
- Audiences can’t get enough of the "NCIS" and "CSI" franchises, which make up nearly 25% of HD On Demand viewing. - KA

- Kendra Anderson

Kendra T. Anderson is a digital strategist specializing in social media and marketing, with an emphasis on independent film and branded content. She has worked with Cinetic Media, Magnolia Pictures and Focus Features, and now helps brands build digital and social communication strategies. Read more from Kendra on her blog and tweet Kendra @ktwanderson

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Saying Goodbye to Our Favorite Boss (VOD Trend Spotter)May 02, 2011

VOD Trend Spotter is a new weekly column where Kendra Anderson explores the most watched TV Series On Demand (by looking at Comcast (America's largest cable VOD provider) xfinity On Demand's weekly rankings). Sometimes the trends are obvious; other times, she adds her own spin to the psyche of the time-shifting audience.

Saying Goodbye to Our Favorite Boss, While CBS Loses its Edge, and A Good (Police) Story Matters Here (VOD Trend Spotter)
By Kendra Anderson

This Week In TV On Demand

1. Game of Thrones – HBO
2. Hawaii Five-O – CBS
3. CSI: Miami – CBS
4. Bad Girls Club – Oxygen
5. Survivor: Redemption Island – CBS
6. The Office – NBC
7. CSI: Los Angeles – CBS
8. The Killing – AMC
9. Tosh.0 – Comedy Central
10. Nurse Jackie - Showtime

Source: Comcast Xfinity and Rentrak On Demand Essentials (Week Ending April 24th, 2011)

· NBC’s (NBC TV) “The Office” (Official Show Website) clocks in for both SD and HD (#6 and #3, respectively). This week marked Steve Carell’s (Wikipedia) last episode as Michael Scott (Wikipedia), the show’s bumbling-yet-loveable manager.

o How can there be an Office without Michael Scott? Will Ferrell (Wikipedia) won’t cut it, and there is tons of speculation (Daily Mail) as to who will be the next Dunder Mifflin (Wikipedia) appointee (Will Arnett, please!) (Wikipedia). To echo Dwight’s words at the end of the show, “Uh oh.” – KA

· Comcast is the first MSO to offer current TV shows from all 4 Major Broadcast networks On Demand (On Demand Weekly). Beginning last Thursday 4/28, more than 20 popular TV series from ABC and FOX began a roll out On Demand the day after live broadcast. Each of the major broadcast networks will offer the four most recent episodes from select TV series On Demand. (Engadget)

o In case you’ve been living under a rock (YouTube), this is an important announcement. First, other cable providers are going to need to step it up to match Comcast’s (Official Website) play – who will be next? Also, are we going to see a bump in popularity for shows on Fox (Official Website) and ABC (Official Website), which haven’t yet been available On Demand?. – KA

· WWE (WWE Official Website) announced a record 1 million PPV buys of annual showcase WrestleMania (Variety), a 30% increase over last year’s numbers. This year’s goal was reached through significant promotion by WWE alumni Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (IMDB) and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin (Wikipedia), in addition to “Jersey Shore’s” Snooki (Official Website).

o For pro wrestling fans, this actually is big news. Pay-Per-View is the primary option for audiences to see these live shows, and the margins are incredible – events typically run between $35 and $60 (Comcast), to watch live on your home screen. And WrestleMania is kind of like Sweeps (Wikipedia) for the rest of TV, so it’s good to know things are looking up for those among us who like violence. – KA

· CBS (CBS Official Website) lost some of its footing this week, owning only 40% of the top 10 series On Demand, compared to last week’s 67% (6/9) share. The network fared even worse in HD viewing – last week CBS stole 100% of the top spots, and this week, only 40%.

o CBS still hasn’t responded to my requests for comment on their insanely successful On Demand presence. I will fool myself and say it’s karma, but we really know this has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with Steve Carell. (The Atlantic) I’ll miss ya, buddy. – KA

· Welcome to the top 10, AMC. (AMC TV) This week their show “The Killing” (Official Show Website) put away the #8 spot On Demand. It’s the first live action scripted show from a basic cable network that’s made it into the top 10 series On Demand (since this column began).

o Guess what? “The Killing” is a police procedural. (Wikipedia) You remember how much America likes those, right? So while the show itself appearing in the lineup isn’t big, the fact that AMC gets On Demand props this week is. – KA

- Kendra Anderson

Kendra T. Anderson is a digital strategist specializing in social media and marketing, with an emphasis on independent film and branded content. She has worked with Cinetic Media, Magnolia Pictures and Focus Features, and now helps brands build digital and social communication strategies. Read more from Kendra on her blog and tweet Kendra @ktwanderson

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The Power of the Throne Reigns (VOD Trend Spotter)May 09, 2011

VOD Trend Spotter is a new weekly column where Kendra Anderson explores the most watched TV Series On Demand on Comcast / Xfinity On Demand (The US largest cable on demand provider). Sometimes the trends are obvious; other times, she adds her own spin to the psyche of the time-shifting audience.

The Power of the Throne Reigns (VOD Trend Spotter)
By Kendra Anderson

This Week In TV On Demand

1. Game of Thrones – HBO
2. Survivor: Redemption Island – CBS
3. Bad Girls Club – Oxygen
4. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – CBS
5. The Office – NBC
6. Blue Bloods – CBS
7. NCIS – CBS
8. Nurse Jackie – Showtime
9. The Borgias – Showtime
10. Hawaii Five-0 – CBS

Comcast Xfinity and Rentrak On Demand Essentials (Week Ending May 1st, 2011)

· For the 2^nd week in a row, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” rules in first place in On Demand viewing for both HD and SD. The series premiered on April 17^th, and since then has claimed sovereignty of #1.

o Ok, enough with the monarchy metaphors, but, surprisingly, the success of “Game of Thrones” was the only vestige of Royal Wedding Mania to be had this week. What happened to Middleton Madness? Did everyone just DVR the wedding? – KA

· For the first time since this column began, Comedy Central fell completely out of the week’s On Demand standings, with neither “Tosh.0” or “South Park,” the network’s go to series, making it into the top 10.

o Truthfully, I’ve been surprised that both shows have appeared in the Top 10 at all – each has a substantial online following: full, current episodes (South Park Studios) of South Park are available to stream for free, and Comedy Central’s Tosh.0 blog (Link) has tons of extras for fans. Also, the core college dude audience isn’t exactly the type to pay for cable. Still, I’m sorry to see the joy leave America’s TV screens this week. Maybe instead we got our comedic kicks from the White House Correspondents Dinner (Huffington Post). – KA

· Premium cable had a top shelf week in On Demand series, with HBO and Showtime collecting a total of 40% most watched spots in HD, and 30% in SD. Winning shows were Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” and “The Borgias,” and, as previously mentioned, HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”

o This lends credit to recent moves by premium cable to enter the On Demand space, in which they’re playing by their own rules. HBO Go, being called “the Netflix of HBO,” (CinemaBlend) gives subscribing customers access to content on any device, and ostensibly makes the network’s value proposition more attractive to potential customers. Remember, part of the digital arms race is providing audiences with the most premium content, and the best access. HBO has long been known to hold themselves to the highest standards in that department, suggesting “it’s not the other networks, it’s HBO” (Wikipedia). – KA

· Contrary to what I predicted last week, no other MSOs announced plans to round out On Demand offerings by including content from all four major broadcast networks. So Fox and ABC are still on the sidelines. The two nets did not see any traction in On Demand series viewing, despite the fact that many of their shows are newly available to this audience.

o Though the initial announcement may have boosted live ratings (TV By the Numbers) for ABC and Fox, many of their most popular shows are not available On Demand, so if we’re measuring popularity, maybe there is nothing to measure.

Why not make these shows available? A recent NY Times article points out that some popular series are not offered On Demand because networks never negotiated these rights with production studios, likely out of concern for a potential loss in ad revenue…and underscoring the fact that cable companies are pretty much freaking out right now as they face fierce competition from all things broadband and the dreaded Cord Cutters (GigaOM). – KA

· And in professional fighting news, WWE released its first quarter results (WWE Press Release) this week, showing revenues in the Classics On Demand category are down to $1.1 million, compared with $1.3 million during the same quarter last year. The decline is attributed to fewer domestic subscribers.

o First of all, wow. Do that many people really watch bulging, muscled pros duke it out whilst vegging on the couch with a bowl of popcorn? Every quarter? Research shows: “WWE is committed to family-friendly, PG content across all of its platforms,” (WWE Corporate) so maybe the answer to my question is YES.

- Kendra Anderson

Kendra T. Anderson is a digital strategist specializing in social media and marketing, with an emphasis on independent film and branded content. She has worked with Cinetic Media, Magnolia Pictures and Focus Features, and now helps brands build digital and social communication strategies. Read more from Kendra on her blog and tweet Kendra @ktwanderson

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Big Wins For VOD (VOD Trend Spotter)May 16, 2011

VOD Trend Spotter is a new weekly column where Kendra Anderson explores the most watched TV Series On Demand (by looking at Comcast (America's largest cable VOD provider) xfinity On Demand's weekly rankings). Sometimes the trends are obvious; other times, she adds her own spin to the psyche of the time-shifting audience.

Note: I will be traveling for the next two weeks and I won't be posting while I'm away, but will be back after Memorial Day.

Big Wins For VOD (VOD Trend Spotter)
By Kendra Anderson

This Week In TV On Demand

TV:
1. CSI: Miami - CBS
2. Hawaii Five-O - CBS
3. Game of Thrones - HBO
4. NCIS - CBS
5. South Park - Comedy Central
6. The Good Wife - CBS
7. The Voice - NBC
8. Survivor: Redemption Island - CBS
9. NCIS: Los Angeles - CBS
10. Bad Girls Club - Oxygen

HD TV:
1. CSI: Miami - CBS
2. Hawaii Five-O - CBS
3. NCIS - CBS
4. Game of Thrones - HBO
5. The Good Wife - CBS
Source: Comcast Xfinity and Rentrak On Demand Essentials (Week Ending May 8th, 2011)

• At last week's OnDemand Summit 3.0 (MSN), Rentrak announced that TV Entertainment is the fastest growing segment in On Demand watching, growing 31% year-over-year. The Movies-On-Demand category is also up, by 9.1%
⁃ What does it say about our collective attention span that we're watching more TV episodes than full length films? I'm sorry, you lost me there. What was I saying? - KA

• Cox Communications announced it's joining the fray of TV Everywhere by introducing TV Online, which expands viewing options for subscribers who can watch content on TV, On Demand, and now, online.
⁃ Still no word from other cable companies about providing content from all four major broadcast networks. It doesn't seem to matter, though, because content from Fox and ABC isn't registering in any of the most watched On Demand spots. - KA

• NBC's "The Voice" (Series Site) crescendoed into the 7th spot in most watched TV On Demand this week.
⁃ I can get behind this. At this point I think we're all sick of American Idol, so here's a refreshing alternative. And kudos to NBC for being the only broadcast network to keep fighting the good fight against CBS's total domination of On Demand. - KA

• Falling from grace is "Bad Girls Club," Oxygen's series that's consistently been in the top 5 most watched series On Demand. This week it's ranked #10.
⁃ America, are we finally coming to our senses? Look, I get that we're fascinated by the lives of crazy people, and smug that our own quotidian existence is so normal by comparison. But come on. If you're really that into watching people pummel each other, I suggest you turn on some WWE fighting. At least we know they're professionals. - KA

- Kendra Anderson

Kendra T. Anderson is a digital strategist specializing in social media and marketing, with an emphasis on independent film and branded content. She has worked with Cinetic Media, Magnolia Pictures and Focus Features, and now helps brands build digital and social communication strategies. Read more from Kendra on her blog and tweet Kendra @ktwanderson

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