Role of Data Analytics in the Media and Entertainment Industry - White Paper

Media and Entertainment
Role of Analytics in Making
Better Content Decisions
WHITEPAPER

2
Role of Analytics in Making Better Content Decisions
Traditionally, the Customer is King
phrase referred to good customer
service, but it has evolved to mean
much more. Today, customers want to
be presented with the best offering. As
a result, businesses should be aware of
their power and influence across online
and social media platforms, about how
they dictate the terms and standards
to businesses, how things can be made
easier and simpler for them, and ways
in which they can participate in the
journey and development of the final
product. Therefore, in today’s digital
era, customers hold all the power in
business.
Analytics allows businesses to make
sound decisions related to a product
based on better planning, data insights,
and customers’ behavioral patterns.
In the context of the media and
entertainment industry, data analytics
is used to track viewers’ leanings and
habits to predict successful content,
and to understand how audiences
consume content.
Media companies gather this data by
tracking social media conversations,
through website traffic analysis
and customer surveys. Additionally,
analytics is used to shield against
piracy, target advertising, and control
contracts and rights.
Introduction
Introduction
Role of Analytics in the Media and Entertainment
Industry
Organizations that develop strategic visions around social
media chatter, streaming video on demand services,
and gaming content will stand to gain today and in the
future. According to a McKinsey report, streaming will be
very different for consumers by 2030.
Streaming Services – Content Consumption
Patterns
•
As technologies evolve, there will be one universal
marketplace for content in the next decade. As a result,
there will be abundant content from across the world,
which will be accessible to customers across countries
and languages. The trend of purchasing global rights
will also continue. For instance, Indian shows have
begun infusing global casts to make their stories reach
everywhere.
•
Media companies will increase their focus on an
audience network rather than just siloed individuals.
These networks or enclaves consist of several clusters,
communities, and groups with shared interests and
experiences. Data analytics will enable organizations
to dig into these subtle and complex structures and
identify the otherwise invisible patterns that confirm
that a storyteller has an audience. These underlying
patterns also reveal new connections and suggest why
a story or storyteller could be an audience favorite.
•
The relationship between analytics and creativity
will continue to grow, leading to richer content while
meeting the interests of niche audiences. For instance,
teen movies directed by the likes of John Hughes, Tim
Hunter, Lisa Gottlieb, and Wes Craven were extremely
popular once. Later, teen TV shows like Gilmore Girls,
Glee, and others were trending. However, soon after,
teen movies were not even made for that audience.
The US streaming service provider Netflix identified this
rift and concluded that parents could use teen movies
for kids to juggle between tasks.
•
Streaming services continue to gain traction and were
the most favored option for TV viewing compared to
cable and broadcast in December 2022, according
to Nielsen Insight. Additionally, originals gained
prominence by outperforming acquired content with
Netflix’s Stranger Things holding the top spot among
all programs and originals in December 2022. Nielsen’s
Streaming unwrapped: 2022 was the year of original
content further finds that Americans streamed over
19.4 million years of content in 2022, an increase of 27%
from 2021.

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Table 1: 2022 Top 15 Streaming Programs
(Originals)
Program Name Originator Episodes
Mins
viewed
(Billions)
1 Stranger Things Netflix 34 52.0
2 Ozark Netflix 44 31.3
3 Wednesday Netflix 8 18.6
4 Cobra KAI Netflix 50 16.7
5 Bridgerton Netflix 16 14.0
6 Virgin River Netflix 42 13.6
7 Dahmer Netflix 10 13.4
8 Love is Blind Netflix 40 13.1
9 Inventing Anna Netflix 9 12.9
10 The Crown Netflix 50 12.7
11 The Boys Prime Video 24 10.6
12
Great British Banking
Show
Netflix 85 10.6
13 The Umbrella Academy Netflix 30 10.5
14 The Last Kingdom Netflix 46 10.4
15 The Rings of Power Prime Video 8 9.4
Source: Nielsen
Table 2: 2022 Top 15 Streaming Programs
(Overall)
Program Name Originator Episodes
Mins
viewed
(Billions)
1 Stranger Things Netflix 34 52.0
2 Ncis Various 356 38.1
3 Cocomelon Netflix 18 37.8
4 Ozark Netflix 44 31.3
5 Encanto Disney+ 1 27.4
6 Greys Anatomy Netflix 396 26.8
7 Criminal Minds Various 328 24.9
8 Bluey Disney+ 114 21.1
9 Gilmore Girls Netflix 153 20.8
10 Seinfeld Netflix 176 19.3
11 Supernatural Netfilx 328 18.8
12 Wendesday Netflix 8 18.6
13 Heartland Netflix 225 18.0
14 Cobra Kai Netflix 50 16.7
15 The Simpsons Disney+ 667 15.9
Source: Nielsen
Representative content has a direct effect on viewership.
Relatable content or stories are powerful because they
increase audience engagement, a key element of an
ever- changing industry that offers diverse content
choices. According to a Nielsen study, about 53% stated
that they preferred to watch inclusive content. The study
also found that among the 326 highly bingeable content
from the total of more than 973 streaming titles, 232
(over 71%) were inclusive of one or more racial groups.
Another insight from the same study highlights that
customers do not know what they want to watch when
they start looking for programs on a streaming service.
Irrelevant content options and the growth in the volume
of programs and platforms impact the time viewers
spend on searching rather than watching. This results in
their switching to other services to find their choice of
content.
Source: Nielsen
December 2022
Total Day
Persons 2+
Broadcast
24.7%
Cable
30.9% Other
6.3%
Streaming
38.1%
10.7%
8.7%
7.5%
3.4%
2.7%
1.9%
1.4%
1.0%
0.8%
Other Streaming

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Figure 2: Average Number of Minutes to Make a Streaming Selection
Source: Nielsen
Among adults 18+
increase
From March 2019
March 2019 October 2022
18 - 32
35 - 49
50 - 64
65+
12:39
12:40
9:00
8:24
32%
Audience age
Time spent in
October 2022
% increase since
March 2019
51%
84%
68%
52%
7:24
11:16
Social Media Chatter – Identifying Customers’
Content Preferences
Social media chatter enables brands to understand their
audiences better and improve their brand messaging
impact by tracking various metrics like hashtags, brand
mentions, and keywords. It also includes concepts like
social media monitoring and listening to understand a
brand’s performance in comparison to its competitors,
while ensuring when and how a piece of content can
make the cut.
Social media analytics helps media and entertainment
businesses in:
•
Identifying trends in terms of reach, impressions, and
customer sentiment,
•
Comprehending conversations and extracting
feedback from audience comments,
•
Analyzing customer sentiment (tone and intent) and
how it evolves,
• Evaluating responses and feedback around the content
and tech to ensure that both content and content
delivery are in check,
•
Identifying positives and negatives from a trailer, teaser,
and show and likewise through audience chatter,
reactions, and reach,
•
Investigating competitors’ views, and
•
Understanding ways in which third-party partners and
networks can impact performance.
Some programs like Game of Thrones, Desperate
Housewives, and Grey’s Anatomy were based on
appointment viewing – same time, same day, every
week model. However, Netflix changed the paradigm
by introducing its original series House of Cards in
2013, leading to the concept of binge watching against
the weekly drip feeding. However, despite the instant
fulfillment and control, the binge trend is losing its appeal
due to the lack of anticipation and time-to-process
feeling, which viewers would want to savor in a week. As
a result, the shift from traditional appointment viewing to
binge viewing has not been as successful as expected
or long-lived as streamers like HBO Max, Disney+, and
Netflix now push to return to weekly releases. Meanwhile,
a mix of both models seems ideal for exercising flexibility
with content planning and execution.
The binge-watching model, characterized by the ability to
watch multiple episodes all at once, gained prominence
between 2015 and 2020. Additionally, the current level of
such viewing patterns is expected to be higher than just
before the pandemic lockdowns that witnessed varied
types of viewing. Interestingly, this trend has also led to a
shift from personal screens to living room watching, while
the definition of what people do while watching, and
why and when they watch shows has also significantly
changed. For instance, surveys suggest that many Netflix
viewers watch shows just for background noise, and
others for company or as a part of their sleep routines.

5
KPIs Used to Measure Content Performance –
Streaming and Broadcast
Streaming services use various key performance
indicators (KPIs) to evaluate overall performance. These
KPIs include time spent on the platform, engagement
rate, retention rate, user lifetime value, churn rate, ad
engagement rate, net promoter score (NPS), and other
metrics.
Additionally, content or video consumption on streaming
and broadcast programs is gaged based on the following
characteristics:
•
Bingeability: To deduce how many episodes audiences
watch on their TVs daily to calculate viewers’ tendency
to watch several episodes on a non-stop basis.
•
Loyalty: To understand how much of available content
is watched every month, in minutes (time) and
percentage, to detect viewers’ stickiness with a show.
•
Show Similarity: To identify shows that resemble other
shows based on the theme, historical performance,
and audiences.
•
Content Stickiness: To understand the amount of time
spent on diverse types of content, the stickiness of the
audience on a particular content episode over episode
for a series, and the percentage of content length
viewed for a trailer, teaser, and movie.
•
Reactions on the Content: To analyze the type of
audience reactions on newly launched shows, promos,
movies, trailers, and teasers.
•
Percentage of Positive Engagement: While
engagement is a powerful metric, it is important to
view positive engagement to ensure that audiences
are receiving the content well. Contrarily, the content
should not gain engagement for the wrong reasons,
controversies, or inferior quality.
The above comparison by Nielsen, for example, finds
that viewers were more hooked on The Lincoln Lawyer
(May 2022) than Inventing Anna (February 2022). While
Netflix has plans to release Season 2 of the former show,
the latter was a limited series. However, Netflix and its
creators could introduce a second season for Inventing
Anna as well, given the traction of its loyalty and binge
scores.
Table 3: A Look at Loyalty and Binge Scores: Inventing Anna and the Lincoln Lawyer
Source: Nielsen
Inventing Anna The Lincoln Lawyer
Debut date Feb. 11, 2022 May 13, 2022
Platform Netflix Netflix
Episodes 9 10
Loyalty score 0.34 0.78
Binge score 2.1 3.5

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SG Analytics (SGA) is a pioneer in the use of analytics and technology to create valuable,
relevant, and reliable insights. The company has enabled its clients to gather audience
intelligence around their and their competitors’ services to make better marketing strategies.
The company’s weekly streaming app buzz insights report for clients, for example, showcases
the voice of customers along with recommendations around marketing and content
improvement strategy. This is a call-to-action (CTA) on improving content promotions on
social media platforms, gaining awareness about the negative sentiments that may impact
their viewership, and understanding the reception of content.
Conclusion
Figure 3: Total Global Video Games Revenue, by Segment (US$bn)
Note: 2021 is the latest available data, 2022-2026 value are forecasts.
Source: PwC’s Global Entertainment Media Outlook 2022-2026, Omdia
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
67.7
83.2 103.9
132.9
148.0 167.0
185.8
204.7
223.8
242.7
25.5
27.3
28.9
31.3
33.7
35.2
36.9
38.6
40.4
42.2
23.8
25.0
25.6
28.6
28.3
29.2
30.0
30.6
31.1
31.5
120.4
139.2
162.4
196.9
214.2
235.7
257.1
278.4
299.9
321.1
Social/casual gaming PC games Console games Integrated video games advertising
Gaming offers social, multi-player experiences, while
directly monetizing content developments. As it paves its
way to the metaverse, new digital advertising, and brand
and entertainment interests, it is expected to compete
directly with streaming video. More subscription video
on demand (SVOD) companies, as a result, will prioritize
gaming through procurements or IP deals. They will also
leverage content creators and social media to create
viral trends and increase audience engagement.
Gaming will be embodied across the media and
entertainment sector
Gaming will play a critical role across the media and
entertainment sector in 2023 and beyond. It will also
highlight communities and fandoms in expanding
entertainment licenses. According to PwC’s Global
Entertainment Media Outlook 2022–2026, social
and casual gaming is driving a boom in the media and
entertainment industry.

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About the Author
PRARTHNA TIGA • Senior Analyst - Product – iNAVA
Prarthna Tiga is part of the Business Operations, technology data intelligence
team at SG Analytics. She has over 7 years of experience in market research
and publishing. Prior to joining SG Analytics, she was part of the technology
and media teams at GlobalData. Prarthna holds a Master’s degree in English
Literature and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce. She is keen about charitable
services, and is an avid reader, traveller, and sports enthusiast and can be
found playing basketball or badminton in her free time.

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