2009 Year in Review
In our first full calendar year of national measurement, ESPN Deportes finished 2009 as the highest-rated/most-watched Spanish language sports network and the 2nd highest-rated/most-watched Spanish language cable network.
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Source: Nielsen Media Research NHIH, 12/29/08-12/27/09, live+sd (Total Day=M-Su 6am-6am)
Overview
The Seven Principles of Cross-Media Research help ensure that ESPN understands cross-media behavior to better serve the fan, but these principles are not unique to ESPN; they can be applied across all media.
“The media pie is growing, giving us new markets of time in which to reach people. While earlier speculation focused on convergence, our research shows people are using different media platforms at different times, in different places for different purposes. In ESPN’s case, fans will use the best available screen to view the game, catch the highlights or get score updates.”
Glenn Enoch,
Vice President,
Integrated Media Research,
ESPN
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1. New Media Create New Strata of Users
When new technology is introduced, for those who adopt it, it becomes a part of a matrix where people own and use very complex combinations of technologies. The challenge we face is untangling the increasingly complex combinations of cross-media behavior.
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Source: Nielsen September 2009
2. No New Metrics
Cross-media research does not require new metrics — it requires metrics that unite behavior across different platforms. It is important to evaluate how many people are using combinations of media and for what length of time they are using each platform.
Three basic measures have informed all of our analysis. They may be called different things in different media, but they have the same meaning:
- How Many
- How Often
- How Long
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3. Focus On Users and Usage
Both Users and Usage are valuable metrics in analyzing cross-media behavior, and we looked at both of these at every level of our analysis.
For example, about 40% of the persons who watch ESPN Deportes in any given month (Users) are female. This audience profile is accurate but misleading — it represents the contributors but not their contribution. If we look at who is viewing ESPN Deportes (Usage), we find that the male half is contributing 80% of the minutes, and females contribute the remaining 20%.
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Source: Nielsen NHIH, July 2009
4. A Heavy User is a Heavy User
A heavier user of one medium tends to be a heavier user of other media as well. For example, a person who is a heavy Internet user will tend to watch more TV than average, listen to radio more than average, and so forth. This finding was consistent across all studies and applies both to sports fans and media users in general.
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Source: Nielsen Convergence Panel July 2009, Hispanic
5. Cross-Media Usage is not Zero-Sum
Doing one media behavior more does not mean doing another behavior less because the media pie is getting bigger. ESPN research call this idea
New Markets of Time. Twenty or thirty years ago, media was constrained top specific locations and to limited usage opportunities. With digital media, these constraints are lifted — we can consume media throughout the day, wherever we are.
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Source: Multimedia Mentor (KN/SRI) Fall 2008, Hispanic
Other sources include: Internet, Radio, Magazine and Newspaper
6. Simultaneous Usage is Widespread but Limited
Hispanics are using multiple media, but they’re not often doing so at the same time. Simultaneous use is a widespread behavior – almost half of Hispanics persons in Nielsen’s Convergence Panel watched TV and used the Internet at the same time at least once during July 2009.
However, this behavior didn’t represent much of their total media usage. Almost three quarters of minutes spent using the Internet at home were done while not watching TV, and only 4% of TV viewing occurred while using the Internet.
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Source: Nielsen Convergence Panel July 2009, Hispanic
7. Best Available Screen
ESPN Deportes fans (and Hispanics in general) are using different media platforms at different times and in different places for different purposes. They are choosing the best available screen for their location.
For ESPN Deportes, “best available screen” means that cross-media behavior isn’t about convergence — it’s about the opportunity to follow the sports consumer throughout the day, fulfilling specific needs and building touch points.
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Source: Nielsen Media Research (TV), Omniture (Web/Mobile) Week of July 20-26, 2009;
Arbitron (Radio) Based on Cume Spring 2009