The Television Bureau of Canada has released what it says are the first statistics on viewership of broadcast distributors’ video-on-demand (VOD) platforms, which show an additional four to nine per cent of viewers use VOD to watch TV series. TVB said an additional nine per cent of the sitcoms’ live TV audience watched the shows on VOD, while prime-time dramas had an additional audience of six per cent and daytime programs had an additional four per cent. Of those additional VOD viewers, 65 to 70 per cent hadn’t watched the program’s original broadcast on live TV, it...
If 2013 was the year that the idea of binge-watching as a phenomenon hit the mainstream, then 2014 may be the year that traditional broadcasters seriously get into the game. Broadcasters in Canada and the U.S. are buying up the rights to offer complete seasons of television shows on their websites, mobile TV and video-on-demand platforms, in an effort to help curb cord-cutting and to open up new advertising opportunities, including targeted ads. “The natural process of renegotiation...