ListenFirst’s State of Social TV Report Provides Key Insights To Boost Strategy Performance

Native & Programmatic AdvertisingBuyer Insights

By STS News Desk On May 14, 2019

ListenFirst's State of Social TV Report Provides Key Insights To Boost Strategy Performance

TV social audience growth up 16% in Q1 2019, Social engagement up 6% for TV industry

ListenFirst, the most comprehensive social analytics solution for the enterprise, released its 2019 State of Social TV report with key insights into how consumers are engaging with TV properties on social media, the impact on TV arising from the changes in audience and content quality across social platforms, and the continued rise of Instagram. ListenFirst’s report details the rise in Instagram Stories, fan footprint and engagement, growth in YouTube subscribers and viewership for TV pages, and the uptick in Facebook organic reach and Twitter engagement after major declines.

“This report shows the effects that the various social platforms’ changes in the past year had on TV audiences; from Facebook’s algorithm change, to Twitter’s bot purge, to Instagram’s Stories enhancements,” says Jason Klein, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, ListenFirst. “The unique insights in this report can help TV networks understand and capitalize on the platforms, content types, and strategies which are thriving in the current social landscape.”

Key takeaways from the report include:

Instagram and YouTube leading in TV audience growth and interactions: TV pages saw their fan footprint grow 83% on Instagram and 211% on YouTube from Q1 2017 to Q1 2019, with Instagram engagement growing 123%, and YouTube video views up 135% during the same period
Organic reach on Facebook is on an upwards trend: Organic reach for content published by TV pages on Facebook dropped from 7.85% in January 2018 to a low of 3.66% in November 2018, but has since trended upwards, ending March 2019 at 5.86%; organic reach for branded content posted by TV pages was also up to 11.5% in Q1 2019, up from 9.5% in Q1 2017
Streaming networks outpace other networks in social engagement: Social engagement for streaming programs spiked 200% from Q1 2017 to Q1 2019, while Broadcast and Premium Cable programs grew by 55% and 69%, respectively, during the same period
On Instagram, organic reach dips slightly, but the platform is still growing fast: Despite organic reach for content published by TV pages declining slightly in 2018, from 27.85% in January 2018 to 23.78% in March 2019, Instagram continues to grow with 156% more Stories posted by TV pages in Q1 2019 compared to Q1 2018 and the number of TV programs posting Instagram Stories up 74%
Top 5 TV Programs by Interest Score in Q1 2019: Game of Thrones, HBO (9.1M); The Umbrella Academy, Netflix (6.5M); You, Netflix (4.3M); Shadowhunters, Freeform (4.2M); Riverdale, The CW (3.7M)
Top 5 TV Network Roll-Ups by Social Engagement Score in Q1 2019: ESPN (564.5M), E! Network (204.4M), ABC (202M), NBC (199.7M), Netflix (187.5M)