SLUniverse Forums - View Single Post

Wiz Nordberg · 07-30-2008, 06:30 PM

Thanks for the nice words, Michael!

I wanted to answer Aki's original question about SL viewership of SLCN as best I could. To be honest, the viewership is surprising us all the time, and before this posting I never really have revealed specific numbers about SLCN's viewership. The main reason is that such numbers are difficult to interpret and we hadn't collected enough data to really clearly state "trends" like we can now.

We have 7 inworld TV channels, such as Business, Sports, Lifestyle, etc. By far, these channels get more viewership than our website and iTunes combined. During June of this year, we had 120,000 viewers on our inworld channels. Considering that in December, this number was 38,000 and in March it was 63,600 we are seeing very rapid growth. We filter out erroneous views and viewers who watch for very short periods, so those numbers (more or less) reflect the actual audience.

In addition to those viewers in June, there were an additional 38,000 viewers who watched videos on our website or iTunes. So, a rough guess for June is that there are probably 150,000 SLCN viewers.

It's interesting to note that the viewership is predominantly inworld, and inworld viewers watch for a much longer period of time per-view than web viewers. I think a lot of inworld viewers watch SLCN the way they watch RL TV..... adjust your prims and appearance while watching "Tonight Live"? Maybe? We think so, and sort of think it's a new phenomenon to see video used in this way.

Viewership inworld is also heavily slanted toward live programming (all our shows are live), as well as music, sports, and lifestyle programming. For example, music/lifestyle/sports consumes 35.7% of our inworld viewership while business viewers are 4.6%. Clearly, people are here to get away from work, not indulge in more of it. 36% of viewers watch our live channel, which broadcasts our weekly shows live (12 of them) on Sunday and Monday, and the rest of the week rebroadcasts all the new shows.

On the web, viewership is driven by different things. For example, business users watch far more on the web, mainly because there is a large group of business users who "are interested" in virtual worlds, though not necessarily immersed inworld themselves. So, our website, and related websites like Robert Bloomfield's Metanomics.net, are for many a window "into" Second Life.

Inworld advertising is more and more effective. By far, the most glowing responses from advertisers have come from those who have had infomercials on our shopping channel. This isn't surprising as people who watch the shopping channel are very receptive to advertising. Advertisers on the rest of our channels have had good responses, but this is just getting started. Many of our shows are an hour long, and we are looking for ways to get advertisers products featured more prominently within shows, especially when their products are interesting to our producers themselves... there is nothing like a genuine endorsement by true believers.

Comparing SLCN to other user bases is a soft science. The numbers above are concrete viewer numbers. I suppose we could say (as some others have <g>) that SLCN exposes "millions of Second Life users to television every day!!!!!" Probably by some marketing stretch of the imagination this may be true, and I tend to leave that to the people who like to market. I like to measure. In fairness, Second Life numbers themselves are hard to interpret. How can there be 14 million users when there are only 40K to 50K on at any one time? Clearly, many of these users are either casual or long gone. So, we like to think of the "dedicated SL user base" as those who will take the time to sit inworld and watch videos and engage in their "second lives", and there are probably (our guess) no more than 1 million of those people.

I think that by any reasonable form of measurement, SLCN reaches more Second Life video viewers than any other single video medium, and we're growing quite rapidly. Until now, I haven't really been confident in the sustainability and predictability of some of these things, but all of the above are very predictable at this point, so I felt it was time to break the ice and answer your question as best I could.

I also have to add that none of this would be possible without the unbelievable efforts of those who produce our shows, like Paisley Beebe, Marktwain White, Saffia Widdershins, Robert Bloomfield, Cybergrrl Oh, Pooky Amsterdam, Jujudoll Dancer and many many others. All our shows are co-produced and we only do "our part". Show producers work harder and longer creating their shows than most people can imagine and our shows are weekly. That's a lot of work. Our primary goal is to make this all sustainable for our producers and ourselves. And to have fun along the way.

07-30-2008, 06:30 PM	#5 (permalink)
Wiz Nordberg Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 1	Thanks for the nice words, Michael! I wanted to answer Aki's original question about SL viewership of SLCN as best I could. To be honest, the viewership is surprising us all the time, and before this posting I never really have revealed specific numbers about SLCN's viewership. The main reason is that such numbers are difficult to interpret and we hadn't collected enough data to really clearly state "trends" like we can now. We have 7 inworld TV channels, such as Business, Sports, Lifestyle, etc. By far, these channels get more viewership than our website and iTunes combined. During June of this year, we had 120,000 viewers on our inworld channels. Considering that in December, this number was 38,000 and in March it was 63,600 we are seeing very rapid growth. We filter out erroneous views and viewers who watch for very short periods, so those numbers (more or less) reflect the actual audience. In addition to those viewers in June, there were an additional 38,000 viewers who watched videos on our website or iTunes. So, a rough guess for June is that there are probably 150,000 SLCN viewers. It's interesting to note that the viewership is predominantly inworld, and inworld viewers watch for a much longer period of time per-view than web viewers. I think a lot of inworld viewers watch SLCN the way they watch RL TV..... adjust your prims and appearance while watching "Tonight Live"? Maybe? We think so, and sort of think it's a new phenomenon to see video used in this way. Viewership inworld is also heavily slanted toward live programming (all our shows are live), as well as music, sports, and lifestyle programming. For example, music/lifestyle/sports consumes 35.7% of our inworld viewership while business viewers are 4.6%. Clearly, people are here to get away from work, not indulge in more of it. 36% of viewers watch our live channel, which broadcasts our weekly shows live (12 of them) on Sunday and Monday, and the rest of the week rebroadcasts all the new shows. On the web, viewership is driven by different things. For example, business users watch far more on the web, mainly because there is a large group of business users who "are interested" in virtual worlds, though not necessarily immersed inworld themselves. So, our website, and related websites like Robert Bloomfield's Metanomics.net, are for many a window "into" Second Life. Inworld advertising is more and more effective. By far, the most glowing responses from advertisers have come from those who have had infomercials on our shopping channel. This isn't surprising as people who watch the shopping channel are very receptive to advertising. Advertisers on the rest of our channels have had good responses, but this is just getting started. Many of our shows are an hour long, and we are looking for ways to get advertisers products featured more prominently within shows, especially when their products are interesting to our producers themselves... there is nothing like a genuine endorsement by true believers. Comparing SLCN to other user bases is a soft science. The numbers above are concrete viewer numbers. I suppose we could say (as some others have <g>) that SLCN exposes "millions of Second Life users to television every day!!!!!" Probably by some marketing stretch of the imagination this may be true, and I tend to leave that to the people who like to market. I like to measure. In fairness, Second Life numbers themselves are hard to interpret. How can there be 14 million users when there are only 40K to 50K on at any one time? Clearly, many of these users are either casual or long gone. So, we like to think of the "dedicated SL user base" as those who will take the time to sit inworld and watch videos and engage in their "second lives", and there are probably (our guess) no more than 1 million of those people. I think that by any reasonable form of measurement, SLCN reaches more Second Life video viewers than any other single video medium, and we're growing quite rapidly. Until now, I haven't really been confident in the sustainability and predictability of some of these things, but all of the above are very predictable at this point, so I felt it was time to break the ice and answer your question as best I could. I also have to add that none of this would be possible without the unbelievable efforts of those who produce our shows, like Paisley Beebe, Marktwain White, Saffia Widdershins, Robert Bloomfield, Cybergrrl Oh, Pooky Amsterdam, Jujudoll Dancer and many many others. All our shows are co-produced and we only do "our part". Show producers work harder and longer creating their shows than most people can imagine and our shows are weekly. That's a lot of work. Our primary goal is to make this all sustainable for our producers and ourselves. And to have fun along the way.