It’s still early days, but The Bachelor NZ has thus far performed well for MediaWorks, particularly in the 25-54 category that media agencies prioritise when purchasing ad slots.
According to Nielsen’s online ratings, the show has attracted over 100,000 viewers aged between 25 to 54 in each of the episodes that have screened to date.
The show’s first episode, which fell on 17 March, has thus far attracted its biggest total audience of 278,000 for viewers aged five and older. And although this was lower than the 330,000 posted by Our First Home, MediaWorks will no doubt be pleased that The Bachelor attracted 40,000 more viewers than the TVNZ show in the 25-44 category (The Bachelor attracted 156,000 viewers to Our First Home’s 116,000).
The show’s viewership dropped to 108,000 (in the 25-54 category) on 18 and 24 March, but these ratings still weren’t bad when considering that Our First Home attracted only 58,000 viewers in this key demographic on 24 March.
On 25 March, the ratings lifted again as The Bachelor attracted 287,000 viewers overall, 138,000 of which fell into the 25-54 category.
MediaWorks group head of corporate comms says that these ratings were further consolidated by the high number of streams the show has tallied on 3Now.
“As of today, there have been 167,950 streams of the first four episodes of The Bachelor, which equates to an average of 41,987 streams per episode – though of course there have been more streams of earlier episodes,” says Lorimer. “By comparison, there have been 381,698 streams of the first 14 episodes of The X Factor NZ so far this year – which is higher than at the same stage in season one.”
Lorimer says that these statistics include only full episode streams, and that the numbers are pushed even higher when shorter clips are taken into consideration.
Due to the continued growth of the on-demand platform, group head of revenue Liz Fraser recently told StopPress that the MediaWorks is currently looking into introducint a registration model to its on-demand platform.
“To be able to capture that data is very valuable for our clients and partners,” she says.
Lorimer adds that this will help to further consolidate the customer database MediaWorks already has.
“Across all our platforms, we have a database of over two million people,” explains Lorimer. “On lots of our websites, people sign in when the enter a competition or because they want to engage by sharing their opinion. The Edge has a fantastic database of listeners who jump on the website and get involved.”
Because of this level of insight, Lorimer says that the subscriber model is not “mandatory” but rather a complementary addition to the MediaWorks offering.
“The more you can know about your customers the better,” she says.
This motivation led to TVNZ introducing a registration model to its on-demand platform earlier this year, and the government-backed broadcaster’s head of digital Thor Bayer says that the service is going well thus far.
“Since the re-launch, viewer favourites such as Shortland Street and Home and Away continue to perform well, as have a number of dramas such as Broadchurch, How to Get Away with Murder, The Walking Dead, and Grey’s Anatomy. MKR Australia has also been a top pick for viewers.”
Bayer was asked how many viewers had registered for the service thus far, but he replied saying that these statistics are commercially sensitive.