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Fans
Of Big Brother 3 Are Watching Online...But The Question
Is, How Many?
(Photo Courtesy
CBS Entertainment, 2002)
Written
By Rick Ellis, August 21st, 2002
Fans of the
CBS reality series Big Brother 3 were no doubt excited
this morning when they woke up to find the press touting the success
of the show's live streaming video feeds. In the ratings-dominated
world of television, the average person no doubt equates an increase
in subscriber numbers with an increase in viewership. But it's
not that clear-cut. It's easy to track a viewer in the off-line
world (you're either watching or not watching a television). However,
the technology of video streaming makes the task of tracking online
audiences much less precise.
Take, for
instance, Wednesday morning's broadcast of CBS' The Early Show.
In a piece on this week's Sheryl Crow concert inside the Big
Brother house, Julie Chen told viewers that "Real Networks--which
provides the Big Brother streaming video for CBS.com--says that
more than three-quarters of a million people logged on" to watch
the live webcast of the concert. It's a figure larger than the
audience for many niche cable networks. Which made me wonder if
it was indeed an accurate number.
A spokesman
for Real Networks was initially unable to confirm the figure,
telling me "this is first time I've heard that number." In fact,
the spokesperson went on to note the 750,000 figure is also the
total number of subscribers to the RealOne service.
However,
after a number of phone calls to both CBS and Real Networks, I
was able to determine that while 750,000 is roughly the number
of RealOne subscribers, it is also coincidentally the same number
of "accesses" to the Sheryl Crow feed.
The word "accesses"
is important, since it is the online streaming video equivalent
of clicks on a link. CBS had originally advertised that the Sheryl
Crow concert would be streaming around 10pm, but she ended up
hitting the stage at around 11pm Eastern time. So the 750,000
aggregate number for the concert could include people clicking
in several times to check back. The data collected apparently
tracks individual accesses to the stream, but not unique viewers.
It's still unclear precisely how many people were actually watching
the concert at any one time, although cynics would no doubt note
that it's unlikely it was 100% of all RealOne subscribers.
It's not any
easier to determine an accurate online audience size, even when
you're using a press release as a guide.
CBS and Real
Networks released some details on Tuesday which trumpeted a large
year-to-year increase in BB3 subscription numbers. According to
their figures, current subscriptions to the BB3 feed have exceeded
50,000 users, which translates to a 60% increase over the same
period last season.
As it turns
out, the picture on subscription numbers isn't as clear as you
might think after reading the resulting news coverage.
While the
50,000 plus subscriber number is an increase over last year's
number, it wasn't initially easy to draw a direct comparison between
the two seasons. During the summer 2001 season of BB2 (which was
the first time CBS offered the feeds), subscriptions were sold
as a stand-alone service, in either a monthly or full season package.
But this
year, the feeds are available both as a stand-alone subscription
(for $24.95), and also as part of the Real Network RealOne service
(which costs $9.95 per month). Which means that viewers who already
subscribe to RealOne are able to access the live feeds as part
of their basic package, without paying an additional fee.
This is where
the picture gets a bit confusing. The 50,000 figure was initially
described by a spokesperson for Real Networks as an "aggregate"
number. It combined both the stand-alone subscribers and those
viewers who watch through their RealOne subscription package.
But I was able to eventually determine that the figure indeed
represents those who have paid for the stand-alone Big Brother
feeds, while some subset of the 750,000 or so RealOne subscribers
who are able to access the Big Brother live feeds for free also
watch. As a result, the number of total viewers online is somewhere
north of 50,000. It is indeed a substantial increase over last
year. But how big of an increase is still unclear.
The overall
daily viewing numbers quoted in the press release are also a bit
confusing. The two media companies report that viewers are watching
an average of 50,000 hours of BB3 feeds per day, with unique users
spending an average of 1 hour and 40 minutes per day watching
the feeds. Given the 50,000 number of Big Brother 3 "subscribers"
quoted by the press release, it seems likely that of that 50,000,
a much smaller number of users are watching multiple hours of
the feeds, while many viewers are only watching on an intermittent
basis. So it's impossible to determine from the outside how many
people are watching on any specific day, much less a specific
time.
But all of
this discussion over subscriber numbers doesn't take away from
the success of the Big Brother webcasts. They are by far the most
successful attempt at selling broadcast television content online.
The success of the offering has every other network looking at
ways they can provide similar packages.
Most observers
agree that the Big Brother feeds are a hit. It's just defining
the level of success that seems to be a problem.
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