Introducing The

TVision Signal

Our Weekly Look at CTV Content & Viewer Trends

May 10, 2023

Welcome to our inaugural edition of the TVision Signal Report. Each week, we’ll be sharing insight into viewer and content trends across the CTV landscape with the goal of providing common metrics the industry can use to evaluate what’s really engaging audiences. Once a month (including in this week’s edition), we’ll share a special issue of the TVision Signal that also provides must-know macro CTV trends that are impacting the entire TV landscape.

First up in the report below is TVision’s Power Score. The TVision’s Power Score is a completely new ranking designed to factor in both viewership and engagement when measuring the performance of CTV programming. The Power Score is based on the industry’s most comprehensive view of the CTV landscape - TVision measures activity across over 1,000 apps - and enables an accurate understanding of the relative performance of CTV content across any app. This new way to understand show performance will enable industry watchers to more quickly identify trending content and CTV’s hottest programming, and even uncover hidden gems distributed through smaller apps.

The TVision Power Score factors in four key metrics: the amount of time viewers pay attention to the program, the amount of program time available for the season, the program’s reach, as well as the application’s reach. This combination of metrics was chosen to enable a neutral look at the quality of programming and its unique, inherent ability to draw in viewers - regardless of the scale of the platform, or the program’s release schedule.

Keep reading to find out which shows and movies are engaging viewers across all the major CTV apps along with the biggest trends that are driving the future of CTV.

Top 20 CTV Shows of the Week

Here are the shows that topped the Power Score list during the week of Monday, May 1 through Sunday, May 7, 2023. Amazon Freevee's breakout hit mockumentary sitcom, Jury Duty, quickly rose to the top of our Power Score ranking in just its second week on the list—effectively switching spots with AppleTV's latest season of Ted Lasso. Other top CTV shows that are both attracting viewers and holding their attention throughout the show include Amazon Prime’s Citadel, which maintained the 2nd spot, and new Paramount+ show, Fatal Attraction, which secured the 4th spot.

The TVision Power Score

Ranking the Top CTV Shows for 5/1 - 5/7

Shows that are "Trending Up" are either new to the list or have risen more than five spots in rank change since the previous reporting period. These shows may be ones to watch: Sweet Tooth, Firefly Lane, Jewish Matchmaking, King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch, Schmigadoon!, and Workin' Moms.

Top 20 CTV Movies of April 2023

Want to know which of this year’s movies are best engaging viewers on their respective apps overall? Here are the movies that topped the Power Score list in April.

The TVision Power Score

Ranking the Top CTV Movies for April 2023

Notably, Murder Mystery 2 ranked at the top of the list and also helped to carry the original release of Murder Mystery to the #6 ranking. Ticket to Paradise and Tetris both also returned to the list in April, impressively moving up in their ranking.

The Majority of Viewers Watch Both Linear and CTV

Much has been made of cord cutters; however, a closer look reveals that CTV’s popularity is not solely dependent on viewers who only watch CTV. In April, we saw that 55%, the majority of viewing households, watched a combination of linear and CTV. In comparison, 27% of viewers only watched TV through CTV Apps, whereas 18% of viewers only watched through broadcast sources.

How Americans Watch TV

Drilling a bit deeper to understand the behavior of streaming-enabled households, we see that linear platforms continue to appeal to these streaming-enabled viewers. In the chart below, you can see that Cable and Streaming platforms are nearly tied for household reach, and broadcast is not far behind. Further proof that viewers are still moving fluidly across platforms to access the content that they want.

Platform Reach Within Streaming-Enabled Households

Note, Platform Reach indicates TV services households have viewed at least once within the specified time period.

Ad-Supported Apps Lead the Future of CTV

Over the last few years, Americans spend on Ad-Supported Apps such as YouTube and Hulu. Now, over half of Time Spent Viewing CTV went to AVOD Apps and Apps that offer a combination of premium subscription-only and ad-supported tiers. The latter now includes Netflix and Disney+ who surprised the industry last year by announcing ad-supported models.

Share of Time Spent by App Type

The Apps On America’s TVs

Netflix continues to draw in audiences with a strong lineup of new original programming that has dropped this year. As Netflix continues to promote its ad-supported model, advertisers will be paying close attention to how they can best reach viewers across the rapidly changing CTV landscape. Notably, many of the largest apps have held steady in terms of household reach over time. This may be another sign that viewers are settling into their go-to apps in favor of and spending less time exploring available CTV content.

Top CTV Apps by Household Reach (April 2023)

One of the biggest movers was Peacock as momentum for its original programming continues to build. Their new series “Mrs. Davis” dropped in April and other recent hits, “Poker Face” and season two of “Bel-Air” continued to bring in viewers. Peacock now ranks #5 for Household reach after jumping up two spots. Meanwhile, Disney+ and HBO Max each dropped slightly.

The CTV Content Types Engaging Viewers

While premium content is essential for engaging CTV viewers, a strong assortment of streaming library content is also valuable for application providers looking to attract more viewers. Here is a breakdown of where viewers spend their time across different types of content.

Shows vs. Movies

Binged Shows vs. Weekly Release

Original vs. Syndicated Content

New Shows vs. Older Shows

Want to learn more about the TVision Signal Report? Check out our FAQs here.

Take Action with TVision Total View

Want more insight into the most engaging programs across CTV? TVision has recently introduced Total View, the industry’s most comprehensive look at person-level viewer engagement across both CTV and linear. With a unified view of the entire TV landscape, media sellers can identify premium impressions based on viewer engagement and show the true value of their media properties. Want to learn how you can gain key engagement metrics like attention and co-viewing for ad performance and viewer trends across hundreds of apps, networks, and thousands of shows? Contact us today to get started or request a demo.

Methodology & Metrics

TVision measures Viewer Presence and Attention for every second of programming and advertising on television. Every time a person walks into the room, our technology detects who the viewer is, where they are in the room, and what their eyes are looking at. We do all this without personally identifying individual users, and without transmitting any images or videos. TVision’s data is collected from an opt-in panel of 5,000 homes across the United States and weighted to represent the country. All demographic data is self-reported by the respondents. Linear and CTV ad impressions data in this report is from April 1 – April 30, 2023 or May 1 – 7, 2023, unless otherwise indicated.

TVision Metrics

• TVision Power Score: TVision's Power Score represents how engaged audiences are for any given program. Our formula looks at (Attentive seconds / Seconds Available) x (Program Reach per Season / Publisher Reach).
• Share of Time Spent: Compares the distribution of time spent viewing the app or program relative to the selected variable.
• Binge Release: Model in which multiple episodes in a season are released at the same time.
• Weekly Release: Model in which shows release one new episode in a season at a time over the course of several weeks.
• New Shows: Show has aired new episodes within the last 30 days.
• Older Shows: Shows has not aired new episodes in the last 30 days.
• Original Content: Programs that are exclusive to a single platform.
• Syndicated Content/Streaming Library Content: Programs that airs on multiple CTV platforms or have their entire suite of content available.