Young people haven’t watched TV for years. At least as we have understood it so far. It seems that it would give them hives to do so. The image of the whole family gathered in front of the television is part of the past (Jordi Evole He was proud of having achieved it with his ‘Lo de Évole’ starring… the ‘streamer’ Ibai Llanos, clear). They only sit in front of that ‘furniture’ in the family room to play Play, watch YouTube videos or watch a series. Because yes, they are great consumers of fiction and if there is a program, or fragment of a program, that interests them (‘The Voice’, ‘The island of temptations’, ‘Eufòria’...) they consume it on other devices, when and where they want, and even on social networks.
Far is that of waiting for a specific day, unless it is the premiere (although now some platforms are recovering the weekly broadcast) and less an hour imposed to devour an audiovisual proposal of interest. Because yes, like everything that has a screen in between, they are great consumers of audiovisual production.
The digital platforms they speak the same language and they have them at their feet with the series, but the general chains saw how they were they escaped as sorry as her parents every Friday night. A 2021 study by the Digital Leisure and Entertainment Observatory (ocendi) spoke of the television consumption of the so-called Generation Z being 20%, compared to 55% of the Millennials, which reflects this downward trend. That is why the chains seek to seduce them, trap them, so that they stay. Therefore, in addition to offering them content that is attractive to them, they test strategies to attend to this new way of consuming. And it is that they are not only viewers of the present, they will also be those of the future. In fact, they are the future of TV.
And what are those strategies and content with which the most prominent chains want to get your attention? Let’s see those of two public chains, TV-3 and TVE, and two private Antenna 3 and Telecinco:
?TV-3
TV-3 has spent years testing formulas to attract young audiences. “Our future, like that of any platform or ‘broadcaster’, is to expand our audience. And a strategic objective is the young”, he affirms Christian Climbt, director of TV-3 Continguts. In its case, as regional public television, in addition to informing, training and entertaining, it has the mission of preserving the Catalan language, which is clearly in decline. Because boys and girls consume products from different origins that do not use it as a vehicular language. “And this obligation to offer them content in Catalan is an asset and an added value, not a limiting factor,” he says.
The first important step, after testing with Internet programs created by the young people themselves, some of them ‘influencers’, such as ‘Cover’, ‘Mood Z’ and ‘Bricoheroes’‘, has been to create a digital platform, the SX3, which replaces the extinct (and mourned) Super3, that channel that brought together boys and girls from various generations of children. In this OTT, content is dumped in digital format, capable of being consumed à la carte or on any device, open and free. “‘Cover’, ‘Bricoheroes’…were ‘digital first’ or ‘digital only’, because in order to reconnect with this audience you need not only content, but also new ways of narrating, new languages, new tones and channels of dissemination that they they use as a priority,” he explains. Likewise, that bet served to avoid a budgetary instability of TVC.
The SX3 has opened that “essential” path to gradually permeate children and adolescents by creating benchmarks, with young presenters, some ‘influencers’, who even reflect the diversity that makes up Catalonia, such as the presenter of African origin maria boabdellah. Although for diversity, origins and genres, the one offered by the program ‘Eufòria’, a musical ‘talent’ who was born in March 2022 as a kind of Catalan ‘OT’ (just when with his goodbye that program left without young music to TVE) and has become a true phenomenon at all levels.
Proof of this is its audience success and the two concerts that filled the Palau Sant Jordi as a climax and the recorded concert to be broadcast on TV, which can also be viewed in 360º and 3D format. Because, you know, the new Technologies are the language that young people know best. “‘Eufòria’ is a case of success and pride and its weekly live galas create a community, but also a very strong transmedia backbone and thus you reach an audience that would not have come to see you online. With what we do the road reverse,” Trepat details.
Capturing the attention of young people is not an easy challenge, he admits. “But we will get ahead, not only because of desire and vocation, but also because there are resources available to make it viable,” she concludes.
? TV
Five and a half years ago, RTVE’s youth content strategy focused on PlayZ, a free digital platform of the group aimed at an audience between 18 and 24 years old. Youth series such as ‘To be or not to be’, ‘Drama’, ‘Yrreal’ and ‘Boca Norte’ are available there, as well as interviews with characters that interest this segment of the public and contests such as ‘Legendary Battles’of ‘freestyle’ and urban music, “a community that until now was off the radar of traditional televisions,” acknowledges Alberto Fernandez, director of digital content for RTVE. It also highlights a program such as ‘Gen PlayZ’“with a television invoice and that could be broadcast on television”, but which is produced for PlayZ and which also reaches the audience through channels such as YouTube, ‘podcast’ and TikTok.
“The young audience is like climate change. The market recognizes that this audience is moving away from television and that when it gets older they will not see it. But the cost of transforming the production process for traditional television is so great that Today, it is not possible to undertake a transformation as deep as it would be necessary because there is a normal requirement for short-term profitability, which is audience data,” reflects Fernández.
Within RTVE’s strategy to engage young audiences, series such as ‘HIT’“with educational values,” and “‘mainstream’ hits like ‘Masterchef’which has a digital audience and an important young audience”, according to Fernández. Benidorm Festival, the contest in which the representative of Spain in Eurovision is chosen, which the chain is exploiting well. “It is a content that captures a young audience that then leaves, so you have to build their loyalty by making, throughout the year, a series of content linked to the Benidorm Fest and eurovision“, Explain.
What Fernández laments is “the loss of musical formats that could be attractive to this type of audience, such as ‘OT'”. Above all, seeing the good results that TV-3 has had with a similar contest like ‘Eufòria’. Although TVE has already found a good relief: ‘Cover night’the new musical contest that will present Ruth Lawrence and that it will have as jurors Miguel Bosé, Monica Naranjo, Chanel and Juan Magán. The premiere is imminent.
? ANTENNA 3
Jose Antonio AntonDirector of Contents at Atresmedia, maintains, on the other hand, that the television lineHe still brings together hundreds of thousands of young people in Spain every day, more than any of the platforms. “Every day, almost five million young people between the ages of 13 and 35 watch something on television. Of those, more than two million are between the ages of 13 and 25 (data from Kantar Media),” she points out. Although he admits that in recent years, young people watch less linear television, because the offer of alternatives they have for their leisure is much greater than a decade ago: Twitch, YouTube, platforms, e-games, Tik Tok, Instagram & mldr;
For Antena 3, the only way to build viewer loyalty is by offering them a good content, which can be seen on linear television, on platforms… or on social networks. And he gives an example: “When an 18-year-old boy sees a spectacular performance of ‘The Voice’ on Instagram, he is watching free-to-air television.” “The challenge will be, as it has always been, to get it to wherever it is. And for this we are especially reinforcing our commitment to digital,” he insists.
Antón maintains that they are clear about the importance of work on social networks because they spend many hours there. We have a platform Atresplayer Premium, very strong and with a very large catalog of content… many of them aimed at a young audience such as the Flooxer Productionsstrings like ‘The age of anger‘ and ‘Red Flags’ (which we will release this year). And then there are products like ‘Veneno’, ‘Alba’, ‘El Hormiguero’, ‘Tu cara me suena’, ‘La Voz’… that thousands of young people see, “he details. And he remembers:” Flooxer left ‘Paquita Salas’ and formats like ‘Rage’which has accumulated four seasons and in which ‘influencers’ and ‘youtubers’ participate.
And it is that, although the Antena 3 and La Sexta programs most consumed by young people are not only youth (in ‘La Voz’ they have artists like Aitana or Sebastián Yatra and youth idols pass by ‘El Hormiguero’ every week), audience segmentation allows them to offer specific products. Thus, in addition to those of Flooxer, in Neox they have the ‘reality’Love Island Spain’ and on its payment platform you can find original series by Atresplayer. “‘The Protected’‘La edad de la Ira’ and ‘UPA Next’ have a great pillar in the youth audience”, he concludes.
?MEDIASET
Telecinco has been relying on the hook of reality television for many years and the youth audience was not going to be an exception to that rule. The channel, the second option in the ‘target’ from 13 to 24 years old according to audience data for January 2023 (led by Antena 3), has the most successful content in this range of viewers: ‘The island of temptations’. Another story is whether the ‘reality’ of the horns is the most appropriate for that ‘target’, which also includes a group of minors. ‘Survivors’ also owes its health to the young public.
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Years ago, spaces like ‘Women and men and vice versa’ They were the ones that captured the attention of this type of public in Mediaset, but the ‘show’ of appointments presented by Emma García went down in history a long time ago, although other formulas are being tried, such as the program ‘Forever’, which has not had the expected result. The one that has been shown to have the most pull (and the proof is that ‘youtubers’ who comment on it take advantage of it) is ‘First date’, the Cuatro program that since its inception has been a true manual of the different sexual identities and types of existing relationships. Polyamorous, fluid gender… For tastes, colors, as Carlos Sobera’s ‘show’ has shown us well.
The ‘reality shows’, a specialty of the channel, as was ‘Big Brother’ at the time or is a classic like ‘Survivors’, have also been very successful among boys and girls. But where Mediaset puts all the meat on the grill to catch the young audience is in Mtmad, the ‘online’ platform of short videos in which it has youtubers, ‘bloggers’, ‘influencers’ and characters from the Mediaset universe, emerged in its most of the group’s ‘reality shows’.