When it comes to Out-of-Home viewers, no two are created equal.  As an industry, we currently measure this slice of the linear TV audience as one homogenous group but at Tunity Analytics we have developed a deeper understanding of who this viewer is, what they’re watching in select OOH venues, and how traffic patterns impact audience size.  The most popular OOH locations are Gyms, Offices, and Bars/Restaurants.  Here’s what we’ve learned.

• Gyms are heavily trafficked in the early morning and viewing primarily consists of news programs. And, although people watch TV in the gym it’s not their primary reason for being there so the viewing is less impacted by the type of content offered.

• News is also the top content choice in Offices, particularly financial news, and the content does impact viewership. When breaking news or major sporting events are on, usage peaks in this location but does not have an impact on traffic.

• Bars/Restaurants are the most popular OOH location with viewing primarily occurring during lunch hours and after work, continuing into late night. Unlike Gyms and Offices, people do indeed visit these locations to watch the night’s must-see game or catch up on the day’s breaking headlines.  It is this audience behavior around major events where we see the greatest amount of OOH viewership.  Not only do Bars/Restaurants have an audience that will show up specifically for events but there is also a greater proportion of people in the location who will choose to view depending on the content offered.

To illustrate the idea that locations do indeed matter when it comes to OOH viewership, we examine three recent TV events: William Barr’s release of the redacted Mueller Report broadcast on CNN and Fox News; Tiger Woods’ Masters Tournament Championship win on CBS; and the first day of March Madness across CBS, TruTV, TBS, and TNT.

AG Barr releases the redacted draft of the Mueller Report:

In total, CNN and Fox News shared a combined +75% of the OOH audience in Gyms during the live coverage of William Barr’s release of the redacted Mueller Report, a +62% higher share than the previous week.  Overall, the OOH viewership for this breaking news event was +40% higher than the same time period during the previous week.  The combination of increased usage and an increased share of that usage resulted in CNN and Fox News experiencing a +123% increase in OOH viewing.

Tiger Woods and the Fourth Round of the Masters: 

Next, we examine Tiger Woods’ Masters Championship win, an enormous draw for CBS.  In total, CBS claimed an extraordinary +90% of all OOH viewing during the time period, seven times higher than the network’s share the previous week.  Overall, OOH usage was up nearly three-and-a-half times typical levels, resulting in a week-over-week increase of more than 30-fold.

First day of NCAA Tournament:

Finally, the first day of March Madness broadcast across CBS, TruTV, TBS, and TNT achieved a combined share of +85% of total OOH viewing in bars and restaurants, 18x the previous week.  Combined with the total OOH usage in bars and restaurants jumping +47% and the four broadcasters achieved a 22-fold increase in audience lift.

Location.  Location.  Location.  It is the key to understanding OOH usage.  Overall, individual events can boost OOH viewership while changes to a network’s share of viewing can dramatically multiply that network’s audience delivery.

Source:  Tunity Analytics.  Viewing estimates are derived from Tunity mobile app usage for the weeks of March 17 and April 14, 2019.  OOH viewer impressions are calculated using Tunity Analytics’ proprietary estimation model.

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Paul Lindstrom is the Head of Research and Analytics at Tunity, an out-of-home (OOH) data measurement company and consumer application which allows users to hear live audio from muted televisions directly through their mobile devices. In his role, Paul supports the creation of various data products, including Tunity's new analytics product, and helps set strategic vision and direction. Prior to Tunity, Paul spent over four decades at Nielsen, where he was responsible for designing and deploying innovative tools, systems, studies, and measurements for new media outlets. He also directed sales, operations, and strategy for Nielsen Strategic Media Research and Nielsen On Location. Paul is an innovation, research, and strategy executive with a successful track record in pioneering business development, product leadership, and research design. His combination of experience with media and custom research, location, and OOH measurements at Nielsen have allowed him to develop a new metric to capture OOH viewing insights based on Tunity’s traffic, tuning, and attention data.