The new boom of singing shows
American Idol
The world is full of talent and the world is hungry for even more. Or at least this is the impression you get when you turn on the TV wherever you are. Well, maybe with the exception of North Korea… but even they have the Arirang Festival.
Singing is probably the most universal talent of all and it’s not a surprise shows that are looking for the next vocal prodigy are nowhere near losing their appeal, quite the contrary. The genre is going strong around the world and one of the most important TV markets – the United States – is getting its healthy dose of singing this and next year as well.
After American Idol hit it big in 2002, it seemed like every TV network wanted its share of the big music game with different formats. But even when FOX thought US viewers have had enough of the show in 2016 and dropped it after a 15-season run, ABC was quick to take rights (allegedly outbidding FOX) and revive Idol for a 2017-2018 run. In the meantime, NBC renewed another singing mainstay – The Voice - for a fourteenth series, with the thirteenth season currently on air.
American Idol is by far the most-successful singing format in terms of longevity, viewership, success of the talent it has discovered (think Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Jennifer Hudson, Adam Lambert) and made way for numerous other similar shows throughout the years but most of them proved flops in the US. The X Factor, The Winner Is, Duets, Fame, The Sing-Off, Can You Duet, Rock Star, Nashville Star, Rising Star, P Diddy’s Starmaker, Sing Your Face Off – those are names which should remind to network executives in the States that while singing can deliver stellar ratings, it’s not a direct recipe to success.
Now, in its bid not to drop out of the battle of the “singing formats” FOX opted for new Israeli format The Final Four which will be aired as The Four in the States. FOX’s reality TV chief Rob Wade teased the new competition as “Game of Thrones with better singing and less nudity,” during FOX’s Television Critics Association summer press tour. An announcement which clearly shows the network’s determination to find its next music hit.
But will CBS join the talent show mania? This is the question that remains unanswered at the start of the new season. In August The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the network was developing a singing competition series with manager and producer Scooter Braun (of Justin Bieber fame), based on information from own sources. The potential series is in the early stages; it’s unclear if the project is based on an original idea or an existing format, though sources say the latter is more likely. Moreover, CBS chief Leslie Moonves commented that his network was offered to reboot Idol and although they “looked at it very seriously”, “the economics just didn’t make sense for us”. Moonves explained to reporters that CBS declined the show because of the high cost, not having ownership of the series and the amount of real estate that the singing competition would take up on the CBS schedule. That doesn’t necessarily mean the network has dropped out of the singing battle, though.
One thing is certain – music shows are back with a bang! But are US networks just playing it safe with established singing competition formats or is there something more going on? Let’s take a look at the bigger picture.
According to reports from Nielsen Music and BuzzAngle Music, overall music consumption in the first half of 2017 increased between 8 and 10% compared to the same period in 2016. At the same time, digital and physical sales continue to drop (except for vinyl – up 20.4%), audio and video streaming is just unstoppable. The industry scored a new record between March 2 and 9 this year with 7.5 billion weekly on-demand audio streams. The enormousness of this figure: it’s like every single person on the planet streaming at least one song during that week.
This year FOX launched a show in which music fans face one of the big streaming apps - Shazam. Hosted by Jamie Foxx, Beat Shazam, turned into an instant hit and the network renewed the series for a second season less than two months after its launch. The show averaged an audience of 4.4 million viewers across all platforms and became the most social new US TV series of the summer with 23 million total engagements across social channels.
Since we mentioned social we also have to remember that music videos generate the biggest traffic online. According to Nielsen, in the first half of 2017 music video represented 56.6% of the total music streams - an increase of whopping 109.2% compared to last year. Yes, music videos are still killing it big time!
And what does MTV, the grandmother of music videos, think about this? It seems the good old Music Television is slowly going back to its roots. It relaunched the iconic TRL on October 2. The original show ran between 1998 and 2008 featuring a countdown, music video premieres, artists performances and ... viewers’ requests. The new format is designed as an interactive talkshow, but MTV promises there will be some place for music videos.
The music network also announced that its signature TV channel will return to the FTA market in Germany in Austria after 7 years spent on cable. The step comes after the channel launched a free live stream on its website in March 2017 which proved quite successful. Viewers will have to wait until January 2018 to see whether there will be still more Shores than music videos on air.
MTV probably got some inspiration from German competitor, Deluxe Music. The FTA channel which has been airing only music videos since 2005 – scored a historical audience share in June 2017. The channel had 0.7% share in the commercial demo (+148% vs. previous month), outperforming Eurosport. In July, Deluxe Music averaged 0.8% share and according to the channel’s marketer Sky Media, in the core demo men 30-39 the average share in July was even 3.4%.
Talking about niche audiences, MTV’s 2017 Video Music Awards telecast on August 27 beat out HBO’s Game of Thrones season 7 finale in the key teen demographic. Winter might be coming, but music is definitely here to stay. To play. Or at least to stream.
Oh, and did you think we forgot? 2017 also gave us the song Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, which end of summer became the most streamed song of all time. It is possible that by the end of 2017 Despacito will score 7 billion streams – it’s like every single person on the planet streaming the song at least once.
Yes, the world is still hungry for its next music heroes! And most of them will come out from the numerous talent shows airing/streaming on a screen near you.
Singing is probably the most universal talent of all and it’s not a surprise shows that are looking for the next vocal prodigy are nowhere near losing their appeal, quite the contrary. The genre is going strong around the world and one of the most important TV markets – the United States – is getting its healthy dose of singing this and next year as well.
After American Idol hit it big in 2002, it seemed like every TV network wanted its share of the big music game with different formats. But even when FOX thought US viewers have had enough of the show in 2016 and dropped it after a 15-season run, ABC was quick to take rights (allegedly outbidding FOX) and revive Idol for a 2017-2018 run. In the meantime, NBC renewed another singing mainstay – The Voice - for a fourteenth series, with the thirteenth season currently on air.
American Idol is by far the most-successful singing format in terms of longevity, viewership, success of the talent it has discovered (think Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Jennifer Hudson, Adam Lambert) and made way for numerous other similar shows throughout the years but most of them proved flops in the US. The X Factor, The Winner Is, Duets, Fame, The Sing-Off, Can You Duet, Rock Star, Nashville Star, Rising Star, P Diddy’s Starmaker, Sing Your Face Off – those are names which should remind to network executives in the States that while singing can deliver stellar ratings, it’s not a direct recipe to success.
Despacito
Now, in its bid not to drop out of the battle of the “singing formats” FOX opted for new Israeli format The Final Four which will be aired as The Four in the States. FOX’s reality TV chief Rob Wade teased the new competition as “Game of Thrones with better singing and less nudity,” during FOX’s Television Critics Association summer press tour. An announcement which clearly shows the network’s determination to find its next music hit.
But will CBS join the talent show mania? This is the question that remains unanswered at the start of the new season. In August The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the network was developing a singing competition series with manager and producer Scooter Braun (of Justin Bieber fame), based on information from own sources. The potential series is in the early stages; it’s unclear if the project is based on an original idea or an existing format, though sources say the latter is more likely. Moreover, CBS chief Leslie Moonves commented that his network was offered to reboot Idol and although they “looked at it very seriously”, “the economics just didn’t make sense for us”. Moonves explained to reporters that CBS declined the show because of the high cost, not having ownership of the series and the amount of real estate that the singing competition would take up on the CBS schedule. That doesn’t necessarily mean the network has dropped out of the singing battle, though.
One thing is certain – music shows are back with a bang! But are US networks just playing it safe with established singing competition formats or is there something more going on? Let’s take a look at the bigger picture.
Beat Shazam
According to reports from Nielsen Music and BuzzAngle Music, overall music consumption in the first half of 2017 increased between 8 and 10% compared to the same period in 2016. At the same time, digital and physical sales continue to drop (except for vinyl – up 20.4%), audio and video streaming is just unstoppable. The industry scored a new record between March 2 and 9 this year with 7.5 billion weekly on-demand audio streams. The enormousness of this figure: it’s like every single person on the planet streaming at least one song during that week.
This year FOX launched a show in which music fans face one of the big streaming apps - Shazam. Hosted by Jamie Foxx, Beat Shazam, turned into an instant hit and the network renewed the series for a second season less than two months after its launch. The show averaged an audience of 4.4 million viewers across all platforms and became the most social new US TV series of the summer with 23 million total engagements across social channels.
Since we mentioned social we also have to remember that music videos generate the biggest traffic online. According to Nielsen, in the first half of 2017 music video represented 56.6% of the total music streams - an increase of whopping 109.2% compared to last year. Yes, music videos are still killing it big time!
And what does MTV, the grandmother of music videos, think about this? It seems the good old Music Television is slowly going back to its roots. It relaunched the iconic TRL on October 2. The original show ran between 1998 and 2008 featuring a countdown, music video premieres, artists performances and ... viewers’ requests. The new format is designed as an interactive talkshow, but MTV promises there will be some place for music videos.
The music network also announced that its signature TV channel will return to the FTA market in Germany in Austria after 7 years spent on cable. The step comes after the channel launched a free live stream on its website in March 2017 which proved quite successful. Viewers will have to wait until January 2018 to see whether there will be still more Shores than music videos on air.
Deluxe Update
MTV probably got some inspiration from German competitor, Deluxe Music. The FTA channel which has been airing only music videos since 2005 – scored a historical audience share in June 2017. The channel had 0.7% share in the commercial demo (+148% vs. previous month), outperforming Eurosport. In July, Deluxe Music averaged 0.8% share and according to the channel’s marketer Sky Media, in the core demo men 30-39 the average share in July was even 3.4%.
Talking about niche audiences, MTV’s 2017 Video Music Awards telecast on August 27 beat out HBO’s Game of Thrones season 7 finale in the key teen demographic. Winter might be coming, but music is definitely here to stay. To play. Or at least to stream.
Oh, and did you think we forgot? 2017 also gave us the song Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, which end of summer became the most streamed song of all time. It is possible that by the end of 2017 Despacito will score 7 billion streams – it’s like every single person on the planet streaming the song at least once.
Yes, the world is still hungry for its next music heroes! And most of them will come out from the numerous talent shows airing/streaming on a screen near you.
