VMAs Drop On TV; Jump Via Streaming

MTV’s 2016 Video Music Awards drew just 6.5 million viewers on TV, down from 9.8 million a year ago, but consumption via streaming jumped.

Like last year, the award show was televised on 11 of Viacom’s cable networks. But young viewers who wanted to seek Beyonce’s live performance appeared to turn to broadband devices to watch the show rather than gathering around a TV set.

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MTV said the VMAs attracted 61.8 million video streams on Sunday, up 70% from 36.8 million the day of the show in 2015. The number of streams on Facebook rose 938% to 45.8 million on Facebook, the network said.

The VMAs was the most social show of the night, accounting for 90% of all of the TV related social media chatter for the evening. It was also the top social show of the week.

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MTV and Viacom have been battling eroding ratings as young viewers increasingly consume their entertainment on platforms and devices not included in traditional audience measurements.

For this year’s VMAs, Viacom’s ad sales team created thousands of pieces of branded content that allowed sponsors to connect via digita and social with fans who might not see traditional commercials.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.