Technology / August 27, 2013 / By Erin Martin

Monetize Mobile Inventory and Boost Viewership

Has your morning routine changed from a few years ago? Chances are it has. As more people check their phone first thing in the morning, local TV stations can get a bite of the action by monetizing their existing mobile apps and using them to drive traditional TV viewership as well.

A recent IDC survey discovered that four out of five smartphone owners check their phone in the first 15 minutes of waking up. Rather than turning on the TV, people are picking up their phone and 80% say it’s the first they do when they wake up.

Two of the top reasons for watching the morning news is traffic and weather, however increasingly, people are getting “good enough” traffic and weather info straight from their mobile devices – cannibalizing morning news viewership.

A recent survey from Stepleader confirms this shift in consumer behavior stating that 17% of people said their local TV app is their main source of local news, followed by local TV websites (12%), local newspaper sites (7%) and a print newspaper (6%).

What do these studies mean for local TV stations? The good news is that many already have mobile apps. Mixpo subscriptions allow stations to deliver their existing on-air spots to their station apps. When buying outside media, stations can promote their traffic and weather apps with Mixpo’s video tune-in ads. If used properly, these tools can drive viewers back to the platform of TV from online.

Local stations are well positioned to take advantage of these trends. According to the 2013 TUNED IN Report, on average stations spend 18% of their tune-in advertising budget on multiscreen efforts (that include apps) and almost half of the stations surveyed last spring were planning on increasing their multiscreen advertising investments in 2013.