Key Findings:

- More emotional Engagement: Creator-hosted TV shows triggered significantly more emotional peaks in viewers compared to traditional formats.

- Higher Likelihood to Watch: After seeing TV content streamed by creators, 80% of viewers said they’d watch more of this format

- Stronger Recommendations: A staggering 77% said they’d recommend creator-streamed TV to friends and family.

As TV viewing habits shift, this research is a game-changer for content owners, creators and advertisers

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Gen Z wants to watch TV with creators. New research from Gaggl and Behavioural AI company Element Human shows that two-thirds (70%) of 18-34 year olds prefer influencer-hosted viewing, where they can interact with the influencer (creator) and other viewers on social channels. 

The research also shows that, when watching TV shows with creators, young viewers experienced more emotional peaks compared to the original show format, and those peaks were more intense.

Gaggl partnered up with Element Human to assess the appetite for creator-led TV viewing. One group of 104 18-34 year olds were shown the original viewing format of ‘The Price is Right’, and a second group of 551 18-34s were shown the same episode of ‘The Price is Right’ but this time streamed by one of four content creators.

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Element Human’s AI technology tracks and records biometric data to assess what emotions viewers are feeling and where they are looking during viewing. The data showed that, compared to the Control group who saw the original format of the show, watching the reaction of the creator to the game-show meant that audiences were more emotionally involved in the narrative. This was shown in a higher number of emotional peaks and at a higher intensity - which included feelings of Surprise and Happiness - when watching the creator-streamed TV show.

Creator-streamed TV significantly boosted the number of emotional peaks felt by viewers, building heightened emotions in a way the original show couldn’t alone

We then asked viewers a set of questions to understand their likelihood to watch and recommend this creator-streamed TV format. The data revealed that two-thirds (67%) said they are likely to consider watching TV that is streamed by creators, but by seeing the TV format in action, the proportion of viewers who would consider watching TV streamed by creators jumped to 80%. Not only that, but 77% said they are likely to recommend watching creator-streamed TV to family and friends.

Element Human Test, showing Attention Heatmap and Emotion Response Curves (Yellow = Happiness and White = Surprise)

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Dr Hamish McPharlin, Managing Director of Element Human said: “Bringing creators into the world of TV game-shows makes perfect sense, as the creator creates an emotional bridge between the content and the audience; explaining the stakes, building suspense, and sharing in the surprises and releases of tension with the audience. It’s a great way to breathe new life into existing content” 

The TV industry viewing is falling as consumers move to streaming platforms. Attest’s US Media Consumption report recently found that 24% of Americans now don’t watch any live TV, a jump of 4% from last year.

This new research points to a possible solution.  It shows that social media is a valid format for distributing TV shows to the Gen Z audience, and that tweaking the format to add interactivity creates high engagement. By bringing TV shows to the youth audience where they already are, TV companies can expand to new audiences and revive existing IP. 

Gaggl is a new service bringing TV shows to social platforms, delivering a community and social aspect to TV viewing.  Gaggl enhances shows with custom interactivity, enabling viewers to play along with the show for the first time.  This works across multiple format types, including game shows, scripted drama, unscripted reality and movies.

The reaction of creators and the TV industry has been very positive.  Since launch in Q2, the number of creators signed to the platform has quadrupled, and multiple content owners are in test with the service. 

Today Gaggl is delighted to announce their new winter content slate, being launched to Creators at Twitchcon 2024 in San Diego. This includes newly signed partnerships with Lionsgate, Avalon, Hat Trick and GameShowNetwork, as well as the existing Fremantle partnership, and includes movies, unscripted and scripted shows and seasonal content for Halloween and Christmas. Gaggl will also be launching test campaigns with advertisers and Element Human in the Fall.

Adam Harris co-founder said:, "Gaggl’s reimagining of the TV experience has been validated not only by Element Human's research but also by the excitement of new content owners who are now using our platform. We’re thrilled to bring top shows like Taskmaster to Twitch content creators and their communities, allowing them to experience these shows live and interactively for the first time on their streams."

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ABOUT GAGGL

Gaggl is a fast-growing start-up that licences TV and movie content to influencers and transforms it into a live and interactive community experience.

At Gaggl we are on a mission to re-imagine TV for Gen Z via creators.  Our approach sees content owners take their content to the creator and their audience, transforming viewing into an interactive community experience. Our goal is to help the TV industry tackle declining youth viewership and empower creators with new opportunities to earn a living doing what they love.

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ABOUT ELEMENT HUMAN
Element Human is a human behaviour data company bringing empathy to the internet and AI.  We believe actions speak louder than words and our current interactions with devices and AI are limited to words.  We’re here to fix that. 

We use machine learning to recognise and decode body language and emotions as people interact with digital experiences.  Real People.  Real World.  Rich Data.

 Today, we are standardising measurement for the creator economy where over 200M creators interact with 4.2B people on a daily basis.  We do this by uniquely capturing attention, emotion, memory, and brand uplift data while people interact with creator content on Instagram, Tik Tok, YT Shorts, and Facebook.  To date our leading benchmarks refreshed daily stem from over 1,890 creatives, 1,021 influencers, 157 brands across audiences in 17 countries.

CONTACTS:

Adam Harris, Co-Founder, Gaggl: adam@gaggl.tv 

Dr. Hamish McPharlin, MD, Element Human, hamish@elementhuman.com

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REFERENCES:

Attest US media consumption report

https://www.askattest.com/our-research/2024-us-media-consumption-report