For the networks that broadcast them, television shows can be incredibly lucrative. The biggest TV shows make hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue. This article reveals that a 30-second commercial in Sunday Night Football will cost more than $600,000 and a 30-second commercial in the science comedy show The Big Bang Theory would cost advertisers more than a quarter of a million dollars.
However, the money-making potential of these shows doesn’t just end at advertising revenue. Many networks are turning to mobile games as a way to make more money and find new fans for some of their most popular series.
Reach the Audience Wherever They Are
The number of people who own TV sets or pay for cable subscriptions is dropping, and in 2018, revenue from pay-TV was just $4.4 billion. This means that broadcasting a show on TV is no longer the best way to reach the audience, and to get in front of fans, networks are having to come up with new ideas.
One of these ideas is to be available on streaming services as these are often available on computers, mobile devices, and games consoles. Indeed, mobile offerings have proven to be a great way to drive interest to different shows and products, with online slot games based on TV shows being just one of many examples of this in practice, as reported in this source. For example, the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire slot game is one of the many slots offered by LeoVegas, and PartyCasino, another online casino with a mobile app, has eight different casino games about British game show Deal or No Deal.
Reach a Younger Audience
Many of those choosing to go without a pay-TV subscription are those in younger demographics. This study reveals that the average age of someone who watches live TV is 56, as young people pay for subscription services such as Netflix, Hulu, and premium subscriptions from sites like YouTube. It’s great that older people are enjoying shows, but it means that TV networks may not be reaching everyone who may enjoy the show.
In comparison, the average age of a mobile gamer is 36.3 years old, making them nearly 20 years younger than the average live TV viewer. By releasing a mobile game, networks can reach this much younger audience, showing them why the characters, music, and story are so enjoyable.
Make Money When the Show Isn’t Being Made
Seinfeld went off the air in 1998 and yet the sitcom still makes millions of dollars. It was announced that Netflix had paid $100 million for the rights to show all 151 episodes. Not every show will be able to make that much money from streaming deals years after they stopped making new episodes, but mobile games can help networks make money when a show isn’t being made.
Fans of a show who would like to keep hearing the music and seeing the character may start playing mobile games to keep being entertained by the series. They may be happy to spend too, allowing the shows to make money when ads can’t be sold and streaming deals can’t be made.
The way that people watch TV shows may have changed, but releasing mobile game versions of these shows has kept on being popular. Fans don’t have to watch reruns just to enjoy their favourite series.
