Our Insights

For decades, households had cable. Different packages, different numbers of channels, but cable television and the ability to flip through channel after channel was the standard for many. In the past decade, and especially in recent years, households have been breaking up with their cable companies altogether. But they’re not ditching their televisions — they’re opting for streaming services. You know some of the big names: Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, and it seems like more streaming services come on the market daily.

In our industry, homes that have at least one TV that’s able to stream content from an internet source, but none that receive channels from traditional cable, satellite, or over-the-air sources are referred to as “Broadband-Only (BBO) Homes.”

In the past couple of years, Nielsen has started including BBO Homes in its local television market measurements. Now that this segment of households is broken out, we’re able to understand how viewers are watching their TV from one market to the next. And once we understand it, we can adjust our marketing strategy and placements accordingly.

At Lewis Media Partners, we’re channel agnostic. And no, we’re not getting into religion here. That just means that we don’t singularly focus on one marketing channel and insist that our clients fit within one strategy. We have experts in both traditional and digital media so that we can customize each client’s media plan to best fit their goals. It’s important to ask your media agency how homes in your target geography are using their televisions and consuming content. Both connected TV and “cord-cutting” streaming households remain an important part of the media mix. At Lewis Media Partners, we consider these metrics from Nielsen when planning our approach and determining the most effective way to allocate budget to ensure successful campaigns for our clients.