Is Manifest the “G.O.A.T.” of Streaming?
Here’s a funny feature of NBC’s Olympic coverage: Everyone is the greatest athlete in the…
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Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy 2.0
Chatting with Kasey Moore of Whats-on-Netflix a few weeks back, I mentioned that I was…
The NBA Final’s Ratings Were Down. Does It Even Matter?
I’m a sports fan. Usually come July, this is a bummer. Because nothing’s on. It’s…
Netflix’s Own Data Shows That They Had a Bad Quarter
– Netflix only released four “datecdotes” for film for Q2, one of the lowest totals…
How Come Netflix Only Revises Their “Datecdotes” Upwards?
When Netflix releases their quarterly datecdotes (Click here for my explainer on that term, my phrase…
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Latest Stories...
Netflix Is Getting Into Video Games Because It Is The Best Option Left
July 19, 2021 5:52pm
If you pushed me, the most “fun” story this week would be the fact that streaming in 2021 finally had a better week than the same time in 2020. But I covered that in my streaming ratings report. Fortunately, when Netflix leaks that they may radically expand their business, that’s easily my story of the week. (And still fun!) (Sign up for my newsletter to get all my columns, streaming
Streaming Just Manifested Its Best Week in 2021
July 16, 2021 5:55pm
– For the first time in 2021, weekly top ten viewership surpassed the same week’s viewership in 2020. – Manifest, the recently cancelled NBC series produced by Warner Bros, is a hit for Netflix, and has the third biggest single week of viewership since 2021 started. But it does benefit from having a lot of episodes to binge. – Luca had the third biggest opening weekend of 2021. You may have
Comcast Gets Wishy-Washy with Its Universal Films
July 12, 2021 5:54pm
Last week gave me “gut thinking” whiplash. What started as a brilliant strategic move one day turned into a muddled mess by the next. Let’s explain why Comcast’s decision to split its feature film rights between Peacock and Prime Video is such a confusing move. (Sign up for my newsletter to get all my columns, streaming ratings reports, and articles in your inbox.) Most Important Story of the Week –
Free Is More Popular Than Not Free…and Other Lessons We’re Relearning in the Streaming Wars
July 7, 2021 4:41pm
Sometimes, in a midst of lots of disruption, we—the proverbial we being “society”, “business analysts” or just people on Twitter—forget that as much as things change, they mostly stay the same. That’s the lesson for today. Two lessons actually. While streaming ratings use new terminology, the business principles underlying them haven’t really changed that much. (Reminder: The streaming ratings report compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Netflix
Long Reads for the Long Weekend (Summer 2021 Edition)
July 2, 2021 4:43pm
One of the casualties of 2021 was my newsletter edition that featured links to my favorite stories, podcasts and newsletters every so often. Adding the “Streaming Ratings Report” every week was enough extra work that something had to go. Add that lots of other newsletters curate entertainment business news better, and it made sense to focus on my strengths (data analysis and strategy) and not curation. That said… …I still
Who Won the Quarter: “Shadow and Bone” or “The Falcon and Winter Soldier”?
July 1, 2021 7:56pm
Listening to a recent podcast I heard a common refrain: we have no idea what is doing well in streaming! Frankly, this is soooooo 2018. We’re in the “streaming ratings era” now (™ EntStrategyGuy) and have been since March of 2020. Between Nielsen, Google Trends, Netflix top tens, Antenna, Samba, Reelgood and ParrotAnalytics—to only name a few off the top of my head—we have tons of ratings. (Fine, you want
Are Rival Streamers Finally Taking Market Share from Netflix?
June 29, 2021 10:47pm
Last week, I used Nielsen’s top ten list to track their total viewership in April 2020 to April of this year. The question I raised, but couldn’t answer, was whether the decline in total top ten viewership applied to the rest of Netflix’s catalogue. Enter Nielsen’s The Gauge! (Which I wrote about yesterday.) As I explained, The Gauge is a new tool that track total usage across linear and digital
Nielsen’s The Gauge…Explained
June 28, 2021 9:49pm
A few years back, working at a major streamer, I tried to make the case that at some point Nielsen (and others) would tell the world how many folks were watching our shows. As a company, we were focused on preventing that; the currency of viewership would be a highly guarded company secret. (Not much has changed for any streamer since then, really.) I thought this revolution was coming and
What Does Hot “Ad” Summer Mean for Entertainment?
June 25, 2021 9:41pm
Spielberg. The Supreme Court and NCAA. Conan ending his TV show. This week in entertainment didn’t want for big names. But were any of them truly the “most important” story of the week? No. For that, let’s pull back and look at a slightly longer view. (Sign up for my newsletter to get all my column, streaming ratings report and links to my writing in your inbox.) Most Important Story
How Big is Hulu’s Biggest Hit?
June 24, 2021 8:24pm
One of the craziest parts of the streaming wars is actually how forward thinking the traditional media companies were. Way back in 2007, they teamed up and created a joint venture that became Hulu, a streamer featuring TV episodes the day after they aired on broadcast. (But only, inexplicably, five episodes at a time. Possibly the worst strategic decision of the 21st century.) Yet, with that head start, Hulu has
Streaming Ratings Were Down 40% in April
June 22, 2021 9:26pm
We’ve hit an exciting point in the “streaming ratings era”: We can now compare 2020 to 2021. Meaning we have better “context” than ever before. In 2020, we had to speculate if year-over-year viewership was up or down. Now, we know. Visual of the Week – Streaming Was Down 40% in April 2021 Here are my “Data 5Ws” for the above look: What – Top Ten Film or TV Series
How the Flurry of Antitrust News Will Impact Entertainment
June 18, 2021 9:31pm
Someone sent me the headline about the flurry of House antitrust bills last Friday, and said, “Story of the week?” That’s close. It was a big, important move, but just shy from being “actual” news since it hasn’t passed the Senate yet. And most bills go to die there. But then, someone else sent me the huge FTC news this week. And that made “antitrust” the story of the week.
Jupiter’s Legacy: Bomb, Flop, Hit or Something in Between?
June 17, 2021 3:58pm
Not since the film 2010: The Year We Make Contact—a 1982 sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey for those not versed in obscure 1980s science fiction—has something Jupiter-related caused this much consternation. On the one hand, Netflix is touting Jupiter’s Legacy as a success that will birth an entire universe of content; on the other hand, it got cancelled. Well, conundrums like that are what this streaming ratings report is
Is the Future of WB-Discovery “One Size Fits All”, “Bundle” or “A la carte”?
June 15, 2021 10:43pm
I’ll admit that, for as much as I hate mergers, I have a case of the M&A musings. Certain stories are so big, that one article or even two “most important stories” of the week won’t do them justice. The mash ups of Discovery, Warner Bros, AT&T, Amazon and MGM—not in that order—fit the bill. It’s As earth shattering as any story since Disney bought 21st Century Fox. So pardon
AMC (Theaters) Is The Latest Meme Stock…and What That Means for The Entertainment Industry
June 14, 2021 8:57pm
Sometimes, a statistic is just crazy enough to make it the story of the week. This month that’s this: At various times in June of 2021, AMC Theaters was more highly valued than half of the S&P 500. That’s crazy enough to be… Most Important Story of the Week – Please, Please, Please Do NOT Use Stock Price as a Proxy for Value The analytics explosion in sports, especially basketball,
The “Binge Release Shape” Comes Into Focus
June 9, 2021 11:35pm
I want to assure you, good readers, that this report is not becoming “bi-weekly”. And “bi-weekly” in the sense that it comes out every other week. (If folks keep subscribing—and want it—I could see a world where we publish twice a week. Man “bi-weekly” is a confusing term.) If you read my last two articles, you’ll know that between some vacations, a Federal holiday and other work, I had to
Is The Long Awaited Tidal Wave of M&A in Entertainment Finally Here?
June 8, 2021 9:41pm
Ever have a sense of deja vu? That’s one of my takes following the “massive month of M&A”. Because weren’t we just here? If I can take you back three years, to the summer of 2018. In the age before Covid, in June, a single judge in D.C. approved the Time Warner/AT&T merger. And we all knew what was to follow: That’s right, the floodgates were opened for M&A in
Why Did Amazon buy MGM?
June 7, 2021 11:26pm
May was truly “media merger madness month”. On May 17th, Discovery announced they were merging with Warner Media. (I was on vacation.) On May 26th, Amazon announced they were buying MGM. (Then it was Memorial Day weekend.) Then last week I had a consulting gig I couldn’t say no to. (And I had a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth.) In short, we had two insanely big stories in
Who Did Better, WandaVision or The Falcon and Winter Soldier? It Doesn’t Matter, Disney Wins Either Way
May 26, 2021 10:38pm
I leave for one week of vacation and come back to not one, but two big merger announcements. If all the merger news of the last two weeks shows us anything, it’s the value of top tier content. And what’s the easiest way—allegedly—to do that? By mining “IP” to make reboots, remakes and and prequels. Since we have two weeks of data to sift through, let’s get right to it.
The Merger That Defines The Streaming Wars: How Discovery Merging With Warner Media Illuminates the Key Schism in the Entertainment Industry
May 25, 2021 6:02pm
What a time to be alive and writing a column on the business of entertainment. I get back from vacation, and not only do I get a mega Hollywood divorce, but I get a mega Hollywood marriage. In the same story! This deal—AT&T selling Warner Media to Discovery—has me bursting with thoughts. As you’ll likely read in another outlet this week, I’m not a huge fan of “mergers & acquisitions”
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