Explaining the Business of Entertainment
Deep dives into Nielsen and other data that provide insights into streaming.
Friend of the website Kasey Moore, of What’s on Netflix fame, on Twitter encouraged anyone who wrote “House of the Dragon vs. Rings of Power” comparisons to add Dahmer to their analysis. Need to start including DAHMER in the LOTR vs HOTD articles I think! https://t.co/uwGa6CqpJ7 — Kasey Moore (@kasey__moore)
I’m a pinch jealous of Sonny Bunch’s take from a few week’s back. His headline says it all: First, great Star Wars reference. Second, he’s absolutely right that Amazon has secured a slight edge in the streaming wars by adding a key piece to Prime Video: sports. In today’s report,
I usually don’t read anything about Nielsen’s streaming ratings before I write the Streaming Ratings Report each week. (In their press releases, Nielsen usually includes some insights to the data.) My goal is to find my insights/stories/narratives before I see what’s dominating the coverage. But this week, I couldn’t help
What’s the old cliche? If you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life? Well, then I’m barely doing work here. I love writing these streaming ratings reports. There’s something about pulling together lots of data and finding insights that brings me joy. And if you had
Today’s battle is the fight we’ve been waiting for since 2017. Two of the most expensive shows of all time from two of the biggest franchises of all time squaring off…and debuting within two weeks of each other! Lord of the Rings versus Game of Thrones. The Rings of Power
Sometimes the sheer number of releases in streaming takes my breath away. Despite having no notable new releases this week, Netflix still managed to have seven new releases…just on Tuesday August 23rd! Sure, some of those are foreign titles—Netflix is a global streamer, so they have to release titles for
It’s weeks like this where I just love my job. I’ve been excited, all summer, for the “Hot August Genre Wars” and this week, we finally got it! You may not share my love. In fact, judging by some of the hot takes I hear on podcasts, you may hate
This week is the calm before the genre storm. (And, luckily, an actual tropical storm isn’t making landfall tomorrow in LA, so that’s a win.) It’s the second week in a row with no series or films getting over 30 million hours viewed. Prime Video had a buzzy title with
Each week, as a little game to help double check my priors, my researcher/editor and I guess where new TV shows and films ended up on the Nielsen and TV Time charts. This week’s dialogue went something like this: Me: Want to guess what film was number one film this
Another week, another boatload of Netflix shows. Sure, they release a lot of stuff, but this week felt notable even for them, with Keep Breathing, The Most Hated Man on the Internet, Car Masters: Rust to Riches (season 4!), and Uncoupled all coming out in the same week. And that’s