Explaining the Business of Entertainment
Deep dives into Nielsen and other data that provide insights into streaming.
By my count, we had 38 new releases on streaming this week—which is a lot—including 25 TV series and 10 films. And fortunately not all of them are desperate to win an Emmy! (Thankfully.) Before digging into the ratings, this Streaming Ratings Report will be a little different. if you’re
Any big news stories this week? Let me check: Oh dear, that will inspire lots of noise and coverage. (Want my thoughts? I don’t value executive shifts as much as some, which I’ve explained before and in this Twitter thread today.) How can I tie this to the streaming ratings? Some
If there’s anything critics love complaining about, it’s that there’s too many sequels. Well, guess what, I got “sequel-itis” too! This week, a follow-up to our blockbuster segment, “Foreign Film Failures”… [As a reminder, if you want to keep getting the Streaming Ratings Report each week, sign up on Substack.
Here’s a weird one for you: Netflix released five shows on a Wednesday, 27-Apr-2022. You don’t normally see that. Netflix also had two big releases on Friday, as did Prime Video and Apple TV+. Interestingly, Paramount, Hulu and HBO Max released their big shows this week—reminder the week from April
[Editor’s Note: As you may have read, I’m putting up a paywall on 16-Jun-2022. For the next month, you can expect a few reminders from me about this. I’m trying to balance the thin line between being obnoxious and also making a living writing about entertainment strategy. If you haven’t
(In true EntStrategyGuy fashion, I wrote a “short” 2,000 word article on why you should subscribe to my Streaming Ratings Report. But that wasn’t enough to explain why I’m putting up a paywall. For in-depth explanations on the Streaming Rating Report, read the following articles: – We Have Streaming Ratings
Viewership was light this week, likely because the streamers were saving the big guns for the end of the month/May to help improve their Emmy nomination chances. When the top film/show this week has under 20 million hours of total viewership, that’s pretty low. That’s the lowest film or show
Planning this week’s streaming ratings report I had a weird thought: Is this really the future of TV? Remember back when Netflix and Prime Video started making original content? Those shows were buzzy! Orange is the New Black! House of Cards! Transparent! The Man in the High Castle! Streaming was
This week had two of the weirder entrants in the “streaming” category. (As a reminder, “this week” means the week that started 28-March-2022, since Nielsen has a four-week delay before their streaming ratings come out.) First, CNN+ came. And then went, thirty days later. They had a host of original
Having written this report for over a year now, I’ve started to get a feel for the flow of content. And I have to tell you, this week (remember the week starting 21-March) is the quietest in a while. Possibly because the other streamers (rightfully) avoided the the big beast