Explaining the Business of Entertainment
Deep dives into Nielsen and other data that provide insights into streaming.
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
Before we dive into he streaming ratings this week, check out my two articles from last week. – “U.S. Streaming Subscriber Estimates For Q4 Of 2021”. This is my semi-regular take on the number of paid, U.S. subscribers for the major streamers. Here’s the key visual: If you want the
Since most of my readers are fairly devoted followers of the streaming wars, I bet most of you think this week’s biggest story is the titanic showdown between Turning Red and The Adam Project. And you’d be wrong! The bigger story “content”-wise in my mind—and I love to zig when
I know it’s April Fool’s Day today, but as much as I love this holiday, this newsletter is still serious-ish journalism, so I’m not going to make up anything. In my experience, bad statistics just get taken as fact more often than real, often boring truth. (You may have seen
The international content wave is coming! Of the 39 streaming shows or films released during the week of 14-March, 16 were non-English language. For the week of 1-April, 10 of the 21 were non-English language. I wish I had been collecting this data for longer, but c’est le vie. I’m
After what felt like a few slow weeks—or months—without huge news, this week had some pretty big developments. MGM and Amazon is happening! Netflix is testing their strongest response to password sharing yet! Disney got Indian Premiere League rights! With all that news, my “most important story of the week”
As a reminder, each week I mainly cast my gaze back in time four weeks, since that’s when we get Nielsen’s U.S. data. And this report focuses on the U.S. because: 1. It’s still the biggest single market for streaming. 2. It has the most competition. 3. It’s the leading
This week represents a fun squaring off of streamers. Not the usual battle of the titans–Netflix versus Disney+–but Hulu and Prime Video, featuring two releases couldn’t be more different. Let’s dig in. (Reminder: The streaming ratings report compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, TV Time trend data,