Explaining the Business of Entertainment
Deep dives into Nielsen and other data that provide insights into streaming.
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,
Before we start, let’s admit it: our minds aren’t really on streaming ratings right now, are they? The tragic news in Ukraine will likely draw your focus away from entertainment news. I don’t blame you. I’m there too. Still, I’m going to write this week’s report, because the streaming world
Want a little secret? I have a ton of fun writing these weekly ratings reports. More fun than I should. Each week, I have little mysteries to solve and unpack. Eternals had a big number this week, but is it doing better than Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten
Instead of the usual weekly report, last week we gave you something much better: a run down of the winners and losers of 2021. In case you missed, I published a few pieces last week, including: – The Winners of 2021: TV – The Winners and Losers of 2021: Film
Looking back on 2021, it probably ended up “weirder” than 2020. In 2020, theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, so nothing happened after March, outside of Disney and Warner Bros. trying to release Tenet and Mulan. Last year, in contrast, Warner Bros tried to release all their films day-and-date on
What a difference a year makes. In 2020, when trying to write who “won the year”, I had to parse multiple data sources, plus Covid-19’s lockdowns made everything tougher to judge what truly did well and what folks happened to stream for a few weeks in March. In 2021, with