…and they are not as high as you might think.
These days for any business data is king, queen and often the keys to the castle too – in the media sector one of the big data secrets has just been exploded.
For years only Netflix new the viewership to their shows – now in the UK at least – those figures are out.
For many of us, especially those who have made a career in commissioning and exec producing ratings winners, there are few surprises. On any given night – linear (that’s old fashions) tv usually wins out, but the real deal with Netflix is the longevity of its shows in the on-demand digital streaming world.
It’s no wonder the traditional broadcasters are racing to keep up and roll-out new players, better tech and more on demand content.
As Advanced Television very nicely put it:
While Netflix and other streaming services have clearly established themselves within the television-viewing ecosystem, broadcasters continue to account for the lion’s share of viewing in the UK. Across 2022, broadcasters’ linear channels and on-demand services have accounted for around two-thirds of all identified viewing, while SVoD/AVoD services comprise about one-sixth of all viewing. The average daily viewing time to broadcasters’ services was 159 minutes in September 2022, and the average for SVoD/AVoD services was 36 minutes per day.
These are key figures when it comes to Netflix launching its advertising funded layer – advertisers want to see the eyeballs and the demographics they are buying in a format that compares easily where they are placing their spend. In reality Netflix had little choice but to join the industry audience measurement system. Disney has been there for a while already.
It’s tough out there for broadcasters and streamers – in my post of September 30 I showed how much value major media tech companies had lost in value last year (and it hasn’t got any better for them since then).
Netflix face many battles including losing key shows to streaming services owned by the broadcasters – services that didn’t exist when Netflix first launched.
For example, as Ampere Analysis recent work shows – in August 2015 Netflix was holding 72 per cent share of the 100 most popular SVoD titles in the US. But in the last seven years, Netflix has seen a steady decline to under 30 per cent of key titles
Josh Rustage, an analyst at Ampere Analysis says Netflix sure knows how to create its own hits now though “However, despite the declining proportion, Netflix still has a higher share than any other SVoD platform and boasted five of the top ten most popular titles in August 2022,” he said. “This can partly be attributed to its focus on producing original content and acquiring high-quality exclusives. Netflix Originals such as Stranger Things and Bridgerton have held the top spot among all US SVoD titles for six out of the first eight months in 2022.”
So back to the ratings where the second week of data has now been released. It includes all viewing measured by BARB (the UK version of Neilson) on a TV set, a desktop or laptop plus tablet and smartphone.
In the first week, Enola Holmes 2, with Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things fame playing the lead role, was their top SVOD show with 2.11 million viewers.
In week two the most-watched episode of Netflix’s new series of The Crown attracted 2.87according to BARB.
In the week beginning November 7, Netflix made up the top 22 most-watched SVOD shows in Barb’s list, with Amazon Prime Video’s Mammals starring James Corden the first non-Netflix show on the top SVOD show list.
But to put these figures into content – the most watched show of the week was ITV’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! which dominated the weekly top 50 shows, making up the top seven, with its most-watched episode reaching 11.3 million viewers across all devices on 21 November.
That figure is a multiple of the Netflix figures and shows how this transparency may help the more traditional broadcasters and content owners win in the headline wars.
Obviously I’m a Celeb… and Strictly Come Dancing (the UK name for Dancing with the Stars) and the semi-final of Great British Bake Off, which were all major ratings winners that week, are appointment to view television.
It would be good to see the data for drama / scripted content stripped out of the research and then we can truly understand how the conventional players and the streamers are competing on the new, leveller playing field.