In this intriguing discussion, the pseudonymous Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive known for analyzing viewership trends, breaks down the hits and flops of 2024's streaming landscape. He examines the dominance of crime and drama series on Netflix and the surprising performance of high-budget shows like 'Rings of Power.' The conversation touches on the complexities of streaming ratings, the financial impact of production choices, and the future of superhero films, providing valuable insights into the ever-evolving streaming world.
The lack of standardized streaming metrics complicates the evaluation of show success across various platforms, highlighting the need for reliable data.
The contrasting performance of high-budget vs. low-budget shows indicates a shifting audience preference towards cost-effective, engaging narratives and reality programming.
Deep dives
The Impact of Streaming Ratings Data
The landscape of streaming ratings is currently characterized by a lack of standardized metrics, which complicates the comparison of viewership across various platforms. Despite Netflix's transparency initiative offering some data, many services like Apple TV Plus and Amazon Prime remain opaque, revealing little about their consumption figures. This dearth of information has led to the emergence of third-party data companies that attempt to fill the void by compiling ratings from available sources. Reliable consumption data is crucial for assessing the value of shows and films; without it, determining success becomes challenging.
Major Hits and Misses in 2024 Streaming
Sports programming has emerged as a significant winner in streaming, with events like Thursday Night Football dominating viewership and eclipsing most scripted series. In terms of original shows, 'Fallout' on Prime Video and Netflix's 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' have achieved notable success, indicating a strong audience interest in genre-centric content. Conversely, 'Rings of Power' by Amazon struggles to maintain high audience numbers, despite its substantial budget, and is increasingly categorized as a miss due to its declined viewership. These trends underscore that high production costs do not always guarantee viewer engagement.
The Power of Acquired Content
The trend of acquired library content has proven effective in boosting viewership for streaming platforms in 2024. Titles like 'Your Honor' and 'Dexter,' which previously resided on Showtime and Paramount Plus, have transitioned to Netflix, demonstrating a successful strategy for bringing in audiences looking for familiar shows. Additionally, older favorites such as 'Young Sheldon' continue to perform well after moving from Max to Netflix. This demonstrates that repurposing previously restricted content can attract viewers and enhance subscriber numbers significantly.
Sneaky Hits and Misses in Streaming
While big-budget shows such as Amazon's 'Pachinko' and Disney+'s 'The Acolyte' have not met performance expectations, lower-budget productions are achieving unexpected successes. Reality shows like 'Love is Blind' consistently rank among the top performers, illustrating that less expensive programming can still capture a massive audience. Meanwhile, docuseries and true crime content have shown that they can thrive with minimal budgets, attracting viewers effectively. The contrasting trajectories of high-budget flops and low-budget hits suggest that audience preferences are shifting towards cost-effective, engaging narratives.
Matt is joined by the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming exec, to sort through the mirky waters of streaming data and find out which streaming tv shows were actually hits, which were major flops, which were underrated successes, and which were bigger bombs than anyone thought (02:57) Matt finishes the show with an opening weekend box office prediction for ‘Kraven the Hunter’ (29:10).
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