Netflix’s 3.3 Billion Minutes Viewed in a Week for THE CROWN. What it might mean for Unscripted. Dan Salerno's Takeaways

by Dan Salerno

“Netflix users watched more than 3 billion minutes of The Crown in the week of Nov. 16-22”.

That’s The Hollywood Reporter’s headline for its coverage of Nielsen’s latest streaming rankings.

Nielsen noted that two thirds of The Crown’s viewers were over the age of 55.

That inspires a question:

Does the older demographic represent an opportunity for streamers not found on the linear channels?

The Old “No Oldies!” Model

Historically, almost every linear channel targets Adults 18-49 or A25-54, and/or Male/Female skews within those age brackets.
That’s how the channels satisfy their advertiser base.
Advertisers have shunned the 55+ demographic, largely based on presumptions of established brand loyalty.
A network’s success is based primarily on delivering the younger demographics to the advertisers.
The model has gone largely unchanged for decades.

The New “Oldies Also Pay!” Streaming Model

However, older is not old in the SVOD environment: a 60 year old’s $12.99 has the same value as a 44 year old’s $12.99 and a 21 year old’s $12.99.
As the non-fiction brands, with their heavier 55+ audiences in tow, expand into the SVOD space, are there new opportunities to be found?
discovery+, with its signature brands HGTV, Food, TLC, ID, Discovery, Animal Planet, and more, will be launching in January and inclusive of A&E/History content.
National Geographic is already on the Disney+ service.
And Smithsonian Channel is on CBS All Access (rebranding as Paramount+ in 2021).
30-45% of the total audience for each of these linear brands is 55+. (Source)

What Does It Mean for Unscripted Producers?

Could a liability in the linear space become an asset in the digital?
As program strategy shifts to a Digital First/Linear Second business model, what impact would a 55+ opportunity have on commissioning choices?
History, Space, Aviation, Wildlife, Home, Pets/Vets do well with the 55+ viewers.
Could there be an increased appetite for these genres as the non-fiction based SVOD services kick into gear in 2021?
I believe the short answer is: Yes! The devil is in the details still taking shape.

Watch this space for more of Dan’s context and analysis in 2021.

Peter’s Takeaways: What’s 3 Billion?

Fascinating analysis, thx Dan.

You reveal how the Covid-accelerated shift to streaming has knock on effects across the entire eco-system, and is shaping programming choices.

Here are my quick thoughts:

Not all streamers are subscriber-based.
- Many like hulu, Peacock and the planned discovery+ offer both ad-free and ad-supported models.
- I wonder if pressure from advertisers will slow down how the streamers open up to topics and treatments preferred by oldies.
Netflix keeps its data under tight wraps. What does “3 billion minutes” mean?
- Netflix reports 190 million subs worldwide.
- That’s 18 minutes of The Crown viewed per sub.
- There are 40 episodes from Season 1-4.
- That’s 26 seconds viewed per episode per subscriber for Netflix’s marquee show in the week of Nov 16-22.
Here’s a more meaningful way of looking at these numbers:
- The Crown and therefore the Netflix UI (User Interface) enjoyed 3 billion subscriber exposures in one week.
- That’s around 30 billion for The Crown season 4.
- And that’s just one of Netflix’s cascade of original series now that they’re spending nearly $20 billion / year on programming.
- Its a mind-boggling achievement for a company that not that long ago was dropping red DVD’s into my letterbox.
- Next week, I’m moving on to the most spectacular streaming story of the year: Disney+‘s 90 million subscribers!

What THR wrote:

Netflix users watched more than 3 billion minutes of The Crown in the week of Nov. 16-22.

The Crown ascended to the throne in Nielsen’s streaming rankings for the week of Nov. 16, setting a record in the process.
The Netflix series had the highest single-week total to date in the streaming rankings, with viewers watching 3.36 billion minutes of the show from Nov. 16-22.
The previous high was 3.01 billion minutes for The Umbrella Academy from Aug. 3-9.
About two thirds of the total viewing time for The Crown was for season four, per Nielsen.
The second highest share of minutes went to season one, suggesting that some viewers used the new season as a catalyst to rewatch or start watching.
The ratings service also says that about two thirds of The Crown’s viewers were over age 55.

About Dan Salerno

Discovery and Nat Geo veteran exec Dan Salerno is our regular commentator on all things programming.
You can read Dan’s bio here – and listen to one of his several podcasts.

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