Nielsen released their Top 10 Streamed Programs for 2020 (U.S.) in three categories:
- Originals,
- Acquisitions and
- Movies.
Their key metric is Minutes-Streamed-per-Show.
- In the Originals category, the Top 10 is led by OZARK with 30.5 billion views in 2020.
- TIGER KING is #4 with 15.6 billion views.
When I looked deeper into the data, I saw positive news for Unscripted / Documentary professionals.
Here is the list:
TOP STREAMING CONTENT OF 2020 – ORIGINAL SERIES
Rank | Program | SVOD Provider | # of Episodes | Minutes Streamed (Nearest Million) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OZARK | Netflix | 30 | 30,462 |
| 2 | LUCIFER | Netflix | 75 | 18,975 |
| 3 | THE CROWN | Netflix | 40 | 16,275 |
| 4 | TIGER KING | Netflix | 8 | 15,611 |
| 5 | THE MANDALORIAN | Disney+ | 16 | 14,519 |
| 6 | THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY | Netflix | 20 | 13,470 |
| 7 | GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW | Netflix | 65 | 13,279 |
| 8 | BOSS BABY: BACK IN BUSINESS | Netflix | 49 | 12,625 |
| 9 | LONGMIRE | Netflix | 63 | 11,382 |
| 10 | YOU | Netflix | 20 | 10,965 |
See: TOPS OF 2020: NIELSEN STREAMING UNWRAPPED (January 12, 2021)
TIGER KING wins the Streams-per-Episode race
- I re-ranked the Top 10, adding a new measure of success: Minutes-Streamed-per-Episode:
- There were 30 episodes of Ozark, and only 8 of Tiger King.
- Tiger King (2 billion) doubles Ozark (1 billion) in Streams-per-Episode.
| Rank | Program | SVOD Provider | # of Episodes | Minutes Streamed (Nearest Million) | Minutes Streamed / Episode (Million) |
| 1 | TIGER KING | Netflix | 8 | 15,611 | 1,951 |
| 2 | OZARK | Netflix | 30 | 30,462 | 1,015 |
| 3 | THE MANDALORIAN | Disney+ | 16 | 14,519 | 907 |
| 4 | THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY | Netflix | 20 | 13,470 | 674 |
| 5 | YOU | Netflix | 20 | 10,965 | 548 |
| 6 | THE CROWN | Netflix | 40 | 16,275 | 407 |
| 7 | BOSS BABY: BACK IN BUSINESS | Netflix | 49 | 12,625 | 258 |
| 8 | LUCIFER | Netflix | 75 | 18,975 | 253 |
| 9 | GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW | Netflix | 65 | 13,279 | 204 |
| 10 | LONGMIRE | Netflix | 63 | 11,382 | 181 |
Per Subscriber Streams
Let’s take my back-of-envelope analysis a bit further:
- There were on average around 70 million U.S. Netflix subscribers in 2020.
- The average Minutes-Streamed-per-Subscriber was 28 for Tiger King, 14 for Ozark and 3 for Great British Baking Show.
Unscripted Power!
The Nielsen data testifies to the economic power of the Unscripted category:
- The estimated production cost of a premium unscripted episode is a fraction of the cost of top scripted series.
- The estimated budget of:
- Tiger King – $2 million / episode
- The Crown – $10 million per / episode
- Its not quite apples-to-apples because The Crown is a multi-season series…
- However, we can make a case that in 2020 Tiger King (1.9 Bn) gathered 5 times the Minutes-Streamed-per-Episode versus The Crown (0.4 Bn), and at around 20% of the cost per episode.
My Big Takeaway: “So what?”
- You might be asking: “What does that Reality freak show Tiger King have to do with my documentary project?”
- The biggest winner of Tiger King’s success is the Netflix Unscripted team who developed the series.
- Their success gives them a green light to expand their pipeline to commission more unscripted Originals, ranging from Reality to curated feature documentaries.
Television is a copy-the-leader business:
- Disney+ (with Nat Geo), HBO Max and the others competing for streaming market share all see the unscripted category as an undisputed pillar of their future success.
- And that’s a good thing for the documentary community!
- It somewhat offsets the trend for the channels to trim their spend on commissions as viewers continue to shift to streaming.
TOP STREAMING CONTENT OF 2020 – ACQUIRED SERIES
There’s another important Takeaway from the Nielsen data:
- The Total Minutes Streamed of reruns of Netflix’s top ranked Acquisitions far exceed the performance of Originals in the U.S.
- Below are the Top 5 Acquisitions.
- However, Netflix Originals build the brand: They ignite the buzz that wins awards and attracts / retains subscribers.
- Tiger King (28 ) and Ozark (14) also earn more views per subscriber per episode than The Office (4.3) and Grey’s Anatomy (1.4).
| Rank | Program | SVOD Provider | # of Episodes | Minutes Streamed (Nearest Million) | Minutes Streamed / Episode (Million) | Minutes Streamed per Ep per Sub (Million) |
| 1 | THE OFFICE | Netflix | 192 | 57,127 | 298 | 4.25 |
| 2 | GREY’S ANATOMY | Netflix | 366 | 39,405 | 108 | 1.44 |
| 3 | CRIMINAL MINDS | Netflix | 277 | 35,414 | 128 | 1.70 |
| 4 | NCIS | Netflix | 353 | 28,134 | 80 | 1.14 |
| 5 | SCHITT’S CREEK | Netflix | 70 | 23,785 | 340 | 4.85 |
Nielsen’s Streaming Report
- Don’t miss the full report here TOPS OF 2020: NIELSEN STREAMING UNWRAPPED
More to Read / Listen
- Netflix’s 3.3 Bn Minutes Viewed in a Week for THE CROWN. What it might mean for Unscripted. Dan Salerno’s Takeaways
- And coverage of how The Crown lit a social media fuse under the documentary DIANA IN HER OWN WORDS. A podcast with Tom Jennings.
- And Selling MY OCTOPUS TEACHER TO NETFLIX. My podcast with Ellen Windemuth.
