Attenborough Dominates Online Audience Demand Data. U.S. / UK Top 20 for Documentaries & Factual (Q2 2017)

David Attenborough is 90 and still the Alpha.

That’s the message from Parrot Analytics‘ Top 20 rankings of online audience demand for programs in the Documentary & Factual category for the U.S. and UK for Q2 2017.

Driving the rankings are:

• Big Brands.
• Big Talent.
• And the True Crime, Blue Chip Natural History and Science genres.

Today’s Post

• Here is the U.S. Top 20 (with my added notes on the platform, genre and format)
• Plus my Takeaways.
• Then follows the UK Top 20 and brief Takeaways, exclusively for DocumentaryBusiness.com.
• The post ends with a recap from a previous post that introduced Parrot and the Demand Expressions metric.

U.S. Documentary & Factual
Top 20 Demand Expressions ®
Apr 1 to Jun 30, 2017

Planet Earth Trailer

TAKEAWAYS

Classification

• Parrot’s findings help us understand the relative appeal of programs and content brands outside traditional networks ratings analysis.
• Like BARB, Nielsen and other ratings agencies, Parrot’s coding of programs isn’t always spot on.
  • The news magazines “48 Hours”, “60 Minutes” and “Dateline” are a stretch in the Documentary & Factual category, though they do punch up the appeal of crime-themed programs.
  • And “When We Rise” is a dramatic series.
• The list also mixes anthology strands (“30 for 30”) with repeating series, single docs and limited series.
• And you can sell soap off a Nielsen or BARB rating, but not yet off this online metric.
• But for all that, the particular titles and the relative scale of each show’s demand are highly deserving of our focus.

Genres + Talent

• Crime, Blue Chip Natural History and Science are the strongest genres.
• “Planet Earth” earned 55% more demand than the runner up, Netflix’s crime series “The Keeper”.
• David Attenborough (#1, #3 and #19) is the dominant talent.
  • That’s a fantastic achievement for an admirable 90 year-old.
  • He ranks high on the UK list below.
• Anthony Bourdain, Bill Nye and Morgan Freeman also show the advantage of a long career.

Brits & Brands

• British creativity and funding are powerful forces behind the U.S. rankings:
  • For UK productions and formats, see #1, #3, #11, #18 and #19.
• Huge brands dominate:
  • BBC, Netflix, PBS, HBO, A&E, Nat Geo, ESPN, the broadcast networks, and more.
  • But I can’t see Discovery. Or History. Or Amazon?
  • And hats off to the relative minnows, Science (#20) and Oxygen (#16).
• “The Keepers” is a very meaningful result:
  • With no pre-sold personality or national crime story coverage like “O.J.”, its impact underlines Netflix’s huge market power.

Fizz

• Some old shows keep fizzing, while others (e.g. Amazon’s Jeremy Clarkson) seem not to.
• It will be interesting to track over time the titles that keep or lose the buzz.

Leah Remini: Scientology & The Aftermath

UK Documentary & Factual
Top 20 Demand Expressions ®
Apr 1 to Jun 30, 2017

Quick Takeaways

• Amazing how similar are the U.S. / UK Parrot lists:
  • There are only 6 new shows or personalities on the UK list.
  • Attenborough ranks #2, #6 and #14.
• And yet the UK Sizzling 60 Factual which I published last week, reveals that for broadcast and cab/sat channels, British viewing preferences are worlds’ apart from American ones.
• Interesting that History (#20 Hitler) and Travel (#19) scrape in.
• And no royal-themed shows?
  • Let’s see if the Diana anniversary makes an impact in Q3?

More on Parrot

• Parrot Analytics is a technology and data science company that measures global demand for television content.
• Parrot recognizes that consumers express their demand for content through various “demand expression platforms” including:
  • Video Streaming Platforms
  • Social Media Platforms
  • Photo Sharing Platforms
  • Blogging & Microblogging Platforms
  • Fan & Critic Rating Platforms
  • Wikis & Informational Sites
  • Peer-to-Peer Protocols
  • File-Sharing Platforms

Global Standard: Demand Expressions®

• Parrot developed Demand Expressions®, a metric that captures cross-platform audience demand for content around the world.
• It measures the desire, engagement and viewership of content across multiple sources.
• Demand Expressions is weighted by importance: a stream or a download is a higher expression of demand than a passive impression or a comment.
• It measures the total audience demand being expressed for a title, within a market, and from a multitude of sources.

Read my recent coverage of Jeremy Clarkson and Parrot Analytics here.