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
| Title | Average Demand Expressions ® | |||
| 1 | Planet Earth | 7,469,268 | BBC-A, AMC, Sundance, Netflix. Series | |
| 2 | The Keepers | 4,818,259 | Netflix Original. Crime series | |
| 3 | Attenborough & The Giant Dinosaur | 2,468,795 | PBS Nature. Special | |
| 4 | 30 For 30 | 2,280,754 | ESPN. Sports doc strand | |
| 5 | 48 Hours | 2,211,582 | CBS News magazine. Crime themed | |
| 6 | 60 Minutes | 2,052,168 | News magazine | |
| 7 | Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown | 1,862,301 | CNN. Food series | |
| 8 | Leah Remini: Scientology & The Aftermath | 1,774,545 | A&E. Series | |
| 9 | Making A Murderer | 1,773,635 | Netflix. Doc series. Crime | |
| 10 | Vice | 1,714,385 | HBO series. | |
| 11 | River Monsters | 1,644,479 | Animal Planet. Series. | |
| 12 | Bill Nye The Science Guy | 1,439,184 | Library series. Special. | |
| 13 | O.J.: Made In America | 1,368,607 | ABC / ESPN, Hulu. Documentary | |
| 14 | Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey | 1,352,133 | Fox / Nat Geo. Series | |
| 15 | Dateline NBC | 1,342,407 | NBC News mag. Crime themed | |
| 16 | Snapped | 1,294,017 | Oxygen. Crime series | |
| 17 | When We Rise | 1,251,620 | ABC. Drama. Gay rights | |
| 18 | Who Do You Think You Are? | 1,243,383 | TLC. Family history format | |
| 19 | Attenborough At 90 | 1,166,558 | BBC special | |
| 20 | Through The Wormhole w Morgan Freeman | 1,158,203 | Science. Series | |
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.
UK Documentary & Factual
Top 20 Demand Expressions ®
Apr 1 to Jun 30, 2017
| Title | Average Demand Expressions ® | |
| 1 | The Keepers | 1,346,498 |
| 2 | Planet Earth | 752,605 |
| 3 | Making A Murderer | 494,821 |
| 4 | 48 Hours | 390,321 |
| 5 | River Monsters | 348,330 |
| 6 | Attenborough & The Giant Dinosaur | 321,980 |
| 7 | The Jinx: The Life & Deaths Of Robert Durst | 321,165 |
| 8 | Wheeler Dealers | 279,600 |
| 9 | Leah Remini: Scientology &The Aftermath | 236,090 |
| 10 | O.J.: Made In America | 231,162 |
| 11 | George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces | 221,987 |
| 12 | Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown | 215,949 |
| 13 | Who Do You Think You Are? | 201,325 |
| 14 | Attenborough At 90 | 199,464 |
| 15 | 30 For 30 | 198,034 |
| 16 | Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey | 197,124 |
| 17 | When We Rise | 193,263 |
| 18 | Last Chance U | 187,573 |
| 19 | Travel Man: 48 Hours In… | 168,367 |
| 20 | Hunting Hitler | 167,939 |
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.
