Month: June 2022

In what was arguably the most anticipated weekend ever in streaming, the first seven episodes of Netflix’s Stranger Things Season 4 squared off against the latest release from the Star Wars canon, episodes 1 and 2 of Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. To better understand the impact of these new streaming releases, we dove into the viewing data for both series during May 23-May 29, 2022, using Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings, which provides syndicated measurement of programs and episodes by streaming service. 

Despite the slightly earlier release of Obi-Wan when compared with the new Stranger Things content, the previously available seasons, coupled with the number of episodes released, resulted in an insurmountable minutes viewed advantage for team Stranger Things. The kids from Hawkins (the fictitious town in Stranger Things) delivered 5.1 billion viewing minutes across the four seasons compared to 1 billion for the famous Jedi knight. But it’s important to understand the overall context of both of these premieres, and the underlying calculations. To date, we have been looking at streaming audiences based on minutes, but here we will add other statistics for additional perspective and comparison. 

The release of Stranger Things Season 4 made it only the third title to ever break the 5 billion weekly viewing minute mark and places it third overall (Tiger King had 5.3 billion and Ozark notched 5.2 billion, both during the pandemic lockdown period in March 2020). The current seven episodes of Season 4 (two more are to follow in July) accounted for over 4 billion minutes by themselves.

For Disney+, Obi-Wan Kenobi represents the largest original series premiere weekend ever on Disney+, and it is only the third non-movie title on the streamer to exceed 1 billion viewing minutes. (Loki also did it twice in July 2021 but with five episodes and the following week with six).

But minutes viewed provides an advantage to programs that have more content either through multiple seasons, more episodes or longer duration episodes. From a “minutes available” perspective, Stranger Things has a distinct advantage in all three categories with 32 episodes versus two for Obi-Wan Kenobi, as well as longer durations within those 32 episodes. But for a more direct comparison of the two premieres, we will focus on the first episode of each release (Stranger Things Season 4, Episode 1 and Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 1, Episode 1) and look at the total viewers in the average minute of each episode.

Aligning the two episodes, it’s clear that Disney+ had a solid start with projected viewers in the average minute on Friday. In that case, the first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi achieved a 4% advantage over the corresponding Stranger Things episode (6.2 million total viewers vs. 6.0 million total viewers) and won the first full day of availability. However, looking at the entire premiere weekend tally, Stranger Things Episode 1 attracted 12.7 million viewers in the average minute versus Obi-Wan Episode 1’s 11.2 million viewers.

Conversely, when we look at minutes viewed, the difference in episode duration (53 minutes for Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 1, Episode 1 vs. 76 minutes for Stranger Things Season 4, Episode 1) becomes more apparent and, along with the receptive consumers themselves, helps provide Stranger Things with a 38% advantage for Friday and a 63% tilt by the end of the weekend.

No matter how you calculate it, streaming has kicked off the summer of 2022 with two blockbusters, much to the delight of viewers who responded with a combined 6.2 billion viewing minutes.

And with more releases scheduled throughout the next few months, we’ll continue to monitor Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings, which enable our clients to understand audience behavior across linear and streaming content to most effectively position and value their programming. The Streaming Content Ratings service provides coverage of content across Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, AppleTV,+, with plans to expand to other services in the near future.

While the pandemic may have been the catalyst for accelerating streaming adoption among the masses, it’s clear that audiences are making streaming a permanent, and growing, part of their lives. In fact, April marked a milestone for streaming, as for the first time, audiences spent more than 30% of their total TV time watching over-the-top video content.

In addition to increased time spent, audiences, particularly AANHPI consumers, are finding more representation on streaming services than on broadcast and cable television. Last year, AANHPI representation on streaming services was more than double that of broadcast or cable. According to Nielsen Gracenote Inclusion Analytics, AANHPI share of screen grew by 80% last year. But inclusion isn’t just increasing across streaming services. Overall Asian representation across cable, broadcast and SVOD increased 31% last year.

With more representative programs, comes more culturally relevant content. This increase in representation is bringing multi-generational households together for a shared content experience. On Disney+, for example, young Asian American viewers aged 18-24 watched AANHPI content with someone aged 65-74 nearly 8x more than Disney+ audiences overall. This trend continues across streaming platforms—on Netflix, co-viewing between these two age groups was 4.3x higher than audiences overall.

Disney’s Turning Red, which was originally released direct to consumers in the U.S. on Disney+, highlights both the power of representational content and co-viewing. The family-friendly movie about a young girl coming of age struck a chord with AANHPI audiences of all ages. The movie was among the most streamed titles in first-quarter 2022¹, and drew a multigenerational Asian audience far exceeding the average audience. 

Asian viewers aged 75+ streamed Turning Red with kids in the home at nearly 3x the rate of viewers in the age group overall. And, the week following its premiere, 1.5x the number of Asian American 65-74 year-olds watched the movie with kids in the home. 

All of this co-viewing can mean big opportunities for content creators who want to tap into the booming U.S. AANHPI audience—the Asian American community has experienced 39% growth in the last 10 years²  and had 2.1 trillion minutes of viewing power in 2021³. 

And while there has been progress in representation of Asian Americans on screen, media content still falls short in meeting the demands of audiences who want more accurate portrayals. The results of a recent Nielsen Attitudes on Representation on TV Survey found that the majority of Asian Americans feel there is not enough representation of their identity group on TV, and when they are seen on screen, they feel the portrayal is inaccurate.

AANHPI audiences want to feel seen, and are increasingly gravitating to culturally relevant content as rich as their own experiences, on platforms that offer the most choices. Content creators that can tell nuanced, authentic stories about the Asian American community can tap into a powerful, engaged—and multigenerational—audience. 

For additional insights, download our AANHPI report—Confronting myth and marginalization: Asian American audiences and on-screen representation.

Notes

1. Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings
2. 2020 U.S. Census Bureau
3. Nielsen Media Impact viewing minutes 2021