☀️APPLE TV buys 2 seasons of Breaking Bad creator's new series
☀️APPLE TV buys 2 seasons of Breaking Bad creator's new series
IMAX's streaming purchase / FOX head goes to ROKU / NETFLIX changing Comedy special deals to save $$
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY September 23, 2022.
Where there was no immediate EMMY bump for “Abbott Elementary” on Wed night, as the show premiered to 2.9 Million viewers - the same as its average last year. But gotta think spreading news of the “Gritty” appearance should really give it a nice HULU bump.
OTHERWISE IN PREMIERE WEEK Night 3 ratings:
ABC:
“The Conners” led their night with 3.7 Million, up from last year
“Goldbergs” was down slightly at 2.5 Mil
“Home Economics” was about the same at 2.1 Mil
“Big Sky” was down a bit at 2.2 Million.
OR: 8p and 9p were strong, with valleys on either side.
CBS:
“Survivor”: 5 Million, -19% from last year’s debut
“Amazing Race”: 3.3 Million
NBC:
“Chicago Med”: 6.7 Mil, “Fire”: 6.4 Mil, “PD”: 5.5 Mil
FOX
“Masked Singer”: 3.7 Million, smallest premiere audience to date
“Lego Masters”: 1.5 Million
AND: Congratulations to NIELSEN and AMAZON for being as lame as I anticipated yesterday morning… indeed waiting a full week to announce the “TV” audience for “Thursday Night Football”. Err.. for the game last week, not last night. Guessing we’ll have to wait a full week for these every week now (tho in fairness, thinking this was AMAZON’s ‘tactic’ and not a problem at NIELSEN).
I mean… I’m sure NIELSEN was operating in a completely independent manner as - lo and behold… the audience number almost exactly matched the 12.5 Million guarantee that AMAZON made to advertisers.
11.9 Million on streaming
1.1 Million via league-mandated Local TV broadcasts in LA & KC
Of note: AMAZON advertising appears in those broadcasts as well so they get that $$ too.
KC: 550k TV viewers; KC metro area: 2.3 Million people.
LA: 602k TV viewers; LA metro area: 12.2 Million people. oof.
AND: AMAZON said the audience was actually closer to 15.3 Million according to their numbers, when you factor in “other devices”… without offering real specifics what that means. #shocking
That 15.3 Mil number would also just slightly beat the TNF premiere audience on FOX & NFL NETWORK last year.
But as NIELSEN’s are the only numbers Advertisers will pay against anyway, AMAZON can say whatever they like.
AMAZON got around $500k for a 30-second spot per Sportico.
Look - I’ll keep a good thought that the 2 companies are operating on the up & up here… but let’s just say my Jersey-senses are tingling pretty high. (it’s like a Spidey-sense for Jersey folk, and often accompanied by this 😏).
REGARDLESS: With this NIELSEN validation, we’ve just witnessed one of the major history-making shifts in the Streaming business to date, and I don’t know that it has settled in yet.
Granted - it’s a premiere week number and a long way to go with the season ahead… but it sets a precedent that I’ll get into on today’s Ankler Hot Seat podcast.
Subscribe here at SPOTIFY or APPLE or wherever you listen and you’ll get it as soon as it’s up TODAY.
IN THIS EDITION:
Steve McQueen sets lead for WWII APPLE TV pic
NETFLIX reportedly altering Comedy Special deals
FOX Network head goes to ROKU
Director Greg Mottola talks the lack of “Fletch” push plus his & Jon Hamm’s salary giveback
Big APPLE news day continues this morning: APPLE MUSIC is the new SUPER BOWL halftime sponsor - a look inside the deal
IMAX makes curious purchase in streaming tech biz, the weekend Streaming preview and more
THE FRIDAY POLL 2fer!
REMINDER: Ankler CEO Janice and I will be over at the APOS conference in Singapore next week (so yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how writing this newsletter from the other side of the world goes).
The Asian Pacific (APAC) region represents streaming's greatest subscriber growth opportunity for the rest of the decade. Remember - it’s the only region NETFLIX had any growth in Q2, and INDIA alone is an area of booming investment involving both US and major local players (no need to remind this crowd of the Cricket $$ numbers).
So don't miss Global Growth: Asia, our series of podcast interviews with big names from the frontlines of the region… which will be for Ankler paid subscribers only.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
