Neilson VS Streaming.

[lucaslesann23]

Seeing that the networks have supposedly stopped showing the ratings, I was just wondering if we know how the 4 soaps do on their networks respective streaming platforms Because i heard a few times they do "well". And days is the #1 show on NBCs App. and if we do is it a big leap compared to the neilson numbers, Like if days numbers are 1,5 Million on TV are they 1,6 on the NBC app.

[Errol]

Numbers for streaming are not publicly available and if they are, it’ll come from the networks themselves since they would know all the specifics without Nielsen coming out and saying what their estimations were. Estimations wouldn’t be fact since the networks would know the facts in terms of total viewers, overall views (minutes watched), and the demographics watching (based on age of subscriber). However, we’d have to trust what the networks say as the truth and not biased in any way. And that’ll never happen. 
 

With that said, it is highly doubtful that any show is rated based on total viewers. For instance, “Bridgerton” is one the biggest shows ever on Netflix. The streaming service said more than 80 million households/Netflix subscribers watched at least the first two minutes, which is the threshold they use to gauge viewership. 
 

Similarly, Nielsen tracks the top 10 streaming shows and movies, separately and together, using the metric of total minutes watched each week based on the total minutes available for a program. The shows are reportedly getting hundreds of millions of minutes of viewing time or a billion depending on the program. Only Netflix and a mix of Disney Plus, HBO Max and Amazon from time to time gets anywhere near the top 10 of Nielsen’s tracking. The soaps would need to stir a massive buzz to even get a pinch of those numbers for us to ever see their stats. 
 

If I had to guess, I’d say that the soaps and most streaming shows get small cable numbers in terms of viewership on a streaming platform And by cable numbers I mean in the thousands, but way less than 100,000. These platforms survive on the overall number of programs it offers for the cost it charges. No single show is generating the monthly revenue, and most shows do not breakout on a platform where it always ranks number one or in the top 10 without creating some social buzz in the process. Take “The Mandalorian,” “WandaVision” and “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” for Disney+ or “The Flight Attendant,” “Wonder Woman: 1984” and “Godzilla vs Kong” did for HBO Max. Solid debuts. Held up mostly well in released numbers, but those numbers either came from a press release by the platforms themselves or Nielsen. You could tell the success of something by the buzz it generated on social during the week it was originally watched even if the numbers didn’t come out for several weeks. 
 

The soaps have an old audience. Let’s be real. When “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” were going online, we had so many people bitching about watching it for free on Hulu (when Hulu had a free option) or paying a buck or two on iTunes. This was during an era when streaming was blowing up with shows like “House of Cards,” which was getting all the Awards buzz. Fans of yesterday and today still watch the soaps at great majority on their TVs. Not a platform or app. And when the networks list the “popular” shows on their websites it is based on visits to the webpage mostly. Not on people watching full episodes which helps, but that’s not what solely takes it to the top of their respective sites. 
 

[Cruising Soaps]

Yes but how long ago did those soaps go streaming?  It has changed greatly since Covid.  I think more people are streaming. 

[DramatistDreamer]

It's very unfortunate that there was so much complaining and whining about the format. I often think that soap fans have no foresight in terms of what can happen down the road.
Neither AMC nor OLTL were "my shows" (I grew up watching CBS soaps, for the most part) but I was eager to watch these shows, thinking that perhaps the show of support would encourage other producers to want to 'dust off' other cancelled soaps and revive them, on a less ratings-focused platform, where they could get a little more time to build and grow. Yes, Prospect Park was a mess, but there might have other production companies who might have gotten the impetus to join the trend, and they might not have been a mess. Who knows?
And all those people saying "I would've watched if it had been streaming on Netflix". Well, Netflix cancels shows the fastest of all the major streamers, so there was no guarantee that these reboots would have been renewed. Hulu was hardly the hinterlands of streaming platforms. I wish that fans of these shows would take the time to think and ponder the possibility that a genre that skews as old as daytime soaps might not get another chance to see another soap stream anywhere other than in bootleg clips and episodes of varying degrees of quality now because there was so much moaning and whining on previous efforts.

 

 

 

 

And you're right, House Of Cards was extremely popular, so there obviously was a mainstream audience watching dramas on streaming platforms.

 

As The World Turns fans keep talking about when AOL provided a streaming platform for that show's episodes but I guess that was seen as acceptable since ATWT was still airing on a terrestrial broadcast platform, rather than solely in cyberspace?

 

It would be nice to see a day when ATWT, GL, etc. could be streamed on Paramount+ but we'd only get soap opera die-hard fans complaining about the shows not airing in their regular T.V. time-slots.

Edited April 18, 2021 by DramatistDreamer

[Gray Bunny]

 

The 2013 AMC/OLTL Hulu reboots were a wee bit ahead of its time. Yes, you had popular shows solely available through streaming, but even 8 years ago, widespread streaming wasn't as commonplace as it is now. These days, if I forget about viewing a primetime network show (think dramas like This Is Us or A Million Little Things), it's available on Hulu the very next day. Millions of people have become conditioned to streaming versus recording (or watching live, which is practically unheard of nowadays, haha). 

 

It'd be awesome if they tried to reboot a soap again with a stronger production company backing it up. Chances are, Days of Our Lives will become a Peacock or Hulu exclusive show in the next 5 years. 

[Faulkner]

And it would be a thousand times better. I know people are used to just tuning into their local affiliates to watch, but these shows will never thrive creatively on the broadcast networks. Let them move to streaming with a reduced episode order (with daily rollouts with a seasonal break or two-to-three days a week instead of the typical Netflix dump), and let the broadcast daytime lineups be the wastelands they’ve been for the past 20 years. 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Faulkner

[pdm1974]

I agree that the AMC/OLTL reboots were a few years ahead of their time. People were freaking out about watching online, and now much of the audience does so for many shows. I think if the shows were cancelled now and then moved online they would have had a much better chance.

 

I could see DAYS moving online, on Peacock for instance, in some format. It may not be a 5 times a week thing, but it may give the show a chance to reinvent itself.

[DramatistDreamer]

 
I hope that there is a second chance, but sometimes there are no second chances, especially for a genre that is often thought of as belonging to an era that has come and gone. I do hope that at some point someone can see the possibility of trying again.

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by DramatistDreamer
sew??? Ugh

[Vee]

I think it will take time. But if it happens I firmly believe the Hulu shows - and similar models, like Degrassi on Netflix - pointed the way. I detailed my thoughts on how I would prefer to see it done in DD's status feed of all places a few days ago. I do not think simply porting DAYS or GH or whatever 5 days a week with the same model and constraints to Peacock or Hulu is an answer, either.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

That was a pretty good status discussion.

 

Here's your quote:

"You can do the soaps for 30 minutes at 2-4 episodes a week tops like the UK. You can airdrop them in a package on streaming, 30-40 episodes done in seasonal blocks, arc-based then let them take months off, like PC did with its production schedule but with an actual break in broadcast/release. It's perfectly doable and it's something Linda Gottlieb experimented with (and never fully abandoned, IMO) 30 years ago at OLTL. Also something Degrassi kind of did more recently. "

________________________

 

Still, a fair number of soap die-hards expect the 30-60 minutes, 5 days per week format when it comes to their favorite soap. I even heard chatter demanding that Netflix do this. When has Netflix ever streamed a daily show??

 

I feel like a fair number of soap fans would still have to be taught the vagaries if online streaming because they still don't get it.

[Vee]

They watch lots of things that aren't 5 days a week. They'll get over it. More now than in 2013, I daresay.

[te.]

I don't even think you necessarily need to "airdrop" entire "seasons" these days - if anything, it does seem like a lot of streaming services are experimenting with some sort of weekly release (The Flight Attendant went 3-2-2-1 episode(s) per week). Which makes sense - the advantage of dropping episodes weekly is that people come back and inevitably look at other content. Daily releases might be too much, but I could see a model where they plan on releasing episodes 2-3 times a week depending on which days they usually release new shows to get the maximum amount of exposure for those shows.

[Faulkner]

Netflix has released The Great British Bake-off and a few reality series on a weekly basis, which has worked well. It also sustains the social media chatter over a longer period of time. Not sure WandaVision would have had the legs with just a dump...

[Vee]

 

I was covering my bases. As I said, In a perfect world I would want to see 2-4 episodes released weekly, unless the streamer insisted otherwise. (I do like the idea of some weeks having more episodes than others - 2 one week, 3 or even 4 another.) But you'd film them in a 30-50 episode block and write for a seasonal arc. Then take a break, come back, do it again. 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Vee

[titan1978]

I think that production model is key- produce a bock of episodes (30 to 50), and write for a seasonal arc, take a production break, then do it all again.  They absolutely must have better scripts and better writers than any of the currently airing soaps have.

 

Also people talk about Netflix and streaming like it is so different- they still have cliffhangers, they still often have long term character arcs.  Soaps are still the format when done correctly that a character just showing up at someone’s door could be a cliff hanger.  All it takes is the right casting and correct writing and the audience will invest.

 

If anything, Bridgerton should have told these stupid network and soap people that there is an audience for diversity and romance, two things severely lacking on their shows.