Parrot Analytics Genre Trend reports reveal which genres and subgenres appealed to a market's audiences the most during the quarter.

The key questions investigated in this report include:

1. Which genres are most in-demand for Canadian audiences this quarter?

2. How do genre trends in Canada compare to global trends for the quarter?

3. Which subgenres are most in-demand for Canadian audiences this quarter?

4. For only digital original series, what genres are most demanded by Canadian audiences this quarter and how is this different to the overall shares?

For all titles, which genres are Canadian audiences demanding most?

• In Canada, drama content still holds by far the largest share of demand of all genres. With American medical drama Grey’s Anatomy leading the charge, 34.0% of all Canadian demand this quarter is for a drama series.

• Globally, comedy is the second largest genre in this quarter. Canada is no exception to this with 16.3% of Canadian demand for series being for a comedy title.

• The reality genre takes a strong third, accounting for 14.2% of all demand expressed in Canada between January and March 2021.

How do Genre Demand Shares in Canada compare to global trends?

• In Canada, reality television series have a much higher share of audience attention than the global average. Worldwide, the reality genre accounts for 10.4% of expressed demand. The Canadian figure of 14.2% represents an increase in share of +3.8%. Canada’s most in-demand reality series this quarter is RuPaul’s Drag Race.

• The increase in attention for reality comes at the expense of drama, which has a -7.1% demand share in Canada compared to the global average.

• The comedy, children and documentary genres also benefit from increased audience attention in this market.

For all titles, which subgenres are Canadian audiences demanding most?

• Canadian audience enthusiasm for crime dramas and sitcoms is almost equal, with both subgenres accounting for 8.3% of demand. Crime drama is slightly larger, with AMC’s Better Call Saul the quarter’s most demanded series in this subgenre.

• Crime drama is one of only three drama subgenres in the top ten. This is fewer than the global average for the genre, in line with the smaller Canadian demand share for drama.

• Canadian audiences are fond of animated sitcoms. The animation subgenre is not in the global top ten for this quarter but is 8th largest here. Comedy Central’s South Park is the most demanded of these series.

For digital original titles, which genres are Canadian audiences demanding most?

• In the digital original market, streaming platform original series are not fully supplying the high Canadian demand for reality. The genre’s digital original demand share is 3.7%, -10.5% less than the overall market. Canada’s most in-demand digital original reality series this quarter is Netflix’s Nailed It.

• Conversely, the streaming originals are meeting the Canadian demand for comedy series. The genre’s demand share here is +1.9% on the overall market, exceeding even the overall Canadian market increase over the global average.

• The most important genres to streaming platforms in Canada are the action/adventure and drama genres, which overindex against the full market by +9.8% and +5.2% respectively.

This report is intended as a high-level overview of genre trends in this market. To access more granular genre demand trends for specific platforms, types of titles, timeframes and more, please contact your Parrot Analytics representative.

For more information, check out the most up-to-date Canada television industry overview.