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 British audiences this quarter?

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

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

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

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

• Between July and September 2020, British audiences expressed the most demand for series in the drama genre. 39.1% of all demand expressed was for a series in this genre, with the most demanded drama being the BBC’s Doctor Who.

• Comedy is the second most demanded genre with a 15.2% share of UK demand. The most in-demand comedy over these three months is NBC sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

• British audiences express high levels of demand for series in the reality genre, which is the third most demanded. Reality shows account for 12.4% of all expressed demand, with ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent being the most in-demand series.

How do Genre Demand Shares in United Kingdom compare to global trends?

• The high level of British audience attention for reality series stands out when compared to global averages. The demand share for reality series in this market is +3.1% higher than the worldwide average demand share.

• Similarly, the demand share for variety series is +0.7% higher.

• This comes at the expense of the drama genre, which has a -3.5% lower share than the world average.

• The British demand share for animation is also lower than most markets as it is -1.2% smaller than the global average demand share.

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

• Crime drama is most demanded subgenre both in the UK and globally. In this market, the subgenre is 1.5 times more demanded than the second largest subgenre, sitcoms.

• The UK has one subgenre that is different to the global ten most demanded subgenres. Thriller does not appear, with British audiences preferring procedural dramas. Britain’s most in-demand procedural drama in these three months is CBS’s Criminal Minds.

• One reason for the low animation demand share in this market is a comparative lack of demand for anime series in the UK. While anime remains one of the ten most in demand subgenres, with a share of only 2.3% it only just makes the chart. For comparison, this is around half the share that anime has in neighboring market France.

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

• When only digital original titles are considered, the British demand share for drama series remains the largest share. Compared to the drama share for the overall market of 39.1%, the share for digital originals is +3.9% higher at 43.0%.

• In the UK digital original series market, action and adventure series are substantially more important. Almost one fifth of all expressed demand for digital originals is for an action and adventure series. The most demanded series in this category from July to September is Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy.

• Although British audiences have a high demand share for reality series overall, this is not yet being reflected in the reality digital original demand share which accounts for only 2.4%. The most in demand digital original reality series for these months is Netflix’s Nailed It.

• However, the digital original platforms are almost exactly matching the overall UK market demand for comedy. The difference between comedy’s digital original demand share and overall demand share is only 0.1%.

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 United Kingdom television industry overview.