Image: Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Netflix
With a variety of local options and Netflix’s recent expansion into 130 new international markets, SVOD platforms have truly proliferated around the world.
Many of our analyses focus on the top titles in a certain market, but here we will take a global view and analyze the top markets for SVOD digital original series, both overall and by platform and title. Data on these shows is notoriously sparse, but using Demand Ratings™ we can determine where these platforms and titles are most popular.
By averaging the Demand Ratings™ for all digital original series on five major SVOD platforms—Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Crackle and Yahoo— over the month of February in 50 markets, the markets with the most overall demand for these series can be found:
Unsurprisingly, the United States, the home of all five platforms, has the most demand for the digital original series. Other English-speaking markets, such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand, also rank highly, since most of these titles are in English. However, other markets on this list may be a surprise: Netflix only recently expanded to some of these markets, like India, and the other SVOD platforms are not present at all in many of them. Despite a lack of access, these markets have high demand for the digital original series.
Of course, not each SVOD platform has the same level demand in each market. To evaluate where the digital originals for each platform has the most demand, we average the Demand Ratings™ by platform and market in February:
Through this analysis, we can see that demand for Crackle’s content is highest in Canada, while the United States is third. Kenya has the second-most demand for Hulu’s original series, ahead of other major markets such as the United Kingdom. Despite its position as the top market overall for SVOD digital original series, the United States is only the top market for Netflix and Hulu. Breaking down demand by platform and market can reveal new opportunities for SVOD platform expansion.
If each SVOD platform is popular in different markets, then it is logical to assume that the titles from each platform are most in-demand in different markets as well. Even if the platform does not have a presence in that market, it may sell its digital originals to buyers in that market, aided by the knowledge that certain titles have high demand. To test this idea, we first find the top show on each SVOD platform by average global demand in February:
For each of these titles, we then find the top five markets where they are most in-demand:
While Community and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee are the most popular in the top markets for their platform (Australia for Yahoo and Canada for Crackle), this consistency is not found for the other top titles. Amazon has the most demand for all its originals in the United Kingdom, but the UK is fifth in terms of demand for Amazon’s top title, The Man in the High Castle. For Hulu, its top show Casual is not as in-demand in the United States as in Kenya. Netflix’s top title in February, Orange is the New Black, shares no top countries with its platform. These differences indicate that the popularity of an SVOD platform’s catalog is not driven by, or indicative of, demand for the top title.
Based on this analysis, it becomes clear that demand for digital originals—as a whole, by platform, and by title—is a global phenomenon, with markets from around the world, despite limited access, expressing high interest in these platforms and titles.
