Insights

The most popular streaming television series in South Africa

1 May, 2019

Parrot Analytics has recently taken an in-depth look at the most popular streaming television series produced by SVOD platforms in South Africa by leveraging Parrot Analytics global TV demand data.

Please download the full 60 page report here, which also includes data and analysis for 9 other territories: South Africa streaming TV series report.

The top 20 SVOD original television series in South Africa

We measure the audience demand for television content around the world, factoring in all of the following and more:

  • Audience video consumption (streaming and downloads)
  • Social media engagement (hashtags, liking, sharing)
  • Consumer research actions (reading about shows, writing about shows, etc)

Demand for content is calculated daily for tens of thousands of TV shows in 100+ markets across all television distribution platforms: The more consumer effort is required, the more importance we attach to each of the factors above.

This approach results in the industry’s most advanced global TV demand measurement system, allowing us to provide insights on TV series that audiences the world over truly care about.

So, with all that in mind, here are our top 20 original TV series by a streaming platform for South Africa for Q1 2019:

Which Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu series are most popular?

We define a streaming original series as a multi-episode series where the most recent season was produced or first made available on a streaming platform.

By analyzing each TV series’ demand relative to the market average, we are able to classify each TV show into one of the following TV series performance brackets:

  • Below average (22.4% of all TV shows in South Africa)
  • Average (64.1% of all TV shows in South Africa)
  • Good (8.6% of all TV shows in South Africa)
  • Outstanding (2.7% of all TV shows in South Africa)
  • Exceptional (0.02% of all TV shows in South Africa)

The resulting TV audience demand distribution illustrates how a TV show’s popularity compares to the demand benchmark, which is a measure of the average demand across all titles.

The Parrot Analytics TV content demand distribution curve

A TV show in South Africa falls into one of the following performance buckets depending on how many times more or less demand it has compared to the market demand benchmark:

A TV show’s performance is market-specific, e.g. the same show can be in the “Average” range in the United States and in the “Good” range in France. As an example, if a show has 9 times more demand than the demand benchmark, it falls in the “Outstanding” performance range; only 2.7% of all shows in the market reach this high level of demand.

The audience demand for streaming original TV series in South Africa

We are therefore able to make the following observations concerning the top streaming television series for Q1 2019 in South Africa:

  • The most in-demand digital original series in Q1 2019 for South Africa is Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy.
  • Completing the three titles with the highest demand are Netflix’s You and Amazon Prime Video’s The Grand Tour.
  • The animated comedy Big Mouth and the drama Shadow, both from Netflix, rank higher in South Africa than in most markets.

Download the free TV streaming platform report for South Africa

Download this report now and discover the latest SVOD market demand trends for South Africa. Our comprehensive global TV demand report includes the following insights:

South Africa Domestic TV Insights:

  • We reveal the South Africa SVOD market share of the major platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and CBS All Access based on audience demand for each platform’s digital originals.
  • Discover how SVOD market share trends in South Africa have changedover the last 24 months.
  • Find out what percentage of the market for drama and action/adventure digital originals each SVOD platform has managed to capture over the last 24 months.
  • Discover the genre demand share for all digital originals in this market as well as the 10 most in-demand subgenres in this territory.
  • Find out the demand distribution of a selection of digital originals in this market.
  • Discover the top 20 digital streaming shows in South Africa, as well as 5 additional titles of interest to audiences.

Global Television Insights:

  • Find out the global SVOD market share of the major platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and CBS All Access across 100+ markets; this has been calculated based on the worldwide demand for each platform’s originals.
  • A TV industry update for Q1 2019 detailing important market events concerning SVOD services.
  • This report also includes data for the following additional territories: Belgium, China, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States.

Note: This version of The Global TV Demand Report does not include any market share information for as yet unreleased SVOD platforms such as Apple TV+ (Apple TV Plus), HBO Max by WarnerMedia / AT&T, NBCU / Comcast’s Peacock, Quibi and Disney+.

Parrot Analytics publishes this report each quarter, be sure to bookmark https://insights.parrotanalytics.com/tv to gain access to the latest available market share report across all SVOD platforms.

After reading this article you may have a few questions, such as “How can TV series and SVOD platforms generate demand in markets where they are not yet available?” Please make sure to read our methodology for demand attribution and also our knowledge base article on how Parrot Analytics defines a “digital original” series.



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