LISTEN: The Delicate Art of Releasing a Hit Streaming Series

If you’re a streaming service lucky enough to have a hit series on your hands, congratulations — now the hard part begins.

Keeping that series on the air, let alone growing its audience over time, can be a daunting task. But there are data patterns worth taking note of that can be helpful for programmers, according to a new Luminate study, “Release Strategies for Music & TV,” which examines everything from binge vs. weekly distribution to the risks of waiting too long between seasons.

LISTEN to the full conversation on Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast

“It’s not as simple as just the longer the break, the more viewership declines,” said the report’s author, Luminate analyst Tyler Aquilina, on the latest episode of the Variety “Strictly Business” podcast. “The correlation is not that straightforward. But based on estimated full-season views, if you take a long break, you will most likely see a drop in viewership.”

Aquilina cited examples including Netflix’s “Wednesday,” which took almost three years to return after a successful rookie season, only to drop nearly 60% upon its return. Another prominent series, Prime Video’s “The Rings of Power,” dropped almost as steeply after a two-year layoff.

Aquilina also explained that Luminate data pointed to binge releases tending to see big spikes in viewership but steep drops, while weekly releases maintain consistent engagement.

“I think the binge release is still kind of more common than a lot of people would expect among the major SVOD platforms,” said Aquilina. “About 40% of releases in the first half this year have been binge releases, so there is still definitely some value that streamers are extracting from this strategy.”

“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Friday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.