Study Finds Growth in Reality-TV Streaming
Streaming-video viewing of reality-television programming is on the rise, according to a new study by 7Park Data.
The firm’s newest study of OTT viewership found that reality-TV viewing is up 10.3% from one year ago on Hulu and up 28.3% on Netflix — making reality one of the biggest growth genres for the two services.
The increases for reality series programming come as Netflix plans its first major unscripted original series, “Ultimate Beastmaster” from executive producer Sylvester Stallone. “Unscripted television is a very interesting business,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said at a conference in December, adding that the company is focusing on shows that are “more likely to travel internationally.”
History programming was also a big gainer on both services, up 32.1% on Hulu and 70.1% on Netflix. Family programming gained 36.1% on Hulu and 9.6% on Netflix. Documentary-series programming gained 9% on Hulu and 11.5% on Netflix.
Horror showed the steepest decline on Hulu down 42.4%. Sports-related programming was the biggest decliner on Netflix, down 21.8%
Analytics company 7Park Data tracks subscription video on-demand usage from an international panel of more than 1 million users. The company released its new OTT report based on data culled from that panel Thursday. The study compared viewing in December 2016 versus the same month a year earlier.
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