• Amid the ongoing content contraction, series renewal rates are shifting in unexpected ways.
• Still, the industry remains driven by fundamental questions of a show’s viewership weighed against its cost.
• Survival in a crowded and cutthroat TV landscape is difficult everywhere, but there are factors that ensure success.
Tracking renewed and canceled TV series was once as simple as monitoring three networks’ schedules each fall, but with more platforms, distributors and titles now at play than ever before — not to mention the arcane nature of streaming viewership data — keeping tabs on television’s full slate can be incredibly overwhelming. Indeed, the rise of SVOD has brought with it such headaches as months or even yearslong waits for new season orders and, at times, cancellations that aren’t announced at all.
This is why annual renewal rates — the share of series granted another season on a platform, service or network each year — are a better gauge of what’s working on TV than tallies of canceled shows. The latter count can miss titles that may have been quietly shut down already, while renewal rates can serve as barometers for the health of an individual network or an overall platform (e.g., SVOD or cable), especially when considered with the vital context behind the data.
The Luminate Intelligence special report The Show Must Go Off digs into this context along with the latest data on renewals across the TV landscape. One key takeaway that emerges: Despite the added complexity now factoring into the TV business, renewals and cancellations still largely come down to straightforward questions of viewership versus cost.
As such, Luminate’s streaming viewership data, coupled with in-depth analysis of series slates and programming strategies, offers a detailed picture of the decisions driving what comes and goes on TV.
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