Netflix continued its experimentation with sports-related content this past week with its latest golf documentary, “Full Swing,” jumping into the top streaming charts.
Featuring the biggest names in golf, including Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and Brooks Koepka, the first two episodes of “Full Swing” scored for the streamer, securing two of the top 10 programs on the streaming charts last week, according to the latest Wrap Report, which highlights TV viewership trends collected from Samba TV’s panel of more than 3 million households drawn from over 25 million connected TVs, and balanced to the U.S. Census.
The timeliness of the series’ launch also capitalizes on the buzz generated by ongoing controversies around the PGA and LIV golf tours. While Netflix has made passing attempts to secure the rights for smaller sporting events in the past, it has so far focused the bulk of its efforts on delivering impactful documentaries and sports-themed shows designed to draw in those same audiences that would otherwise be attracted to live events.
Live sports has found a particularly strong niche drawing in younger viewing on streaming services this year. Whereas NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” consistently underindexes in Millennial household viewership for example, Amazon Prime’s “Thursday Night Football” overindexes Millennial audiences by a whopping 82%.
The most likely move for Netflix is to secure the rights for a sporting league that can be aligned with its scripted programming. That includes “Full Swing”; “Break Point,” featuring some of the world’s most talented tennis players; the popular “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” series which just completed its fifth season and has helped to drive broader appeal for the sport in the U.S.; and “The Last Dance” docuseries featuring basketball legend Michael Jordan. Netflix has shown a desire to play ball with sports content and as the streaming wars continue to intersect with the battle for sports rights, we will likely see more sports migrate to the streaming medium audiences now prefer.
This past week also saw the continued dominance of Paramount’s “Yellowstone”-verse to rustle up audiences with a duo of episodes from the Taylor Sheridan-produced “1923” starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren landing at No. 2 and No. 5 on the weekly leaderboard. In just the first two months of 2023, Paramount+ has already had double or more the number of programs in the weekly streaming top 10 than any streamer other than Netflix, with key franchises powering it to that position.
Topping the streaming charts for the second week in a row is Netflix’s latest rom-com, “Your Place or Mine,” starring Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher, notching the most-watched spot.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe also continued to show its strength as Disney+’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” scored the No. 3 spot for week.
Continuing the trend from last week, Netflix’s fourth season of psychological thriller “You” garnered four chart-topping spots (Nos. 6-7 and 9-10), illustrating the success of the streamer’s partial season release model, dropping five episodes on Feb. 9 to help build interest before the final drop on March 9.
On the linear broadcast front this week, talent competitions on three major television networks, including NBC’s “America’s Got Talent: All Stars,” ABC’s “American Idol” and “The Masked Singer” airing on Fox all topped the charts (at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5, respectively).
In a trend that continues to dominate on linear, dramas again pulled ahead of most other scripted genres as CBS’s “FBI,” and “FBI: International,” NBC’s “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire” and “Law & Order” all ranked atop the charts. Season three of “The Equalizer” starring Queen Latifah was back on television this week and ranked in at No. 8 while the spin-off prequel to “The Big Bang Theory,” “Young Sheldon,” delivered for CBS at No. 7.
Dallas Lawrence is the SVP and head of communications and brand at Samba TV, a WrapPRO partner. For more from Samba TV, click here.
