Netflix Release Strategies... May 6, 2020
David Graham writes: The Last Dance is a sports documentary focusing on the Chicago Bulls between 1997 and 1998. It follows Michael Jordan and his team as they begin a quest to win a sixth NBA title in eight years. It was compiled from over 500 hours of footage captured by a crew with an all-access pass to the Bulls during the NBA season.
The first two episodes of this 10-part series debuted on Netflix last month, on Monday 20 April. Two more episodes are being released every Monday until the series wraps up in the UK on 18 May.
The story of its Netflix release is interesting. Launched on April 20th it's 3rd in the Netflix rankings for the UK by the 23rd.
When the next two episodes are released it jumps into 4th place immediately and stays in the top order of the top 10 for three days.
The following two episodes do even better –– straight to No 1 in the UK rankings and still there as this is being written.
Two more episodes will come on the May 11th, two more after that on the 18th.
For a completely different release strategy look at Too Hot to Handle from UK company Talkback.
Launched on the April 17th it went straight to No 2, and was at No 1 by the 23rd. It descended slowly down the list, disappearing from the Top 10 by May 4th. (We are promised a reunion on the May 8th.)
A pretty strong performance but with a very different curve! Obviously binged, and targeted at the 16-34 audience that has turned Love Island into such a strong franchise for ITV2.
I've only started tracking Netflix release patterns over the last six weeks. Some are traditional, if adapted to its unique role in the new entertainment landscape (although two-eps-at-a-time has been an occasional on traditional TV). Some may be novel. What else have they come up with? I’ll keep watching.
BTW: basketball is now the second most popular sport played in the UK by 11- to 15-year-olds.
NOTES: The Last Dance comes from ESPN Films and Netflix, and is produced by Michael Tollin. Too Hot to Handle comes from Talkback and was created by Laura Gibson and Charlie Bennet based on an episode of Seinfeld called “The Contest”. Love Island’s 6th series has sadly been cancelled because of the coronavirus epidemic.
