Marvel, ‘Yellowstone,’ Bravo: Fandoms of all Shapes and Sizes Are the Backbone to Streaming Success
Big franchises have always been popular drivers of new content. The mad scramble by Disney to get IP machines like Star Wars and Marvel onto Disney+ is confirmation enough that companies see familiar titles as big potential cash cows. However, the importance of franchises in the streaming space doesn’t just apply to well-established genre and fantasy content.
Though much more difficult to build successfully, streaming services have not been shy about creating their own extended cinematic universes when they develop a hit, like the Paramount Network and Paramount+ have done following the success of cable’s most popular show “Yellowstone.”
The Taylor Sheridan-created Western family drama is a particularly interesting case of a home-grown franchise. The Kevin Costner-led drama has become one of the most-watched shows on TV since debuting in 2018, and has spawned multiple spin-offs set in the ever-expanding “Sheridan-verse.”
As shown below, viewership of “Yellowstone has increased every year since its premiere, and prequel series “1883” was the most-watched premiere in Paramount+ history when it debuted in December 2021.
“Yellowstone” Viewership Across Seasons
One of the biggest regrets that Paramount executives have had around the launch of Paramount+ (originally called CBS All Access) was that they did not maintain the streaming rights to “Yellowstone.” Even though the series debuted years before the streamer launched, the fact that NBCUniversal’s Peacock has made the show’s streaming rights a cornerstone of its service, execs view it as a major mistake; and one they won't repeat again in the future.
Paramount is continuing to expand the franchise in multiple directions. Not only is the next prequel installment “1923” set to debut in December 2022, but the studio also recently announced that spin-off “6666” would debut on cable’s Paramount Network, instead of on the company's streamer as initially announced.
More grounded, original content is not the only type of franchise fare that Paramount+ has invested in. Outside of the Sheradan-verse, the streamer has also invested heavily in Star Trek shows including “Star Trek: Picard,” “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” and more.
The competition for big hit franchises is fierce among streaming companies, and it doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon. Netflix famously paid $100 million for the streaming rights to “Friends,” only to lose the show to Warner Media’s in-house streamer HBO Max. The Harry Potter franchise has also become one of the most passed-around properties in all of streaming, landing on multiple services, sometimes for incredibly short amounts of time.
There of course is another kind of hit that is continuing to be a silent driver of viewers in streaming. Started as a partnership by the five major television networks, Hulu is now primarily owned by Disney — which controls 66% of the streamer. The final third belongs to Comcast, but the telecommunications giant decided to move all of the next-day rights to its linear shows from Hulu to its own streaming service [Peaock] later this year. The company got that ball rolling by transitioning its popular “unscripted” programming from the Bravo cable network to Peacock this spring.
While “The Real Housewives” and “Below Deck” will never have the cultural cache of the MCU or Star Wars, they still come with an intensely passionate fanbase, many of whom now consider Peacock an entertainment essential.
As the streaming market has matured, companies have begun to realize the strength of their own intellectual property and have begun opting to launch their own fully-controlled streaming services rather than selling rights to competitors.
Disney has been one of the largest beneficiaries of focusing on big franchises, and they’re looking to expand that advantage. Recently, reports surfaced that Disney is in talks to become the international streaming home of the next season of “Doctor Who.” That proposed deal would bring a large and devoted fan base to Disney+, with Disney hoping to keep those viewers engaged with other genre content.
The large tentpole properties in a streamer’s library serve as a gateway to getting customers inside the streaming door. Then, it is incumbent on the service to continue to provide additional content — from inside and outside the franchise — to keep consumers subscribed.
What companies like Disney must avoid, however, is oversaturation. By releasing multiple shows and films in a single franchise in a year, streaming services run the risk of exhausting their fandoms. Simple arithmetic suggests that the more content produced, the greater chance of poorly received shows and movies, which can be the death-knell of even the most popular franchises.