Streamers are doubling down on franchise focus - is that bad?
Streamers are doubling down on franchise focus - is that bad?
More and more shows and movies based on existing franchises are being released, but that might not be in the best long-term interest of media companies.
When the announcement of casting for the roles of Harry, Ron, and Hermione for the new “Harry Potter” TV series hit the internet last week, it kicked off the inevitable firestorm of controversy from viewers outraged that fictional characters were to be portrayed differently from the image they’d created in their heads. But zooming out from that debate, the news highlighted a trend in entertainment that has been impossible to miss over the past decade: the increased focus on franchises as a source for content. While much of the handwringing over Hollywood’s lack of original ideas has been focused on the movies, the streaming industry is leaning into this trend as well. So, I thought now would be a good time to discuss whether or not that’s the wisest course of action for streamers to pursue.
Key Details:
- More IP!: The number of scripted spin-off series coming to TV and streaming in the years ahead is skyrocketing.
- Nothing new: TV shows have long relied on spin-offs as a way to keep fans engaged.
- Cautionary tales: Examples like “Suits LA” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe are lessons in caution for those who want to take advantage of franchises.
Lately, TV productions in the United States have an enhanced focus on developing titles from already-existing intellectual property (IP). According to new data from Luminate, the number of scripted spin-off series currently on linear TV and streaming has jumped 75% versus the same time in 2024, climbing from 28 to 49. An additional 56 series spawned from existing franchises are currently in development.
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From a spin-off of “The Office” dubbed “The Paper” to the myriad “Yellowstone” siblings currently in development, franchise fever has gripped Hollywood. Many of these shows are headed to streaming services, indicating that studios think of this content as the perfect way to continue drawing more engagement to their streamers as their linear channels falter.
While this can be frustrating to artistic purists, there is method to the studios’ madness. A 2023 survey found that viewers frequently used popular franchises to tell streamers apart from one another, and data has also shown that shows like “Yellowstone” have a halo effect, driving audiences toward other shows within the franchise and keeping them from canceling subscriptions as quickly as they would have otherwise.
As recently as May 2025, a study from Kantar showed that Paramount+ brought in the most new acquisitions in the first quarter of the year, and that almost half of its new customers came to the service for shows in the “Yellowstone” universe or other titles created by Taylor Sheridan. Clearly, the drive toward more franchise content is based at least in part on what customers are signaling they want to watch.
Historically, studios have long relied on franchises to help them keep bringing audiences back. As a Star Trek fan, I can attest to the successes and failures of this strategy; “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” is an example of a property that represents what I think of as the best the franchise has to offer, whereas “Star Trek: Section 31” was an abject disaster.
Other streamers should take those examples as a cautionary tale, and there are plenty of other such tales available for those who would heedlessly plunge into the world of IP-based content. Take a look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for one; Marvel used to rule the box office every time it released a new film, but in the past five years, the only MCU films to break $1 billion at the global box office were “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” films that have unique, and somewhat tenuous behnd-the-scenes connections with the MCU.
On the TV side, there have also been recent high-profile failures in trying to mine franchises for new material. “Suits LA” on NBC was born out of the sudden re-emergence of “Suits” when the original series exploded in popularity on Netflix starting in 2023, and the series premiere of the new show netted 4.8 million views. But Luminate’s data shows that when the season (and series) finale of “Suits LA” aired, its viewership had plummeted by more than 50%.
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To be sure, a show being a part of a franchise isn’t the only determining factor of whether or not it will actually be a success. But continuing to make shows set in the same IP universes can be limiting for creatives who feel constrained by narrative guide rails, and that makes threading the needle of creating consistently good content from the same franchise harder and harder with each title released.
I think the storytelling format on streaming, which differs from that on linear TV in many cases, can be a hindrance. Look at linear TV franchises like ‘Law & Order” or the “FBI” family of shows; these series have more than 20 episodes per season to tell a story, but the bulk of the airtime is focused on procedural storytelling. Since each episode tends to have its own storyline, with season-long threads weaved in along the way, there is plenty to keep people coming back, even if the overall narrative of a particular season doesn’t grab fans as much as other years.
Streaming shows don’t really work that way, with the exception of Peacock’s procedural crime comedy “Poker Face.” New spin-offs of shows like “Dexter” or “Billions” that are intended to anchor a particular streamer typically have only 10 to 12 episodes to tell their story arc every season. If that arc doesn’t get the audience buzzing, it can easily lead to the studio deciding it’s not worth the money to create a second season, especially given the enhanced focus on streaming profitability that has arisen in recent years.
For all the talk of franchise fatigue among audiences, viewers will almost certainly give a title originating from their favorite IP a chance when it is released. But streamers have to take care in the future to avoid oversaturating their platforms with franchise content, or they risk alienating and exhausting audiences to the point that they may simply never come back, convinced that a given service doesn’t have what it takes to create good content from those franchises.
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