In the Streaming Gold Rush, Westerns Are Hidden Treasure | Chart

Streaming platforms are always on the lookout for untapped opportunities to gain a competitive edge in the industry. With an ever-growing volume of content being produced, diminishing returns from franchise shows, and shifting audience preferences, it’s crucial for platforms and networks to focus on identifying whitespace opportunities — those underrepresented or underserved but highly popular content categories — when making strategic decisions.

Parrot Analytics’ Demand 360 can pinpoint some of these over-performing genres by comparing the average demand multiplier (how popular a genre is) with its supply share (the portion of the total catalog that genre occupies) on major SVOD¹ platforms in the United States.

Mainstream genres like drama, comedy and animation continue to dominate the industry due to their broad appeal. These genres, which fall into the blue quadrant of the chart, boast both high supply and high demand. Comedy, animation and action, in particular, are thriving.

However, the data suggests that drama, the largest genre, may be approaching saturation on streaming platforms, with demand lagging behind the other genres.

The real opportunity lies in the green quadrant, which highlights genres with low supply but high demand. Westerns stand out in this category, showing the highest average demand in Q2 2024 among all genres on major SVOD platforms, despite having one of the smallest supply shares. Other genres with significant whitespace opportunities include science fiction and horror.

The chart offers a glimpse of how the entertainment industry can leverage data to identify opportunities and allocate capital more effectively in an increasingly competitive landscape. With rising capital costs putting pressure on companies, making smarter content decisions is more crucial than ever.

The Western genre, in particular, has experienced a resurgence on TV since the release of the first season of “ Yellowstone .” The show’s popularity has led to the creation of a franchise, with the prequels “1883” and “1923” following suit. The man behind the franchise, Taylor Sheridan, has been capitalizing on this whitespace opportunity and additional prequels and spin-off series have been announced, such as “6666,” “1944” and “The Madison.”

Most of the most popular Western shows fall under what could be called neo-Western, which combines modern and classical themes in a Western setting, demonstrating that genres are dynamic and quickly adapt to audience tastes.

(¹Check the chart notes for the list of platforms considered.)

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