Did ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ and HBO Max Just Break Nielsen’s Weekly Streaming Metrics Tracker?

By
( )
published

Warner cried foul when its movie was left off the Christmas-week top 10 SVOD rankings. After revising those rankings, the research company hasn’t published a new list since

Wonder Woman 1984
(Image credit: WarnerMedia)

Since September, Nielsen had been offering that rarest of insight in the fast-emerging business of streaming video—third-party audience metrics. 

For now, that seems to have ground to a halt. Nielsen hasn’t published its weekly top 10 SVOD rankings since January 22, when it reported that Disney Plus’ Soul led the Christmas-week frame (Dec. 21-27) in total minutes streamed by U.S. viewers. 

Subsequently, WarnerMedia successfully pleaded a case to Nielsen that its DC Comics-inspired superhero movie sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, actually garnered more streaming minutes during that same week. And Nielsen made what it described as a one-time exception, including HBO Max metrics for the first time, and putting WW84 on on a revised ranker that it labeled an “addendum.” 

Also read: WarnerMedia Gets Nielsen to Revise Xmas-week Streaming Rankings, 'Wonder Woman 1984' Now No. 1

“The big news last week was that Disney Plus took its first back-to-back first place finish with Soul following the prior week’s winner, The Mandalorian. But as we looked at the other distributors, it was obvious that another important story was developing,” Nielsen said in a statement.  “In conjunction with our clients at WarnerMedia, we are sharing this initial preview into HBO Max — and Wonder Woman 1984 in particular. Please note:This is a one time view as we work toward introducing the data externally.”

Previously, Nielsen’s ranker only accounted for the four subscription video-on-demand services with the biggest U.S. subscriber bases: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney Plus. During its fourth quarter earnings call, AT&T reported just over 17 million U.S. subscribers for HBO Max, giving it less than half the subscribers of the smallest member of that quartet, Disney Plus. 

Daniel Frankel
Daniel Frankel

Daniel Frankel is the managing editor of Next TV, an internet publishing vertical focused on the business of video streaming. A Los Angeles-based writer and editor who has covered the media and technology industries for more than two decades, Daniel has worked on staff for publications including E! Online, Electronic Media, Mediaweek, Variety, paidContent and GigaOm. You can start living a healthier life with greater wealth and prosperity by following Daniel on Twitter today!