Boldly moving to disrupt yet another dicey corner of the media and entertainment business, Penske Media Group showbiz trade Variety said Thursday that it will soon begin publishing weekly top 10 lists for original streaming movies and TV shows culled from data generated by Penske's own Luminate research business.
Starting March 24, Variety will publish two weekly rankers, one for TV shows and another one for films, based on minutes viewed in the U.S. for subscription streaming platforms AMC Plus, Amazon Prime, Discovery Plus, Disney Plus, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount Plus and Peacock.
Variety has for decades published audience performance data from Nielsen, which now also publishes weekly rankers on the performance of streaming shows. However, our own deep dive into Nielsen streaming rankings discovered numerous issues in regards to methodologies and accuracy. Perhaps worse, Nielsen's "Streaming TV Top 10" delivers performance data that is a month old.
Also read: Who's No. 1 in Subscription Streaming? Muddled Metrics Methodologies Make Matters Murky
"Luminate’s new model offers visibility through multiple, differentiated data sources and powerful data science," a Penske press rep told Next TV via email that, "Existing alternative offerings from other companies have limitations or higher risk for inaccuracies that include: they have no verified consumption source, and instead rely on social media, BitTorrent and public search; they also rely on research panels that often skew female and older, [and are thus] not reflective of the full audience; and they have delayed reporting of up to 30 days."
Luminate's platform refreshes daily, the rep added, "and these charts will be updated weekly."
In October 2020, Penske Media Group formed a joint venture with MRC, then the financially strapped owner of The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and other publishing brands. Among the operations put under PMC's control at the time was the data collection unit behind the venerable Billboard music charts.
In March 2022, the erstwhile P-MRC Data was rebranded as Luminate. And under PMC's watch, Luminate has been developing its so-called "Streaming Viewership" product that will be showcased weekly by Variety.
"Data transparency surrounding SVOD viewership remains a pressing issue within the entertainment industry," said Mark Hoebich, executive VP and head of film & TV for Luminate, in a statement. "After two years of development, we are eager to provide this valuable information to all relevant parties with our new Streaming Viewership product, and we are grateful to Variety for being our official partner in delivering that data to the public each week.
"Having already proven our reliability with our more than 30 years working with Billboard to fuel their iconic music charts, we're confident that the information we are sharing in these new charts will help unify the industry for a singular reference point surrounding streaming viewership," Hoebich added.
