Aug 9, 2022

According to new data, streamers, networks and theaters do not meet the audience's demand for animation.

Parrot Analytics, an industry leader in global audience demand measurement, held a web-based seminar last week showcasing the power of animation to attract large and diverse audiences around the world.

The webinar was led by Parrot analyst Adriana Pascale, who claimed that in the current content environment, demand for animation outstrips supply than most other categories the company tracks.

A summary of Parrot's findings is shared with Cartoon Brew.

In her presentation, Pascale divided all tracked TV productions into Animation, Action and Adventure, Kids, Comedy, Facts and Sports categories. Using demand data for these works, we concluded that since 2020 Q1, demand for animation has increased significantly more than any other category, just as Covid-19 began to spread. In fact, audience demand for animation has almost doubled in the past 2 and a half years. Meanwhile, supply has not kept pace.

Comedy, reality and documentary shows are all produced in larger quantities than animation, despite the low demand score among audiences. Streamers, networks and exhibitors need to pay attention, and Pascale argues that they need to increase the amount of animation they provide to their customers.

Parrot collects data from several sources to determine audience demand for film and TV content and to give a "demand score" for each title. According to the company, "Demand is a comprehensive audience measurement system that tracks and captures the interactions with 21st century consumer content." Parrot Analytics combines P2P consumption data with research, social media, and social video activity to determine cross-platform demand for content and talent to determine which series or actors are most likely to drive subscription growth."Parrot will use that data to see in the big picture where viewers are best served and where the platform can stand to improve, based on audience demand in the first half of 2022, Netflix is strong on anime, Prime is strong on preschool content, Disney+ has the most in-demand originals, and HBO is the most popular." Max has the most desirable adult anime catalog.

Netflix and Disney+ are currently the 2 streamers with the most animated content overall and the most in demand content.

Parrot splits animated content into more genres and categories than you would like to list here. The data, however, provides some interesting stories. For example, Japanese animation is the category of animation that is most in demand, with a fairly large margin. By genre, the most in demand animated content includes superhero shows, animated sitcoms and action fantasy.

Despite hitting Netflix last year, Riot Games' Arcane was still the most in-demand series in the first quarter of 2022 and was in the top 2% of all TV shows in terms of demand scores of 0.2%. The other animated series that boasted an exceptional demand score this year is Disney+'s What If...They were the two Star Trek animated series - Young Justice on Hbo Max, Invincible on Prime Video and Paramount+, and Lower Decks and Prodigy.

Another major topic of the day was what Parrot described as animation's "halo effect" on non-animated content available on streaming services. The study used demand score data collected over time to outline the peaks and troughs of franchises with both live-action and animated content.

Specifically, we showed how demand for anime content peaked when the corresponding live-action content was released, and vice versa. With the release of the Boys Season 3 Q2 in Prime Video, the Devil saw a big bump in engagement and landed in the top 2.7% of all TV shows for demand. Animated Batman content saw a similar spike when Warner Bros. "Batman" hit theaters, and Disney+'s What If series went viral again when Spider-Man "No Way Home" and "Doctor Strange" came out in a crazy multiverse. It was. Similarly, if a new animated series is released for a popular Ip, the demand score for old live-action entries from those franchises will in most cases increase significantly in demand.

Near the end of her presentation, Pasquale took the time to highlight the animation's excellent globalization capabilities, taking the popular Russian children's series Masha and The Bear as an example. Parrot uses its demand score to give every show a "travelability" rating. Ratings represent the demand for a title in a particular market compared to the demand for the same title in the country of origin. The travelability score of more than 60% was exceptional, and Masha surpassed that mark in the United States, Ukraine, Brazil and Italy, and also earned high marks in dozens of other countries.