This post is a section from Antenna's 2021 Year in Streaming Report. If you are interested in receiving the full report, contact brendan@antenna.live
Like its linear TV predecessor, Premium SVOD can be a hits-driven business.
The Super Bowl has long been the most-watched event every year on linear television. In 2021, The Super Bowl was also the king of streaming. Antenna found that CBS All Access (since re-launched as Paramount+) garnered over 750k Sign-ups on Super Bowl Sunday(February 7, 2021), making it the biggest day of user acquisition for any service in the year.
In the wake of COVID lockdowns, several media companies experimented with moving major feature films originally slated for exclusive theatrical releases to their streaming services. Those films, including Godzilla vs. Kong, Mortal Kombat, The Boss Baby: Family Business, PAW Patrol: The Movie, Cry Macho, and Halloween Kills, were major drivers of user acquisition to their respective services.
Antenna data indicates that Paramount+ earned 26.6M Sign-ups in 2021 - the greatest amount in the category. Almost 5M of those total Sign-ups to the service took place around major content moments.
Peacock saw the greatest share - nearly one in four - of its 2021 Sign-ups to have taken place around major content moments. In addition to the titles noted on the Daily Sign-ups chart, Peacock saw upticks in Sign-ups around moments such as The Office arriving to the platform, WWE events, and Premier League soccer.
Brendan Brady is a Content Strategy Associate at Antenna, a measurement and analytics company providing insight into purchase behavior and subscription metrics across the new media landscape.
