Disc an 'Unstoppable monster'

[Wowbagger]

ST: Discovery is an "unstoppable monster"? Pshaw. Wake me when it's ravaging the ratings like a giant space-going tardigrade. Then we'll talk.

Heck, wake me when it has as many domestic viewers as Enterprise the day it was cancelled.

I can't deny that demand expressions are an interesting metric, and I do think they measure something valuable to TV executives -- buzz? prestige? something, anyway -- but we should not draw an inference that a show with high "demand expression" counts also has high viewership.

To illustrate my point, here's a chart from the company that measures "demand expression":

A few observations here:

1. Mr. Robot's year-over-year demand expression (which I think is best described as "buzz," although Parrot insists on referring to it as "demand") increased substantially, even as its actual ratings declined substantially.

2. Star Trek Discovery has routinely scored around 50 million "demand expressions" during a week with a new episode airing. On the one hand, that's comparable to Game of Thrones, which is a megahit with 30 million viewers per episode. (Truly stunning. That's more than American Idol averaged in its prime years, and American Idol was on broadcast!)

3. ...On the other hand, 50 million demand expressions is also consistent with Mr. Robot's performance during its lackluster second season. During the period where it was hitting 50M or close to it, Mr. Robot's real-world audience numbers were hovering around 0.8 million.

Buzz !== viewers.

However, strong buzz can keep a show alive even if it's losing money on viewer counts. That's how Battlestar survived to four seasons: audience was way down, but critics adored it.

 

[Trekkin]

Also despite being "popular" doesn't make it good, nor a good Star Trek series. Big Bang Theory is one of the most popular shows on earth and it's the most lame, poorly written things ever to grace television.

For every City on the Edge Of Forever, Star Trek has three Turnabout Intruders. Yet Trekkies have stuck with it for fifty years.

We are in no position to be shitting on any other franchise or audience. Because from the next guy’s perspective, they have plenty of evidence that we wouldn’t recognise (or care about) ‘good’ if it bit us on the ass.

Where are all these discussions on Discovery? TrekBBS, /r/StarTrek maybe, but like /r/Television doesn't really talk about it, I've never seen anyone talking about it on Social media, 4chans /tv/ board doesn't really talk about it, Hell even Youtube content seems to be pretty sparse on i

Why is it that every time somone tries to prove how hip they are to the pulse of the ‘general audience’, they always end up just listing 4chan and reddit?

You know, platforms purposefully set up to cultivate nichey and echoey sub-communities? Within an already relatively small control group?

 

[Donker]

Why is it that every time someone tries to prove how hip they are to the ‘general audience’, they always bring up 4chan and reddit?

Because they're two of the largest forums on the internet. Reddit being one of the single most popular websites and 4chan attracts millions of users daily.

If we're using internet buzz as a metric, I'm interested in seeing where this buzz is coming from, because I don't really see it online that much.

 

[Donker]

Point is: there is discussion about the show on YouTube, lots of it.

Just searched Youtube, the only real discussion on it is Jawin who is getting like 15-30k views. The highest viewed Discovery video is Red Letter Media shitting all over it.

 

[Cyrus]

Also despite being "popular" doesn't make it good, nor a good Star Trek series. Big Bang Theory is one of the most popular shows on earth and it's the most lame, poorly written things ever to grace television.

so you are basically admitting you have bad taste in TV shows.

 

[Lord Garth]

Just searched Youtube, the only real discussion on it is Jawin who is getting like 15-30k views. The highest viewed Discovery video is Red Letter Media shitting all over it.

Nope. I know what I typed. I didn't pull all those names I listed out of my ass.

Try again.

You're basing everything on numbers of viewers not the overall number of YouTube podcasts that actually exist. Lots of people talk about the show on YouTube, whether or not millions listen to them is a different story. But the talk is out there.

You just don't want to acknowledge it because it'll mess up your argument. So you'll hide behind "Those podcasts don't have millions of listeners! It's all about being popular! I wanna be popular too and I'll suck up to whoever is! If they're not popular, they don't exist! Total High School Mentality here!!!"

 

[Trekkin]

Because they're two of the largest forums on the internet. Reddit being one of the single most popular websites and 4chan attracts millions of users daily.

That’s not my point. That actually further supports what I’m saying.

Reddit and 4chan are not set up for users to get an overall grasp on what ‘people’ are discussing. They are crafted to niche the users as much as humanly possible.You, lowly little user, will never even ‘see’ 99.9% of the content that you are specifically interested or agree with. Let alone everything else.

Christ, you can see the same effect on a relatively small board like this. Everyone hates ENT and VOY...unless youre in their forums. Everyone loves DS9 the most...unless youre in Gen or Furutre Of Trek. Fan Productions and Fiction are hot stuff to our fandom...unless you frequent the majority of the boards which mention them maybe once a year.

And we don’t have the ability to split ourselves into walled subforums on a whim.

Site owners and businesses on the other hand, have other means of data collecting than just ‘browsing.’ And that’s not getting into the measurable ‘buzz’ that’s not online.

 

[Blooded]

All and all, if STD is so good for CBS they should be announcing their commitment to Seasons 3 and beyond of STD and also spinning up new series as soon as possible. And maybe they are, we'll just have to see.

Even Netflix is rarely handing out more than one season orders at a time these days.

 

[cultcross]

It's a subtle distinction, but for most streaming services, the metric of interest is subscriptions, not viewers. Ultimately it doesn't matter how many people watch a given show, only that the range on offer on a service makes people sign up or stay signed up. An amazing show that everyone watches by signing up, binging, then cancelling, is less lucrative than one that people watch every now and then, but over a long period. CBS All Access makes things more complicated by including ad revenue in the mix, but Netflix don't, and given the distribution model for DSC, Netflix international will represent the largest subscriber pool with access to DSC.

 

[BillJ]

ST: Discovery is an "unstoppable monster"? Pshaw. Wake me when it's ravaging the ratings like a giant space-going tardigrade. Then we'll talk.

It seems like CBS would be moving it to broadcast as quick as possible if it was an "unstoppable monster". Thirty seconds of ad space on an "unstoppable monster" on OTA would likely be worth far more than a what it is generating on All-Access. Plus, it would help as a lead in for weaker programming.

Do I think it is doing well? Pretty likely, relatively speaking. Do I think it is an "unstoppable monster"? Probably not. Or else all the talk about doing more Trek wouldn't have went dormant so quickly.

 

[Wulfsa]

I did not read all pages but, i can confirm that most of my friends never watched star trek, but they watch DISCO and they say it is awesome. So in my circle of friends the star trek watchers getting more and more... some of them are watching all old incarnations now because they want to know everything. That makes me proud. Yeah disco is a MONSTER. Thank you disco.

Do not trust statistics that you did not fake yourself ....

 

[Jadeb]

It seems like CBS would be moving it to broadcast as quick as possible if it was an "unstoppable monster". Thirty seconds of ad space on an "unstoppable monster" on OTA would likely be worth far more than a what it is generating on All-Access. Plus, it would help as a lead in for weaker programming.

Well, it's pretty much the only exclusive of note on All Access. I imagine it's pretty vital to the future of the enterprise, if you'll excuse the pun. That might trump any immediate financial gain, even if they wanted to shift it to TV. (About which we agree: I don't think they want to, because it couldn't pull enough ratings, even these days.)

Wonder when they'll change the image at the top of the All Access page to remove Jason Isaacs. Poor CBS All Access.

 

[Captain Killy]

Where are all these discussions on Discovery? TrekBBS, /r/StarTrek maybe, but like /r/Television doesn't really talk about it, I've never seen anyone talking about it on Social media, 4chans /tv/ board doesn't really talk about it, Hell even Youtube content seems to be pretty sparse on it.

Another point is, Discovery is broadcast internationally on Netflix and is one of the few new Netflix shows with new episodes every week. A show like the Orville television only.

Also despite being "popular" doesn't make it good, nor a good Star Trek series. Big Bang Theory is one of the most popular shows on earth and it's the most lame, poorly written things ever to grace television.

I suggest you check out the Twitter, #StarTrekDiscovery and #OnFleet to be specific.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Without any evidence, their "proof" is evidence of nothing. That's like saying Trump is doing well because billions of people talk about him worldwide every day.

The conversation has moved on, but in the future, unless it has some relevance to the episode content (like last week's unsubtle MAGA reference), let's try and leave current contentious real world politics out of completely unrelated threads, please. I know you weren't the only one, but this was the first post that brought up Trump.

 

[eltel99uk]

Well, it's pretty much the only exclusive of note on All Access. I imagine it's pretty vital to the future of the enterprise, if you'll excuse the pun. That might trump any immediate financial gain, even if they wanted to shift it to TV. (About which we agree: I don't think they want to, because it couldn't pull enough ratings, even these days.)

Indeed. I'm a business owner and though only small business I've had a lot of marketing experience and read posts on a good news aggregator blog. CBSAA need to build up a library of their own shows. Fast. TV is becoming a world in which people subscribe to some companies but not others: Netflix got this quickly and now produces 60 (!) new shows a year, knowing that its role as a "distribution vehicle" won't continue long term. Now, whilst DSC's flaws annoy us, it is CBSAA's only vehicle to re-engage the public with a show with wide name recognition etc. They will, I predict, fund it for longer than we expect... at least until it kick-starts their mooted second ST show anyway. Provided CBS aren't too cash strapped they need to get subscriptions for their AA channel. Our worry should be the size of their cash pile - they are late to the party and could be seen as prime takeover material with their library of past shows.... in which case not "wasting" money on variable shows like DSC to have cash to defend themselves becomes more important.... particularly if when the numbers come in they can't rely on netflix picking up the tab as backstop for S1

 

[AutoAdmin]

A new news article has been published at TrekToday:

Love it or hate it, US Star Trek: Discovery fans are talking about the show. According to Parrot Analytics, the “demand expressions”...

Continue reading...

 

[ralph]

Star Trek Discovery came to stay.

 

[eltel99uk]

Star Trek Discovery came to stay.

care to explain?

 

[PixelMagic]

DISCO isn't my cup of tea. I haven't watched any of the 2018 episodes, and I'm highly critical of the episodes I have seen. That said, I'm not hoping the show fails. I'm glad Trek is back on TV. Perhaps it will turn into a show I want to see somewhere down the line, or its success could lead to another Trek series that appeals to me. Anyone actively hoping it fails is ultimately cutting off their nose to spite their face.

Perhaps you'll like the other one.

 

[Apparition B5]

It's a subtle distinction, but for most streaming services, the metric of interest is subscriptions, not viewers. Ultimately it doesn't matter how many people watch a given show, only that the range on offer on a service makes people sign up or stay signed up. An amazing show that everyone watches by signing up, binging, then cancelling, is less lucrative than one that people watch every now and then, but over a long period. CBS All Access makes things more complicated by including ad revenue in the mix, but Netflix don't, and given the distribution model for DSC, Netflix international will represent the largest subscriber pool with access to DSC.

When I canceled my two CBS All Access accounts back in December, CBS offered me two free months if I decided to stay on, for both accounts. I canceled anyway. However, depending on how many people take the offer, CBS All Access' subscriber numbers could be inflated just a wee tad.