LOS ANGELES and TORONTO — Television content produced or co-produced in Canada travels best globally, according to new research conducted by Los Angeles-based Parrot Analytics on behalf of the Canada Media Fund.
The study by Parrot Analytics found Canadian content has the highest rate of global “travelability”, which is the ability for local content to attract audience demand outside of the country where it was originally produced and aired, compared to any other market. The study’s findings were revealed in a news release emailed Tuesday to Cartt.ca.
Canadian content achieved global travelability of 22.4% over the period of May 1 to July 31, 2019, compared to content produced in the US, which achieved global travelability of 18.7% over the same time period. Travelability is an index of popularity relative to a project’s home market, Parrot Analytics explained in the news release.
Parrot Analytics is a leading content demand analytics company that specializes in optimizing TV industry workflows through its global demand data and analyses. CMF has partnered with Parrot Analytics on a pilot basis to provide the Canadian media industry with data they have not had access to before to assess the impact of SVOD channels and new platforms on the Canadian production industry. In addition, having access to Parrot Analytics’ travelability data, CMF can identify content that travels best to inform the industry and identify new opportunities, CMF said.
“We are eager to understand the content preferences of Canadians across multiple viewing platforms. For us, gaining insights into the success of content on all platforms is pivotal in this changing media landscape. Their insights into travelability is an example of how global TV demand data will give us the required strategic context to help Canadian producers better navigate the content landscape,” said Valerie Creighton, president and CEO of CMF, in the news release.
“Our initial project with CMF was to take a 12-month view of Canadian content that had successfully travelled outside of the country and we were surprised to see that content produced or co-produced in Canada had significantly higher travelability rates than content produced elsewhere in the world,” Courtney Williams, head of partnerships for Parrot Analytics, added. “Of course, Canadian co-productions like Orphan Black and Vikings certainly have made an impact around the world, but seeing Canada’s dominance in this metric was impressive. We look forward to working with CMF to uncover other content trends that can inform the industry.”
