UK streaming lovers could not get enough of the minions last year.
According to Ofcom’s Media Nations report, the most-watched movie or TV episode on streaming in 2024 was Minions: The Rise of Gru on Netflix, a 2022 film that isn’t a Netflix original.
That one got 13.7 million views when total cumulative average viewing across the whole year is taken into account, according to Barb data supplied to Ofcom for the annual Media Nations. Universal’s Minions: The Rise of Gru was the fifth overall entry in the smash-hit franchise and was picked up by Netflix in 2023.
The only Disney+ project to make the top 10 was family movie Moana Sing Along, which came out nearly a decade ago and landed 11.5 million views last year on the platform.
Big Netflix TV shows Fool Me Once, The Gentlemen and Baby Reindeer all made the list but it was the BBC which took top billing, landing the top two spots with the concluding Gavin & Stacey and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, although Netflix has non-UK rights on the latter. With TV series, the highest-performing episodes per title were taken into account.
Ofcom said “drama and family content proved an important driver for SVoD viewing.”
“While popular dramas such as Fool Me Once and Baby Reindeer performed particularly well for Netflix, family films also do well for streaming services,” added the report. “This highlights the value SVoD platforms place on family-friendly content as a key driver of subscriber retention, particularly as households with children are less likely to cancel their subscriptions than those without.”
Last week, our analysis of two years worth of global Netflix data found The Boss Baby and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, two family movies, topping the pile.
Elsewhere, the Media Nations report found that the number of UK households who said they subscribe to any streamer plateaued again at around two-thirds (68%), having been stuck on that figure since the pandemic came to an end. Netflix remains the top SVoD with 59%, ahead of Prime Video on 46% and Disney+ on 25%. Streamer revenues in the UK grew by 10% last year, a deceleration from the previous two 12-month periods.
The post Minions Charmed UK Streaming Audiences In 2024 As Family Viewing Drew Big Numbers appeared first on Deadline.
