WHAT WERE THE MOST DEMANDED SERIES IN CANADA LAST MONTH?

In its latest study about SVOD demand in Canada, Parrot Analytics revealed which were the most outstanding series in the country during March. The company contextualized each title within the market by stating the show's performance as a difference from the average demand for a series in the market. A difference of 1x represents the market average and 10x means a series is ten times more in demand than the average TV show in this market.

In March 2021, Canadian audiences continued to express their demand for largely genre fare and comedies. At the top of the list was Disney+'s global smash hit “WandaVision,” the first of many Marvel TV series to debut on the platform, which aired its season finale on March 5. At 36x the demand of the average series in Canada, “WandaVision” was roughly 50% more in-demand than second place “The Mandalorian,” a fellow Disney+ original which has not aired new episodes since December 2020. Fellow Marvel series “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” debuted on March 19, and the show is already in fifth place in Canada for the month of March.

“Disney+ is really flexing its muscles, with three of the top five digital originals in Canada, showing off the strength of its pre-exisiting IP in Marvel and Lucasfilm. Given its strong debut, and Disney+'s proven success at building demand over time with a weekly release strategy, we expect demand for ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’ to steadily climb in April,”  Parrot said.

Meanwhile, Netflix has the third and fourth most in-demand digital originals in Canada with “The Crown” and “Stranger Things”. These are examples of homegrown Netflix shows that have remarkable staying power. “The Crown” released its fourth season in November 2020, and was still 18x more in-demand than the average show in Canada in March 2021. “The Crown” likely benefitted from a rise in demand for royal-themed content that followed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier in March. “Stranger Things” has not aired new episodes since July 2019, so its ability to remain in the top five in Canada shows the strength of its staying power with worldwide audiences.

Amazon Prime Video's superhero hit “The Boys” and sci-fi epic “The Expanse” both had a strong showing, earning 14.3x and 14.0x more demand than the average show in Canada, respectively. Elsewhere, comedies “Ted Lasso” of Apple TV+ and Canadian Hulu original “Letterkenny” drove strong audience demand for their respective platforms. Hulu's “The Handmaid's Tale” rounded out the top ten.