TV Ratings Survival Guide in the Era of Streaming

Wrestlenomics Report (1/3/2025):

brandon@wrestlenomics.com

In this issue:

• Analysis: TV Ratings Survival Guide in the Era of Streaming

• WWE, AEW, New Japan annual attendance trends

• Opinion: WWE’s third-party wrestling archival library would be best monetized as a separate product

• AEW Wrestle Dream Tacoma public records request response

• Minor update in the Kelly & Tate Twins v. AEW case: Discovery is on hold

• Top Pro Wrestling Tees sellers of 2024

• Entire history of WWF/WWE Monday Night Raw ratings

• Most matches of 2024

• Historical most matches

• Quarter-hours for the week

• State of the business

  • Rankings for TV ratings

  • TV ratings, year-over-year-comparisons

  • High-performing YouTube highlights

  • Merchandise

Analysis: TV Ratings Survival Guide in the Era of Streaming

The ratings you're familiar with—including the data Wrestlenomics generally reports—are measured using a method called Average Minute Audience (AMA). So for example when a show “has” 1,234,000 viewers, that represents the number of viewers averaged by the minute across the entire duration of the program.

Streaming data may be measured differently, depending on the platform.

The ratings data you’re familiar with are measured by a third party: Nielsen.

Streaming data might be the company’s own first-party measurement.

The ratings data you’re familiar with reflects U.S. viewership only.

Streaming data might be global, especially if, like WWE on Netflix, your program is broadcast throughout much of the world.

The ratings data you’re familiar with is live+same-day. It doesn’t include DVR viewing beyond about 3 am after the program airs.

Streaming has to this point in media history primarily been the home for scripted and other video on demand content. Not stuff—like sports and news and even predetermined wrestling—that people generally want to watch live and simultaneously. Otherwise, though, Netflix freed viewers from the unneeded relic of scripted TV airing in time slots.

Netflix, to its credit, publishes its weekly global top 10 programs in a way that mimics AMA. However, their data includes delayed viewing from across the entire week. This is only natural as Netflix until now doesn’t air programs in time slots.

Nielsen doesn’t yet measure specific live-streaming broadcasts the same way it measures traditional TV, except for in a few major cases, like NFL broadcasts on streaming platforms.

For streaming platforms like Peacock, Netflix, or Max/WBD—whether reported by the streamer itself, a wrestling company, or a PR-friendly Twitter account—you should ask whether that number is measured like typical Nielsen ratings, with our treasured AMA measurement. Unless it’s explicitly stated as such, it probably isn’t. Instead, the figure might for all we know be the number of accounts that tuned in for any duration—regardless of whether they watched the whole program or just a few seconds.

Have your magnifying glass out. Even if the figure is an AMA measurement, there’s another layer to consider: is it based on first-party data? If so, that means the viewership was measured by the streaming platform itself. First-party data is inherently conflicted—streamers have a vested interest in reporting the highest possible audience numbers.

By contrast, data from third-party sources like Nielsen or VideoAmp (which Netflix said will measure content like WWE Raw) is more independent. These companies serve advertisers who need reliable data to understand the size and demographics of the audience they’re paying to reach. Unlike first-party data, third-party measurements are less likely to be inflated by conflicts of interest.

What these complications around WWE and AEW putting their weekly shows on streaming add up to is that the opportunities to spin the data are fantastic and many.

AEW is streaming on Max only in the U.S. Around 50 million subscribers have access to Max in the U.S., but keep in mind many of those subscribers are just traditional HBO subscribers who probably rarely if ever use Max.

Indeed, Nielsen’s ‘The Gauge’ shows Max isn’t among the top five U.S. streaming services. (Yes, Nielsen measures streaming TV viewing in a more general sense, but doesn’t provide program-specific data.) Just over 1% of all TV time is spent using Max, which ranks well behind YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+. Max is more in the neighborhood of Peacock, Paramount+ and no-cost “FAST” services like Tubi and Roku.

I point that out to clarify the significant difference between Max and leaders in streaming like Netflix. AEW on Max is not WWE on Netflix. But there’s no doubt Max is putting AEW in millions of households that before this month didn’t have access to it. It should genuinely increase the size of AEW’s audience and perhaps help stabilize AEW’s declining fan metrics.