Whip Media Gauges Demand For Streaming Film Releases

By Jon Lafayette

Whip Media Group unveiled Content Value Management Insights for movies to help studios set their strategies as more films get released via premium on-demand streaming platforms.

Whip said its new product was used to gauge consumer anticipation for Mulan, the second season of the series The Mandalorian and for Onward, all of which could be watched by Disney Plus subscribers. (To watch Mulan, subscribers had to cough up another $30.)

“Movie consumption behavior across theatres and streaming platforms was converging even before the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Carol Hanley, chief revenue and strategy officer for Whip Media Group. “Now as theatrical windows are closing, understanding consumers’ interest in a given title across the movie’s entire lifecycle, from pre-release to SVOD distribution, to determine how a movie will ultimately perform, makes CVM Insights movie data a central component to decision making.”

CVM Insights tracks audiences’ intent to view titles before they are released. It also provides audience intelligence into library title, such as demographics, device usage and cross-title viewership.

Analytics generated by CVM Insights include anticipation, affinity and engagement and emotional response.

All of these help decide release strategies and marketing plans.

CVM Insights makes use of source data from Whip Media’s TV Time tracking platform, which has a global community of 15 million viewers.

Whip Media clients include The Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros., Hulu, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate, BBC, HBO, AT&T, T-Mobile, Liberty Global, Discovery and United Talent Agency.

Whip Media said the five most anticipated films for Fall 2020 were Black Widow, Mulan, Wonder Woman, Tenet and The Kings Man.

Looking ahead to Winter/Spring 2021, the most anticipated films are F9, A Quiet Place: Part II, The Eternals, Mobius and High School Musical 4: East Meets West.

Next summer’s most anticipate films are Jurassic World: Dominion, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It; The Suicide Squad, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Top Gun: Maverick.