'Suits' Success Boosts Multiple Streaming Services

The following is a selection from Brandon Katz of Parrot Analytics.

After years of airing on USA Network to middling ratings, legal drama Suits had its breakout in 2023... on streaming services, four years after its series finale aired. It was a unique phenomenon benefiting in part from increased interest in one of the show's stars, would-be Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, and it wound up becoming a boost for three different streamers.

• Data from Parrot Analytics shows that after creating limited – well under $10 million – subscriber revenues on Amazon Prime Video (and later, Peacock) from Q1 2020 to Q1 2023, the show suddenly took off on Netflix while creating over $20 million for the service in that quarter alone.
• Subscriber revenues increased considerably in the subsequent two quarters (up to more than $60 million total across three platforms), but still remain a hot commodity for Netflix as Peacock earns between $5 and $10 million per quarter.
• The revenue success across services is great news for all three players involved, but also highlighted an issue for Peacock, which owned the original streaming rights to Suits through NBCUniversal. That helped spur Suits: LA for NBC, which will help bring more of the Suits-related revenue back to NBCU.

[read the rest of Brandon Katz's post on TVREV]