The Time Shift analysis helps you explore both content and talent demand in relation to specific events such as season, episode or movie release dates.
Explore the following questions:
How do I show popularity for a series is growing between sequels and spin-off premieres?
How is a TV show or movie release performing compared to previous seasons, comp titles or a similar portfolio of shows?
Has a talent's audience been activated during various show and movie premieres?
What is the best release and windowing strategy for a TV show or movie?
Understanding Time Shift
To understand whether a new show, movie or season release is a success, demand can be used as a measure of performance. Demand typically fluctuates based on events like season premieres, campaign trailers and season finales - so for an apples-to-apples comparison of success, we need to compare demand in relation to these events, e.g. comparing different shows based on their demand around their relative release dates.
Time Shift is a type of analysis that allows you to assess release performance by setting relative date ranges.
Two types of analyzes are available within Time Shift:
Time Shift: Time-Series Visualization
The Time Series visualization allows you to compare the demand of different titles or seasons by aligning them to their respective release dates - this allows for an apples-to-apples comparison as you can compare how demand increases leading up to a release and how it tapers off between seasons.
Example: How can I compare different release strategies?
Aligning demand of Rutherford Falls, The Lost Symbol and One Of Us Is Lying to their first season release dates, we can identify changes in demand patterns based on their release strategies:
🟣 Rutherford Falls was a binge release - demand peaked within the first two weeks.
🔴 The Lost Symbol was a weekly release - demand peaked in the final two weeks.
🟠 One Of Us Is Lying dropped three weekly batches of episodes - demand peaked
within those first 3 weeks.
Example: How do I show popularity for a series is growing?
Demand is a holistic measure of performance and can show the growing popularity of a show over time and across seasons – informing season renewal, spin off or new licensing deals.
In the example below, The Crown peaked at its Season 4 premiere, where it had 54x the demand of the average show. Season 5 peaked slightly below Season 4 with 45x the demand of the average show.
Example: How do I show if a talent's audience has been activated during their TV show or movie premieres?
For example, to see if Chris Hemsworth's audience was activated during his movie premieres, we can add the movie premiere dates with a custom event - in this case we added US premiere dates for "Furiosa", "Extraction 2" and "Thor: Love and Thunder".
We can see that Chris Hemsworth's demand spiked around the premiere dates, indicating that interest in him increased around these events and that his audience was activated.
Time Shift: Demand Distribution Visualization
The Demand Distribution visualization allows you to compare the aggregated demand of different seasons. This allows you to compare a season's performance as a whole as opposed to a time series view.
Example:
To compare the performance of the first seasons of Rutherford Falls, The Lost Symbol and One Of Us Is Lying as a whole, we can switch the visualization to the Demand Distribution curve.
In the top right corner of the chart, we can select whether we want to see the Average or Peak Demand calculated for the period.
Note: The Average and Peak Demand for a season are calculated based on their season start and end dates. If a season was released in full on a single date (= binge release), we calculate the Average and Peak Demand for the 30 day time period after release date.
Using Custom Portfolios as a Release Benchmark to Optimize Marketing Campaigns ahead of Premiere
You can also select a previously created custom portfolio and plot it on the time-shifted time series against other TV shows.
This allows you to create a tailored comparison or benchmark to answer a question like:
How is demand for my upcoming TV show tracking 7 days before its premiere, compared to all Action TV shows 7 days before their respective S1 release?
Simply select your previously created custom portfolio. To learn how to create a custom portfolio read the custom portfolio article or watch the tutorial.
When selecting the custom portfolio, you can specify the event you want to time shift on, e.g. the season 1 release date.
Creating a Custom Event
Example:
Let's analyze the demand around Season 3 of the show Stranger Things. You can select the title, market and any events on the Time Shift page.
Select Stranger Things, Worldwide and Season 3 in the pre-populated Seasons category.
Additionally, you can add custom events to see how marketing campaigns or other events have impacted demand. For this example, we have added custom event dates for the Official and Final Trailer releases.
The Time Shift chart now shows the demand for Stranger Things over time, shifted across the three different dates. You can see that one day after the Season 3 release date demand increased by 29.52%, after the Final Trailer date demand increased by 49.72% and after the Official Trailer date demand increased by 10.67%.
You can also adjust the view by sliding the scale at the top which will expand the timeline to give you a broader picture of the demand shift.
