13 Reasons Why most in demand

Controversial show about teen suicide heads list of Kiwis’ digital favourites

Controversial television series 13 Reasons Why is the digital show New Zealanders want to watch the most. Hollywood-based Parrot Analytics’ top 10 list, released yesterday, reveals the most sought-after digital shows for NZ over the past 30 days.

Netflix show 13 Reasons Why topped the list.

The show focuses on 13 cassette tapes a teenage girl recorded before her suicide, each of which relates to an incident that contributed to her decision to kill herself.

The tapes are shared around by her schoolmates, who are told they are each one of the reasons she died.

Reactions to the show are split into two camps. Mental health professionals are warning against the series’ graphic nature, lack of hope and failure to address mental health or to offer tips on where to get help.

But the show’s fans argue it has opened an important dialogue that’s long overdue.

The rest of the top 10 list is far less controversial.

The second most popular show was Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

Parrot’s industry data scientist Kayla Hegedus said the show was not available in New Zealand yet.

But by measuring what people were watching via file sharing and their engagement of the show via social media, blogging platforms and informational sites, it was clear there was “huge demand” for the show.

“This provides a huge opportunity for local media to bring this show or similar shows to New Zealand via the right platform, at the right time, reaching the right Kiwi audiences who truly love this type of content,”

Hegedus said the new season of Orange is the New Black was due to be released on Netflix on June 9.

But because of the recent hack of the show before its premiere, Parrot’s data showed “a huge spike in demand” for the show in NZ, placing it fourth on the list even though it has not officially been released.

“We also predict that actual demand for the show once it has been released may drop, as fans consume the content ahead of its scheduled premiere,” Hegedus said.

“Next is Amazon’s The Grand Tour, which has clearly captured the interest of our nation with high demand being expressed for it over the last 30 days in New Zealand, even though new episodes stopped being released in February.”

Parrot uses “a blend of data sources” including video-streaming consumption, social media, blog platforms and online piracy and claims to “crunch more than a billion data points every day — spanning 249 countries”. That content-centric data can then be segmented by demographic, geography or genre — among other variables.

Hegedus said that enabled the company to gauge the popularity of the shows “by looking at audience consumption and engagement of the content on various digital avenues around the globe”.

Parrot works with for global entities such as the BBC Worldwide, Fox networks, Lightbox, Italian Mediaset and Brazil’s Globo TV.