It’s no surprise that the pandemic accelerated demand for streaming services. With the world under lockdown, many consumers turned to streaming services to keep them entertained, causing a rise in both users and usage.
Whilst Little Dot Studios may not be the first name viewers think of when it comes to streaming great content, we are a key player in the market. A recent LinkedIn post by Dan Taylor Watt, former Director of Product at the BBC, highlighted a mini solar system of the UK’s streaming services, comparing their catalogue sizes, i.e. number of titles.
Unsurprisingly, Amazon took the top spot, with Netflix following closely behind. What may be surprising however, is that when you consider the Little Dot Studios broadcast network, we land in third place, beating BBC iPlayer, Disney+ and NOW TV.
We spot potential in content that already exists. Our network hosts more than 6,000 titles across 34 channels, reaching 25 million global subscribers each year across YouTube. Licensed from over 100 content partners, such as All3Media International, Warner Bros and New Dominion Pictures, the long-form content across our network has potential to reach new audiences and generate revenue.
Across 34 channels, we aim to service passion niches, satisfying the viewing habits of ancient history buffs, sustainable living enthusiasts, or interior design fanatics. We take a data-driven approach to each channel launch, analysing the data on our existing channels.
Rich Payne, Executive Editor (History) says, “In the case of Odyssey, our ancient history channel, we identified that our larger, more generalist channel (Timeline) saw especially strong viewing on anything and everything related to the ancient world. Whether new releases or documentaries from the archive, ancient history in particular, seemed to be a subgenre of historical interest that was a bit of a sweet spot: a topic niche enough to have a distinct and passionate fanbase, but broad enough to have the mass appeal required to justify a dedicated channel. Combined with enough potentially licensable content, we were confident in our ambition to launch Odyssey.”
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Our most popular titles really reflect the various passion niches that we cater to. Real Stories, our flagship documentary channel has over 5m subscribers, with the most popular documentary, ‘The Extraordinary Case of Alex Lewis’ recently surpassing an incredible 73m views. Over on Timeline, our world history channel, ‘Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher’ has 25m views across the 4-episode series, whilst Real Royalty has seen success with titles centred around Princess Diana.
Caitlin Meek-O'Connor, Director of Programming and Acquisitions says: “After seeing data around a need for niche content, we started licensing documentaries 5 years ago and aimed to create a home for streaming quality long form content. The appetite for our licensed content on our Network has grown massively since then and we’re proud to bring such a large catalogue of content to so many platforms.”
Looking to realise potential in your long-form content? Get in touch with us here.
