NEW YORK—Amid all the doom and gloom in the streaming industry regarding slumping stock prices and hefty losses, streaming audiences continue to grow at a significant pace, with Americans streaming more than 19 million years worth of content last year, according to new data from Nielsen. 

In total, Americans streamed more than 19.4 million years of content last year, up 27% about 15 million years in 2021. The increase was driven by the breadth of new and expanded services, coupled by the depth of content—particularly streaming originals, Nielsen reported.  

The Nielsen data highlighted the importance of streaming originals at a time when money losing streaming services have been under extreme pressure from Wall Street to cut costs, particularly expensive originals. 

Nielsen noted that before the debut of Netflix’s "House of Cards", which was the first TV series to appear exclusively on a streaming service, virtually all other streaming content had been licensed from other sources. 

Since that time, original content has grown to become a competitive advantage for streaming services, as many original titles attracted viewers to the platforms, and in some cases, they outperformed acquired content, Nielsen said. 

Nielsen researchers noted that the 2022 data showed viewing minutes for top-performing original content dramatically outpaced top-performing acquired content, with Netflix’s "Stranger Things" taking the top slot among all series.

In total, audiences watched 52 billion minutes of "Stranger Things" in 2022, the highest total since COVID-driven lockdowns drove audiences to watch 57.1. billion minutes of the Office back in 2020. The dominance of original content is underscored even more by the fact that there are only 34 episodes of "Stranger Things", while there are 192 episodes of "The Office", Nielsen said. 

In terms of streaming movies, audiences watched 27.4 million minutes of "Encanto", a full-length animated feature that premiered on Disney+ in late December 2021. That equates to it being watched 269 million times. While Encanto had 12 full months to accumulate so much viewing and land on the top streaming list, Netflix’s "Wednesday", which debuted in late November 2022, made the cut with just 36 days of availability on Netflix. 

While original content came of age with audiences in 2022, Nielsen also highlighted the importance of library and acquired content. In the list of the most popular streaming content–original, acquired and movies–only four titles were originals. 

This highlights the immense attraction that library content holds for viewers who spent billions of minutes throughout the year watching popular titles like "NCIS", "Grey’s Anatomy", "Bluey", "Seinfeld", "Criminal Minds" and "The Simpsons".

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES—“Game of Thrones,” “Stranger Things” and “SpongeBob Squarepants” are Guinness World Record holders, according to “The Guinness World Records 2021 Edition.”

Working with Parrot Analytics, a TV content analytics company, Guinness quantified how viewers are engaging with TV shows around the world based on video consumption, social media and media coverage.

The latest edition of Guinness’ world records covers the TV landscape from 2019, identifying the most-in demand TV series across a number of categories. The results are as follows:

• Book Adaptation: “Game of Thrones” (HBO) 
• Legal Drama: “Suits” (USA Network) 
• Teen Drama: “Riverdale” (The CW) 
• Comedy: “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS) 
• Digital Original: “Stranger Things” (Netflix) 
• Animated: “Rick and Morty” (Adult Swim) 
• TV Series: “Game of Thrones” (HBO) 
• Reality: “The Voice” (NBC) 
• Children’s Show: “SpongeBob Squarepants” (Nickelodeon) 
• Horror: “American Horror Story” (FX) 
• Medical Drama: “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC) 
• Romantic Drama: “Outlander” (The CW) 
• Series Debut: “Chernobyl” (HBO) 
• Film Adaptation: “Westworld” (HBO) 

“Television continues to re-define itself at a blistering pace,” said Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday. “Having created the industry category of ‘TV demand measurement,’ Parrot Analytics helps Guinness World Records to quantify the ways in which viewers engage with TV shows around the world in a globally standardized manner. This ensures that Guinness World Records can identify the shows that people are genuinely talking about and watching, on a global scale.”

“The Guinness World Records 2021 Edition” releases on Oct. 6. 

BURBANK, Calif.—Game of Thrones, Chernobyl, Stranger Things, Homecoming and more were not only some of the most popular shows over the last year, they are also all now nominees in the creative categories of the 2019 HPA Awards. Recognizing creative excellence and technical innovation, the HPA Awards honor individuals and teams that worked on television, film and commercial productions.

The 2019 HPA Awards Creative Category nominees for television are:

Outstanding Color Grading—Episodic or Non-Theatrical Feature

• The Handmaid’s Tale—“Liars”: Bill Ferwerda - Deluxe Toronto
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—“Vote for Kennedy, Vote for Kennedy”: Steve Bodner - Light Iron
• Game of Thrones—“Winterfell”: Joe Finley - Sim, Los Angeles
• I am the Night—“Pilot”: Stefan Sonnenfeld - Company 3
• Gotham—“Legend of the Dark Knight: The Trial of Jim Gordon”: Paul Westerbeck - Picture Shop
• The Man in the High Castle—“Jahr Null”: Roy Vasich - Technicolor

Outstanding Editing—Episodic or Non-Theatrical Feature (30 Minutes and Under)

• Russian Doll—“The Way Out”: Todd Downing
• Homecoming—“Redwood”: Roseanne Tan, ACE
• Veep—“Pledge”: Roger Nygard, ACE
• Withorwithout: Jake Shaver and Shannon Albrink - Therapy Studios
• Russian Doll—“Ariadne”: Laura Weinberg

Outstanding Editing—Episodic or Non-Theatrical Feature (Over 30 Minutes)

• Strangers Things—“Chapter Eight: The Battle of Starcourt”: Dean Zimmerman, ACE, and Katheryn Naranjo
• Chernoybl—“Vichnaya Pamyat”: Simon Smith and Jinx Godfrey - Sister Pictures
• Game of Thrones—“The Iron Throne”: Katie Weiland, ACE
• Game of Thrones—“The Long Night”: Tim Porter, ACE
• The Bodyguard—“Episode One”: Steve Singleton

Outstanding Sound—Episodic or Non-Theatrical

• Chernobyl—“1:23:45”: Stefan Henrix; Stuart Hilliker; Joe Beal; Michael Maroussas; and Harry Barnes - Boom Post
• Deadwood: The Movie: John W. Cook II; Bill Freesh; Mandell Winter, MPSE; Daniel Colman, MPSE; Ben Cook, MPSE; and Micha Liberman - NBC Universal
• Game of Thrones—“The Bells”: Tim Kimmel, MPSE; Onnalee Blank, CAS; Matthew Waters, CAS; Paula Fairfield; and David Klotz
• The Haunting of Hill House—“Two Storms”: Trevor Gates, MPSE; Jason Dotts; Jonathan Wales; Paul Knox; and Walter Spencer - Formosa Group
• Homecoming—“Protocol”: John W. Cook II; Bill Freesh; Kevin Bucholz; Jeff A. Pitts; Ben Zales; and Polly McKinnon - NBC Universal

Outstanding Visual Effects—Episodic (Under 13 Episodes) and Non-Theatrical Feature

• Game of Thrones—“The Long Night”: Martin Hill, Nicky Muir, Mike Perry, Mark Richardson and Darren Christie - Weta Digital
• The Umbrella Academy—“The White Violin”: Everett Burrell, Misato Shinohara, Chris White, Jeff Campbell and Sebastien Bergeron
• The Man in the High Castle—“Jahr Null”: Lawson Deming, Cory Jamieson, Casi Blume, Nick Chamberlain, William Parker, Saber Jlassi and Chris Parks - Barnstorm VFX
• Chernobyl—“1:23:45”: Lindsay MacFarlane; and Max Dennison, Clare Cheetham, Steven Godfrey and Luke Letkey - DNEG
• Game of Thrones—“The Bells”: Steve Kullback, Joe Bauer and Ted Rae; Mohsen Mousavi - Scanline; and Thomas Schelesny - Image Engine

Outstanding Visual Effects—Episodic (Over 13 Episodes)

• Hawaii Five-O—“Ke iho mai nei ko luna”: Thomas Connors, Anthony Davis, Chad Schott, Gary Lopez, Adam Avitabile - Picture Shop
• 9-1-1—“7.1”: Jon Massey, Tony Pizadeh, Brigitte Bourque, Gavin Whelan and Kwon Choi - FuseFX
• Star Trek: Discovery—“Such Sweet Sorrow Part 2”: Jason Zimmerman, Ante Dekovic, Aleksandra Kochoska, Charles Collyer and Alexander Wood - CBS Television Studios
• The Flash—“King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd”: Armen V. Kevorkian, Joshua Spivack, Andranik Taranya, Shirak Agresta and Jason Shulman - Encore VFX
• The Orville—“Identity: Part II”: Tommy Tran, Kevin Lingenfelser and Joseph Vincent Pike - FuseFX; and Brandon Fayette and Brooke Noska - Twentieth Century Fox TV

To see the nominees for film and commercial productions, click here.

The winners will be announced of the 14th Annual HPA Awards at a gala ceremony on Nov. 21 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Netflix is upgrading its audio settings to provide quality as close to the original program master.

The network says the changes were prompted by input from the Duffer brothers, producers of its wildly popular “Stranger Things” series. The producers noted audio degradation in the second season in 2017, which spurred Netflix to revisit the networks’ entire audio chain with the goal of reproducing audio quality as close to what producers intended.

“Series mixes were getting bolder and more cinematic with tight levels between dialog, music and effects elements,” Netflix said in a blog. “Creative choices increasingly tested the limits of our encoding quality. We needed to support these choices better.”

Since inception, Netflix has used static audio streaming at a constant bitrate, which “selects the audio bitrate based on network conditions at the start of playback,” according to the company. For video, however, Netflix has used adaptive streaming that optimizes video quality based on the viewers’ network connection.

So Netflix decided to carry the adaptive streaming concept to audio by developing an algorithm that allowed the technology to be supported and certified by the myriad streaming devices used to access its service.

“Based on internal listening tests, listening test results provided by Dolby, and scientific studies, we determined that for Dolby Digital Plus at and above 640 kbps, the audio coding quality is perceptually transparent,” Netflix said. “Beyond that, we would be sending you files that have a higher bitrate (and take up more bandwidth) without bringing any additional value to the listening experience.”

It also adopted what it terms a “bitrate ladder” for 5.1-channel audio ranging from 192 up to 640 kbps. This ranges from “good” audio to “transparent,” according to Netflix.

For Dolby Atmos, the company increased the bitrates on its highest offerings to 768 kbps. “We expect these bitrates to evolve over time as we get more efficient with our encoding techniques,” the company said.

More information is available here. 

Editorial note: This story was originally published in May of 2019. 

LOS ANGELES—It was a near sweep for Netflix in the television categories at the 2017 HPA Awards, which honor the best behind-the-scenes artistry—including color grading, sound, editing and visual effects. The gala celebration, which also bestowed awards in categories for film and commercials, took place Nov. 16 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Here are the winners for the TV categories:

The "Stranger Things" team winning for Outstanding Sound - Television.

Outstanding Color Grading: “The Crown – Smoke and Mirrors,” Asa Shoul, Molinare

Outstanding Editing: “Stranger Things – Chapter 1: The Vanishing of Will Byers,” Dean Zimmerman

Outstanding Sound (TIE): “Stranger Things – Chapter 8: The Upside Down,” Craig Henighan, Fox; Bradley North, Joe Barnett, Adam Jenkins, Jordan Wilby, Tiffany S. Griffith, Technicolor – Hollywood

“American Gods – The Bone Orchard,” Bradley North, Joseph DeAngelis, Kenneth Kobett, David Werntz, Tiffany S. Griffith, Technicolor – Hollywood

Outstanding Visual Effects: “Black Sails – XXIX,” Erik Henry; Yafei Wu, Nicklas Andersson, David Walhberg, Important Looking Pirates; Martin Lippman, Rodeo

See the film and commercial winners here.

HPA also gave out its HPA Engineering Excellence Award to Colorfront for its Colorfront Engine; Dolby for the Dolby Vision Post-Production Tools; Red Digital Cinema for the Weapon 8K Vista Vision; and SGO for its Mistika VR.

NASA, Amazon Web Services and AWS Elemental were also honored with the HPA Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation for the live 4K stream from the International Space Station.

Finally, HPA bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award on Larry Chernoff.

As Dean Zimmerman received the golden statuette for “Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing” on the stage of the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles last month, for cutting Netflix’s “Stranger Things Chapter One: The Vanishing Of Will Byers,” there was no doubt in his mind where this journey to this Creative Arts Emmy had begun.

Zimmerman received an Emmy for his work cutting Netflix’s “Stranger Things Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers.”
Curtis Baker/Netflix

He was 13, in the Cary Grant theater on the Sony Pictures lot at the premiere of “Rocky IV.” With tears in his eyes he went running up the stairs to the rear console where Stallone and all the producers were sitting and jumped into his father’s lap. Young Dean knew that what his father had done was how he wanted to build his own career—choosing images and pictures, sights and sounds that combined to move people in a way that no other medium could equal. You see, his father was Don Zimmerman, the editor of “Rocky IV.”

Dean Zimmerman had chosen his life’s work, but despite his father having been nominated for an Academy Award for editing Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home,” he set out to do it on his own. He went to St. Mary’s College in the Bay area, then got a job at 18 at Pacific Title as a driver on the graveyard watch.

PA grunt shifts got him near cutting rooms until he became an apprentice editor on “A Walk in the Clouds” in 1995. Moving up the ranks of assistants he was qualified to be his dad’s assistant editor on “The Cat in the Hat” in 2003.

They worked together on several films including the original “Night at the Museum” which eventually lead to Dean Zimmerman taking the editor’s seat on 2010’s “Date Night” produced by Shawn Levy.

Dean Zimmerman accepts his award at the 2017 Creative Arts Emmys.
Jordan Strauss/Invision for Television Academy/AP Images

ON UNTEMPERED TURF
When Levy pitched the idea to Netflix to tackle a new episodic called “Stranger Things”, Zimmerman was so impressed with the script he responded to Levy’s call by signing on for seven weeks.

But coming from the world of features, Zimmerman was not prepared for the fact that since this was Netflix’s first foray into producing a TV series, he and his fellow editor, Kevin D. Ross (“Halt and Catch Fire,” “Californication”), would be treading on untempered turf.

“Getting in on the ground floor meant there were a lot of post-production procedures we had to institute into the Netflix operation,” Zimmerman recalled. “It was up to us to create a grand plan for post, treating the series like one big eight-hour feature film.”

“Stranger Things” is not your typical TV episodic, but one reason for its growing popularity is the craftsmanship that goes into its creation. In fact, this year it garnered an impressive five separate Creative Arts Emmys, from Sound Editing to the design of the title sequence, which actually started being composed before principle photography began.

Trying hard to avoid spoilers here, episode one of “Stranger Things” is the story of a fairly typical American small town situated near an Area 51 shadowland. Episode one deals with one kid (probably Will Byers) mysteriously disappearing and another one just as inexplicably coming onto the scene. Meanwhile, teens fall in love, parents squabble, and something just isn’t right in the background.

Zimmerman credits the directing Duffer brothers, Matt and Ross, for giving him and Kevin Ross a lot of freedom in the cutting room as they checker boarded editing the episodes.

“We basically took the best from the feature film workflow, which was my background, and the best from television episodics workflow, which was Kevin’s background, and created new procedural templates which became the model by which Netflix now approaches post production,” Zimmerman said. “They gave us the responsibility for making great creativity, and it was a great experience working with them.”

A CHILD’S TEARS
As every editor knows, what finally appears on the screen, be it big or little, stems from a collaborative process. In the episode, “Stranger Things Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers,” Zimmerman feels there were some instances where scenes were significantly enhanced in the edit bay.

Again, under the constraints of not giving away too much of the plot, Zimmerman was able to let us look over his shoulder while one of the key scenes evolved significantly as its timeline moved through his Avid Media Composer.

“I love to add a layer of comedy into serious scenes to unlock the tension,” he began. “In Episode One there is a dinner table scene where the parents are talking about an evening curfew being imposed by the local sheriff after some children have disappeared.”

The daughter complains she wants to meet her study buddy (i.e. clandestinely link up with her boyfriend), while the son is determined to get out to search for his missing best friend.

The rebellion escalates while caught in the middle is a sweet little two year-old trying to make sense of the mounting conflict.

“We had a close up of her, which I cut away to. But it didn’t seem enough,” Zimmerman said. “So we started looking though out takes, or footage before the slates. The Duffer brothers even went out and shot some pick-ups of the kid for us. Heck, we went so far as to cut in close ups of the child out of split screens.”

As you will see in the final version, the family’s mounting emotional interplay gets played off the face of this innocent child who is progressively dissolving into tears.

“We even had the child actor’s real mother come in and sit next to her so we could get some deeper emotion out of the little girl,” Zimmerman recalls. “On the set it was all very safe for her. But as we intercut her reactions into the scene, her emotions serve as an almost humorous counterpoint to the vitriol that is swirling around her.”

A child being deeply moved by the juxtaposition of sound and imagery? Does that sound vaguely familiar?

“We even reversed the motion on some of the shots to make sure the child was reacting to the proper person,” Zimmerman said. “We pulled out all of the tricks in the book.”

When Netflix expressed how blown away they were at how much could be done in the edit bay, Zimmerman’s reaction was one every budding editor could benefit from.

“Oh, no,” he said. “You gave us all the material. We just put it together for you.”

I can just see that statuette on his shelf… winking.

Jay Ankeney is a freelance editor and post-production consultant based in Los Angeles. Write him atjayankeney@mac.com.

STUDIO CITY, CALIF.—The hit Netflix original series “Stranger Things” is a call back to many of the classic sci-fi and horror films of the 1980s, including “E.T.,” “Close Encounters” and “The Goonies,” but creating the sound of the show was less reliant on past influences. At a meeting of the AES L.A. and SMPTE Hollywood sections, sound designers from the show shared their insights into how they created the sound of the show’s monster and other challenges.

Read the full story on TVT’s sister publication Pro Sound Network.