EXCLUSIVE: Acorn TV saw its best performance ever last month thanks to the launch of the the month-long programming event Murder Mystery May.
Deadline can exclusively reveal that the streamer surpassed 20M monthly hours watched for the very first time, according to data from Acorn. The company does not typically publicly viewership details, making this an interesting peak behind the curtain at how the streamer is performing overall.
Per Acorn, Murder Mystery May also attracted a record number of unique, engaged subscribers, up double digits from the streamer’s average over the past 12 months. New subscription sign ups reached a four-year high, up 70% from the prior 12-month average.
“We are thrilled with the response to our first ever month-long celebration of Acorn TV and the engrossing mysteries, drama and detectives that have captivated subscribers for more than a decade,” Courtney Thomasma, executive vice president of linear and streaming products for AMC Networks, said in a statement “A big thank you to the incredible cast of characters who came together to bring this expanded mystery slate to life for our fans in new and innovative ways – and, of course, to everyone who came along to enjoy the thrills along with us! We are excited to make this an annual tentpole event for our members going forward.”
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AMC Networks owns a controlling 83% stake in Acorn TV, which is a joint venture with the RLJ Companies. That meant that the modest platform was able to leverage AMC+ to its advantage as well as that streamer hosted an Acorn TV Mystery pop-up collection to drive attention to the programming event.
In some instances, Acorn TV also eliminated paywalls altogether to get audiences on board. The streamer made the first seasons of several of its popular series free on partner platforms for the month and partnered with BBC America, Sundance TV and more to find new audience members where they were already at.
Programming highlights for the month included new seasons of top Acorn franchises The Brokenwood Mysteries and Harry Wild, which both saw season-over-season audience growth. In fact, Harry Wild saw enough success to get a swift renewal for Season 5. Other established favorites like London Kills and Agatha Raisin also reached multi-year viewership highs.
Acorn TV also saw success with the launches of newcomers The One That Got Away and Boglands. The former now ranks among Acorn TV’s top 10 most-watched new series of all time, while the latter is Acorn TV’s No. 1 foreign language premiere of all time.
Acorn plans to bring back Murder Mystery May annually, but ultimately the streamer will churn out new original programming all year long. Some other upcoming series include Art Detectives starring Stephen Moyer, Nina Singh, Sarah Alexander and Larry Lamb; Irish Blood starring Alicia Silverstone, Wendy Crewson, Jason O’Mara, Dearbhla Molloy, Simone Kirby, Ruth Codd and Leonardo Taiwo; and Murder Before Evensong starring Matthew Lewis and based on the first novel in Reverend Richard Coles’ best-selling series.
Other high-performers are also returning this year, like Sally Lindsay’s The Madame Blanc Mysteries and the long-running Midsomer Murders franchise.