Content Power Ratings of Autumn 2021

The Content Power Ratings study, conducted by Starcom Romania, which is based on an innovative system of ranking TV programs, shows that the top of the Romanian audience’s favourite TV shows in the 2021 autumn season was led by Asia Express – Drumul Împăraților, followed by Las Fierbinți. The latter also had the highest number of views on Youtube and also won one of the top spots in terms of social media fans. The show iUmor also ranked 3rd, leading in terms of social media fans and ranking 2nd in terms of Youtube views.

In addition, it can be seen that the autumn TV schedules, still marked by the health crisis, have seen some programming premieres for the major general-interest channels: Pro TV replaces its flagship show Vocea României with the newcomer Superstar Romania, while Antena 1 replaces Chefi la Cuțite with Asia Express. Another important move by Antena 1 is to bring a quiz show to the evening news access. In addition, both of the station’s early fringe shows appear at the top this season. In the category of premieres, we can also note the new prime time dating show on Pro TV, Căsătoriți pe nevăzute, a program that enters the top 10 searched shows on the internet. Kanal D is no longer programming Survivor Romania this season, but it enters the top with two other shows Bravo, ai Stil! Celebrities and Puterea Dragostei, main thanks to fan engagement, with their social media accounts sparking the most heated debates.

“The pandemic has changed the rules of TV production, but broadcasters have adapted to the trend by bringing new shows or shows filmed in other countries to the screen. We’ve also seen a recent surge in efforts to promote shows on social media channels, which indicates the importance of the online environment in interacting with fans. We expect this to increase even more in the future, as this is an important point of contact, especially with the young audience that has migrated massively to online in recent years”, said George Mușat, Head of Business Analytics.

As for social media, the Content Power Ratings study indicates that fans of TV shows are debating TV show topics less, with the number of comments down 35% from last fall. In this respect, the biggest drop is seen on YouTube (-51%). Less affected by this trend is Instagram, which has a drop of only 7% in the number of comments. The platform is also the only one where fan interactions with published content is increasing (+42% more reactions compared to the 2020 season). This is mainly due to the Asia Express account, which has more than 4.7 million reactions during this period. The viewership of videos posted on YouTube is also down in this period compared to 2020 (-41%): while last year, the top account had over 70 million views and the second-ranked account had over 62 million, this year, the first place goes to the account with over 39 million views.

Top shows according to Content Power Ratings

Asia Express – Drumul Împăraților (Antena 1) is the show that has aroused the most interest from fans of all the programs produced in Romania and broadcast in the autumn schedule of TV channels in 2021. The content published on the show’s social media pages ranks it first on social media, while the interest in the show is also reflected in the number of online searches, where it leads by a considerable distance of two points over the second-placed show. Despite fierce competition, the show ranks first on three of the dimensions analysed.

Las Fierbinți (PRO TV) was in second place in the autumn with a score of 6.5 points. Fan interest in the show puts it in first place in terms of TV ratings, where the gap between Las Fierbinți and Visuri la cheie (the second place show) is 2.7 points. In addition, Las Fierbinți also had the best performance on Youtube, where it got the most views, followed in this category by iUmor and Superstar Romania.

Las Fierbinți is followed by iUmor (Antena 1), which moved up one position from the spring 2021 season. iUmor is the leader in terms of social media fans and 2nd place in terms of YouTube views.

In fourth place is the show Acces Direct (Antena 1), which also moved up one position from its place in the spring 2021 season. The programme continues to rank second in terms of social media followers but has dropped in TV ratings to 16th place. In addition, it also did not perform better in terms of YouTube views, falling from the 7th to the 13th place.

Top TV Audiences

In terms of TV audience (one of the indicators of the study), the show Las Fierbinți broadcast by PRO TV, is the clear leader, followed at a considerable distance of 3 points by the show Visuri la cheie from the same TV channel. The latter is closely followed by Poftiți pe la noi: Poftiți prin Țară and Adela.

The top in print and online publications

Asia Express – Drumul Împăraților leads in terms of visibility in online publications and forums, where the fans discuss what’s happening on the show and make predictions about the contestants’ progress.

The social media top

Asia Express – Drumul Împăraților also leads in social media, followed 1.5 points behind by Las Fierbinți and Acces Direct, in 2nd and 3rd place, with the same score.

Top online searches

Antena 1 productions – Asia Express – Drumul Împăraților and Mireasa – occupy the first two places in online searches, followed by PRO TV shows – Las Fierbinți and Masked Singer Romania.