Samba

"Backrooms" (2026) reached the most households of any horror film over the last month, but that doesn't necessarily make it the most popular Halloween movie this season. While "Backrooms" reached 4.5 million households, Samba calculates that the average household made it through only two-thirds of the movie, missing the entire third act. The highest-ranked horror movie by completion rate, the average household watch time for a title divided by its total runtime, is Tyler Perry's "Boo!: A Madea Halloween" (2016). M. Night Shymalan's "Split" (2016), ranked low in terms of households reach, but jumped 19 spots in the rankings when measured by total watch time. The differences between rankings for household reach, watch time and completion rate illustrate the different ways to measure the audience for a piece of content. Some films attract a wide audience, some of whom are only partially interested in the content ("Backrooms"), while other movies cater to a niche audience who is deeply interested ("Boo!").

The NFL’s cultural dominance is not going away anytime soon. Despite media narratives suggesting the NFL’s sports and media empire is on the verge of a decline, the NFL remains popular across all age groups, according to a new analysis by Samba. The NFL’s share of U.S. households with young adults (ages 18 to 34) and children younger than 18 are (almost) perfectly in line with national averages, Samba finds. For households that watch NFL games exclusively on streaming, the NFL’s share of young viewers is slightly above average. Read the full report here 🔗: hubs.ly/Q04Cttp80

Actually, the smart money is on Jack O'Connell: nitter.cf/sambaintel/status/2113…

If Amazon wants the next iteration of the James Bond franchise to succeed, it should cast Jack O’Connell in the role, according to Samba data. Of the actors up for the role, O'Connell has the highest appeal among action movie fans, and over-indexes among young male audiences, the report finds. Rumors have swirled for months about who will reprise 007 and succeed Daniel Craig, and four final candidates are reportedly auditioning for the role. O'Connell is the clear choice, Samba data indicates.

Netflix dominates the Weekly Wrap again this week with six of the 10 most streamed programs, including the top spot with "Below," the nautical monster series starring former teen heartthrob Josh Hartnett. Audiences remain in the spooky spirit, as "Carrie," Amazon Prime Video's miniseries adaptation of the classic Stephen King book, comes in at No. 4, and Peacock's "Crystal Lake," a series prequel to the "Friday the 13th" franchise, at No. 7. Making its debut in the top 10, in the final spot, is Netflix's "The Great British Baking Show.'

"Widow's Bay" added 800,000 new U.S. households to its audience the week after its historic, record-breaking haul at the Emmys. Viewership for the Apple TV horror-comedy nearly reached 1,900 hours a day after the show won 14 Emmys, almost as high as the show's season finale peak three months earlier, according to a new study from Samba. The audience surge was particularly prominent among Asian audiences, who flocked to "Widow's Bay" after Hiro Murai, who directed five episodes of the show, became the first Asian director to win an Emmy for comedy directing. Read the full report here 🔗: hubs.ly/Q04BTVKK0

Data centers have emerged as arguably the single biggest issue this mid-term election cycle, and political campaigns are using TV and web data to target voters interested in the issue. A current Democrat-funded, pro-data center campaign uses Samba's TV and web data to identify households that had already been exposed to data center campaigns ads, and people who had read about the topic online. The campaign is now targeting those voters in deep-red Southern states and Midwestern swing states, trying to convince them that data centers are good, actually. It's a tough sell considering the vast majority of Democratic voters are anti-data centers. But trade unions, a core Democratic voting bloc, want data centers for the construction contracts. Republicans are split on the issue, too. The presidency supports data centers, but local Republican politicians have campaigned against them. It's a complex issue, which makes accurate audience targeting all the more important. Read the full report here 🔗: hubs.ly/Q04BNz5f0

Netflix is dominating the streaming charts this fall. For the third week in a row, Netflix had the most watched streaming title last week with the new Ben Affleck thriller "Animals." Netflix also holds the No. 2 and 3 spots on the Weekly Wrap chart with "East of Eden," the miniseries adaptation of the classic John Steinbeck novel, and "Below," a mystery series starring Josh Hartnett. In total, Netflix has six of the top 10 spots on this week's list. Apple TV's new season of "Ted Lasso" comes in fourth place, and Amazon's miniseries take on the beloved Stephen King horror novel "Carrie" is in sixth. The HBO Max drama "War" rounds out the list at No. 10.

When the NFL plays games abroad, the share of international viewers doubles. For decades, the NFL has tried to grow the league in foreign markets, and a new analysis by Samba shows the NFL has succeeded. International audiences account for 10 percent of viewing hours this season, up from 8 percent the previous two seasons. For games played internationally, the international share of viewership jumps to 15 percent. The effect is even bigger in the host country. More than 1 million Australian homes watched the NFL's first game in the country earlier this season, which is 18 times higher than the Australian audience for other international games. Read the full report here 🔗: hubs.ly/Q04BmqRq0

Captain America doesn't eat during the post-credit sequence in "The Avengers" because Chris Evans was wearing a prosthetic jaw to hide the beard he'd grown for "Snowpiercer." The makeup team couldn't glue the beard to Evans' face because of the beard, so Evans had to hold it up with his hand. If he had eaten, Captain America's face would have fallen off. Bob Sabouni, former head of global marketing at Marvel, recounted the story for Samba CEO Ashwin Navin in a recent interview.

“In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, the NFL is the last vestige of monoculture we have,” Alyson Sprague, Samba's vice president of measurement science, tells Observer in a new article about whether the NFL can maintain its cultural dominance. Media narratives that the NFL's sports and media empire might soon be on the decline are just that: narratives. Samba data show that the NFL is as strong as ever, even with younger viewers. Overall reach for NFL games is just as high as last season. The NFL has reached 41.2 percent of U.S. TV households with adults ages 18 to 34 this year and 28.4 percent of home with a child younger than 18, both in line with national averages. The NFL is the biggest force in television, and there are no signs of that changing anytime soon. Read the full Observer article here 🔗: hubs.ly/Q04BcTQL0

"Love Story," Ryan Murphy's tragic retelling of the real-life romance between John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, drove huge sales for Levi's 517 jeans and Aldo sunglasses, showing TV's influence on consumer behavior.

Pharmaceutical brands collect wastewater data to know when and where diseases break out, and target those areas with ads. No industry knows more about being creative with audience data than pharma, which is subject to some of the strictest regulatory scrutiny in all of business. Samba's Chief Commercial Officer Aden Zaman hosted a panel on pharma advertising last week at Advertising Week New York, featuring Kristy Quagliariello (Klick) and Mark Pappas (CMI) as panelists. They shared insights every brand can learn from, such as why advertising quality is overrated and how a pharma brand beat its competition with a fraction of the budget. Watch a video of the panel here 🔗: hubs.ly/Q04B5vhD0

Spooky season is in full swing, as Netflix's "The Unabomber" was the most-streamed show last week. At No. 3 is "The Widower: 'Til Death do us Part," a Netflix documentary about a detective and journalist investigating a killer. But it wasn't all doom and gloom. Coming in second is Apple TV's light-hearted "Ted Lasso," which is close to ending its fourth season. HBO Max's hit series "Lanterns," an extension of the DC Comics universe, comes in at No. 5, just behind Netflix's miniseries adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel "East of Eden."

One of the best ways to drive viewers to the TV screen is through their phone screens. Netflix increased viewership for "Squid Game" and "Wednesday" by 19% and 14% (respectively) in Australia by running ad campaigns for the shows on TikTok, a new joint study from Samba and TikTok found. The campaigns were especially effective at converting people who watch little TV. Half the ad impressions and 39 percent of the incremental audience lift came from the 45 percent of the campaign audience that watched the least amount of TV. The Samba-TikTok partnership is the first time entertainment marketers in Australia have been able to connect digital ad exposures to TV viewership and conduct “closed loop” measurement, according to Jon-Paul Stift, TikTok’s marketing science manager in the country.