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Presented below is the section for the United Kingdom from The Global Television Demand Report. Enjoy!

United Kingdom digital original genre and subgenre preferences

• In the United Kingdom, the drama genre accounted for 46.9% of demand for digital originals in 2020. This is on par with the global average demand share for drama digital originals.
• The UK is among the most receptive markets for horror content. Horror’s 2.8% demand share here is greater than the US but behind the most horror-loving markets, Brazil and Mexico.
• The UK had the second highest demand share for documentary digital originals with 6.3%. This is an increase from 4.0% in 2019.

• Sci-fi drama is the most in-demand subgenre of 2020 in the United Kingdom.
• Historical drama is the 7th most in-demand subgenre in the UK. This is the highest rank it achieved, both in the UK and France.
• Comedy’s share of demand increased in the UK compared to 2019. Last year, sitcom was the 10th most in-demand subgenre in this market but this year it has moved up two places.

United Kingdom platform demand share & digital originals demand distribution

• Digital originals from Netflix account for a majority of demand for digital originals in the United Kingdom in 2020. However, the 52.7% here is below the global average share of demand for Netflix originals.
• The United Kingdom has the second highest share of demand for Amazon Prime Video originals or markets in this report. Two Amazon originals that have been especially popular in the UK this year are Good Omens and The Grand Tour.
• Disney+ had a noticeable spike in demand in the UK in April this year. This was following the launch of the platform in the UK on March 24 and also coincided with the weekly release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars episodes in the lead up to the series finale on May 4.

• The Mandalorian is the most in-demand digital original series in the United Kingdom for 2020. It achieved 31.6 times the demand of the average show.
• Apple TV+’s Long Way Up performed better in the UK than any other market in this report. It was the 30th most in-demand digital original and had 8.5 times the average demand.
• Harlots, the Hulu original, also was notably more in-demand in the British market than in other countries with 7.4 times the average demand in 2020.

United Kingdom platform demand share for drama and action/adventure digital originals

• With 57.6% of demand for drama originals, Netflix has captured a majority of demand for this category in the UK.
• In the UK, all the platforms above have a slightly above average share of demand for drama originals while the other category has a well below average share.
• Hulu maintained a relatively stable share of demand in 2020 compared to 2019. Last year it had a 11.2% share of demand for drama originals while this year it has an even 11.0% share.

• Platform demand shares for action/adventure original content in the United Kingdom closely mirror the average demand shares across markets in this report.
• As with all markets in this report, Netflix originals captured the largest share of demand for action/adventure originals in the UK. 31.4% of demand for an action adventure original in the UK was for a Netflix original.
• Post launch, HBO Max reached its peak demand share for action/adventure content in June 2020. In this month HBO Max originals accounted for 27.0% of demand for all action/adventure digital originals in the UK.

Top digital original series in the UK

Here are the top 20 most in-demand streaming original series in 2020 across all platforms:

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