For years, cable television has dominated the ratings for one week in summer with Warner Bros. Discovery's (NASDAQ:WBD) "Shark Week." The company's stranglehold on summer shark content could be coming to an end with streaming giant Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) taking a bite out of the popular ocean content.
What Happened: Fans of Discovery Channel and "Shark Week" are waiting until later this month, July 20-26, to view content that's part of the 37th annual Shark Week. Ahead of this content, consumers have options to watch shark-themed content from streaming giant Netflix and another cable company.
Netflix launched "All the Sharks," a new reality competition on July 4. The series features four teams of shark experts who try to photograph the most different shark types before the end of the competition, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The streaming company also premiered "Shark Whisperer," a documentary that has ranked among the streamer's top 10 most-watched films every day.
Netflix will also have the streaming rights for the four "Jaws" films starting on July 15, with the first film recently celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer.
SharkFest kicked off on July 5 with "Sharks Up Close With Bertie Gregory." SharkFest is in its 13th season as an annual tradition of shark content from the National Geographic Channel, which is 83% owned by Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS).
SharkFest will have more hours than normal through July 13 with 25 hours, throwing another potential challenge for Shark Week.
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Why It's Important: With Netflix's push for shark content and SharkFest growing, what once was a dominant week of content for Warner Bros. Discovery could now face viewer fatigue.
Content during these shark weeks of summer have done well for cable television and could now face the challenge of fending off Netflix, who got a head start on the race.
Last year, SharkFest had over 69 million views on content, including on National Geographic and through streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Last year's Shark Week had over 25 million views for content on Discovery Channel and streaming on Discovery+ and MAX.
Content for Shark Week ranked strong in the key age 25-54 demographic, with the shark content placing in seven of the top 10 spots for the week for the age 25-54 demo for ad-supported cable, excluding news and sports.
News of Netflix taking SharkFest and Shark Week head on comes after streaming viewership for the month of May surpassed the total of broadcast and cable television combined for the first time ever with a 44.8% market share to 44.2% market share, according to Nielsen data.
The remaining 10.9% was listed as miscellaneous categories.
Netflix continues to dominate streaming and is getting closer to disrupting all the major content wins of broadcast and cable television with entries in live sports, awards shows, reality television, shark content and more.
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