Advanced Television

The Walking Dead Season 3 premiere breaks international records on Fox

October 24, 2012

After AMC’s record-shattering premiere of Season 3 of The Walking Dead on October 14th, the series’ international broadcaster, FOX International Channels (FIC) concluded its week-long streak of international premieres with impressive ratings performance around the world. Single broadcast premiere runs of Season 3 of The Walking Dead delivered 8.5 million Total Viewers, up +20 per cent from its Season 2 debut.

Within a week of its premiere in the US, The Walking Dead Season 3 premiered in 122 countries across Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, speaking 35 languages. In all of the international markets where live and/or consolidated (3+) data was available ahead of this release, the premiere easily defeated all cable competition in its time period with Total Viewers, and in some cases beat broadcast competition to reign as the night’s most watched programme.

Key global highlights include:

Premiere telecasts in markets launched total 8.5 million Pay TV Viewers, up +20 per cent from the series’ Season 2 launch. Total reach within the FIC universe exceeded 16.2 million viewers.

Premiere telecasts outpaced all prior seasons’ premieres by considerable margins, outperformed Season’s 2 premieres by +20 per cent among All Viewers (8.5 million vs. 7.1 million prior year). For example: Season 3 was up 155 per cent from Season 2 in Peru; up +133 per cent from Season 2 in Chile; up 77 per cent from Season 2 in the Philippines; 44 per cent from Season 2 in Australia and up 10 per cent from Season 2 in Italy. Compared to Season 1 performance, the telecast was up 265 per cent in Colombia; up 271 per cent in Spain; up 193 per cent in Portugal; and up 90 per cent in Brazil.

Key Latin American highlights include:

Across FOX in Latin America, The Walking Dead ranked #1 among all Pay TV channels in the core 18-49 demo, delivering double or triple ratings performance when compared to the previous 6 weeks primetime channel average.

Mexico delivered nearly 800,000 Total Pay TV viewers in its premiere and encore telecast, making The Walking Dead on FOX the #1 ranked Pay TV programme in the 18-49 demo, and beating most broadcast channels with the exception of Canal Nac 2.

Colombia’s premiere and encore telecast on FOX delivered 415,000 Total Pay TV viewers, outperforming the channels 6-week primetime average by 100 per cent.

Key European highlights include:

– On FX in the UK, the premiere episode ranked #1 on Pay TV, with total weekend viewing tallying nearly 725,000 for All Viewers.

– On FOX Finland, FIC’s broadcast network in the market, the first episode ranked as the #1 programme in Primetime, making FOX the #4 most watched commercial networks for the day.

– On FOX in Spain, the premiere again ranked #1 among all Pay TV channels, beating its closest competitor by an impressive 80 per cent margin, and outperforming FOX’s Primetime average in the market by +712 per cent among All Viewers.

– On FOX in Italy, the premiere ranked #1 across all Pay TV and Free DTT channels in the core 18-49 demo, and delivered a +55 per cent primetime average for the timeslot with key Adult demos.

– On FOX in Poland, the programme performed +400 per cent the channel’s previous 6-week Primetime average with All Viewers.

Key Asia-Pacific highlights include:

In Australia, the relatively nascent FX channel delivered the most watched programme on STV for the day and achieved an impressive 4.0 per cent share of Total TV viewing in its timeslot. The premiere marks FX Australia’s highest overnight audience since the channel’s launch.

On FOX Philippines, The Walking Dead broke all previously held performance records for Western general entertainment programming, when it became as the highest rated drama series since the launch of the national meter panel in 2009.

In Taiwan, The Walking Dead debuted as the #1 international drama in the market and propelled Star Movies to the #1 position across all movie channels in its timeslot.

“The Walking Dead is, without a doubt, the biggest global TV hit of the moment. Our viewers can’t get enough of “Dead”, said Hernan Lopez, President and CEO of FIC.

“This incredible global success is the result of a unique partnership and collaboration between FIC, AMC and The Walking Dead’s talented team,” said Sharon Tal Yguado, FIC’s EVP of Scripted Programming and Original Development. “For a third consecutive season we are bringing this highly anticipated show to viewers in more than 120 countries a day after it airs in the US.  We’ve made a strong commitment to the show’s hungry and loyal fans and it paid off big time.”

For the past two years, “The Walking Dead” has received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup (2012/2011). In 2010, “The Walking Dead” secured a Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Series – Drama. “The Walking Dead” tells the story of the months and years that follow the zombie apocalypse. It tracks a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, who travel in search of a safety and security.

FIC owns all international rights for The Walking Dead outside of North America. Entertainment One handles third party Broadcast TV, Digital and Home Video sales for the show outside of FIC’s channels.

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