Killing Eve – A Case Study in Analysing Show Fandom

The 20,000 Foot View: Killing Eve season three was released in April 2020, the third instalment of a critically acclaimed genre-hopping comedy/drama spy thriller about a female intelligence operative obsessively hunting a female assassin. Defying conventional four-quadrant programming, the franchise has stood out amidst a bevy of more conventional competitors. However, the category-defying nature of the show has led to challenges of converting awareness into engagement. Once that engagement does kick in, Killing Eve fandom over indexes for viewing even when compared with fandom-superpower Game of Thrones.

Key insights

• Killing Eve fandom has increased from XXX to XXX between XXX 2018 and XXX 2020 in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia
• Killing Eve has steadily increased its MIDiA Index score from XXX to XXX (out of XXX from XXX 2019 to XXX 2020
• Over the same period awareness has increased from XXX to XXX in the US, UK, Canada, and XXX of UK consumers in XXX 2020 were fans of Killing Eve, compared to XXX in the US
• Killing Eve has a higher viewership-to-fandom ratio than The Boys, and higher awareness-to-viewership 
• During XXX 2020 Killing Eve Wikipedia page views tripled, following the airing of season three
• While Killing Eve fandom in the US is broadly consistent with streaming crime-hit Money Heist, viewing penetration among the XXX age group is significantly higher, underlining the higher fandom return on investment for the Killing Eve brand 
• US Killing Eve fans are digitally savvy, with digital subscriptions at three times the consumer average and being four percentage points more likely to have an iPhone or an iPad than the consumer average 
• However, US Killing Eve fans significantly under index for cord cutting, with Comcast being their preferred pay-TV operator 
• Income distribution is evenly spread across the male-skewing fandom segment, with XXX year olds accounting for XXX of US XXX fans

METHODOLOGY 

This report is a review of trends and data established on Killing Eve engagement from XXX 2018 to XXX 2020 in the leading English-speaking markets of the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. MIDiA Research fields quarterly brand tracker consumer surveys in key countries for insight data and aggregates third-party indicator data to track demand globally from Wikipedia, google searches, social and critique sites. MIDiA specifically asks the demographically-weighted survey respondents the following three key questions on shows: 

Awareness: Do you know this show?

Viewing: Have you watched this show in the previous XXX months?

Fandom: Please indicate using a scale of XXX to XXX how much you like the show (MIDiA then assigns respondents who choose XXX and XXX as fans of the show).