The Director General at the
BBC, Tony Hall, has taken a pot shot at Netflix pointing out that the corporation's dramas, such as "Luther" and "Bodyguard" achieved bigger audiences with small
budgets,
The Guardian reports. He claims the finale of "Bodyguard" reached an audience of 17m, yet it took Netflix's "The Crown" 17 months to reach 7m viewers.
Read the whole story at The Guardian »
I think that Tony Hall is actually being generous:
* The 17m figure is the average minute audience. It's actual reach (i.e. watched some but not all) would be higher.
* It was the live + same day TV audience. Including catch-up viewing through DVRs would increase the figure.
* It excluded any BBC streaming viewing.
* It was UK only.
In essence Bodyguard achieved the 17m in an hour in just the UK, as opposed to being accumulated over time globally for people who watched any duration.