Research

 

Popularity of TV Documentaries -

TV Documentaries are surging in popularity thanks to things such as streaming services making their availability much higher as there are more in circulation due to their cheaper production time and value. The desire for true stories has increased in a world consumed by fictional content. There is a diverse age range within the audience of documentaries, these show in content preferences as younger audiences prefer fast-pacing and trending topics unlike an older audience who like slower, historic and nature content. For example, a documentary like ‘Kenny’ is very popular amongst fans of football as it covers several events from his career whilst also helping to attract others through his own exclusive personal stories as well as the discussion of the events of Hillsborough from his own perspective which is one of the appealing factors of this documentary.

The history of TV Documentaries -

 At first TV documentaries began as early as the 1940s projecting historic and wartime themes leading to their rise in popularity. As time went on, by the 60s the themes within these documentaries began shifting towards more ‘social’ topics such as celebrities and nature – this caused the perception of these documentaries to alter, leading to more success and more popularity amongst all audiences. Around the 80s was the final shift in documentaries making them the most like the documentaries we watch today, there was more bold documentaries challenging controversial topics, a higher focus on making more profitable and popular documentaries and within the modern day we have streaming services allowing for easy access to tons of different documentaries. As we go through the history of documentaries Fahrenheit 9/11 is one of the most popular documentaries of all time and is still talked about today despite its 2004 release when it became the highest grossing documentary of all time (was later overtaken). This gained such a large following as it challenged the events of 9/11 and whether some of the information was really true and what was being hidden, the documentary itself caused intense debate as it also intended to influence the 2004 presidential election; this documentary through its rebellious and challenging approach helped it become one of the most popular documentaries ever, whilst standing through the test of time, leaving its mark on US society.

Numerical data and financial information –

Fahrenheit 9/11- This documentary grossed roughly above $220 million across the world, breaking records held by other documentaries despite the minimal $6 million production value of the documentary. This became the first ever documentary to reach number 1 in the US box office charts.

Michael Jackson’s This is It – This documentary goes down as multiple record holder as well as the highest grossing documentary of all time, grossing out at over $252 million worldwide.

Kenny – This documentary was released on Prime Video, showing the progression in documentaries, they’re being exclusively released on streaming platforms showing the change as before they’d be released in theatres and cinemas, this documentary has roughly a $12,000 box office valuation, obviously low due to its streaming service exclusivity.

The Social Dilemma – Similar to Kenny, this documentary was released exclusively on Netflix. Within its first year of release, it amassed a viewership of over 100 million people across the globe, with 38 million in the first four weeks of release. This documentary sparked widespread discussion and large tech companies such as Apple using it as reference and when addressing its concerns which for Apple was when discussing privacy.