Got a question about an SV(M) tool, feature or setting? We may have answered it already. Read our FAQs below for common user questions—plus answers—about how to use the SV(M) platform.
This page answers questions about using the SV(M) app. For questions about our streaming model, data collection methodology and how we calculate viewership behind the scenes, check out our Model FAQs:
SV(M) Model FAQs: Viewership, data sources and chart eligibility
If you still can’t find an answer or need clarification, contact Support. We update FAQs regularly with user submissions.
You can—but not on every page. Title Dashboards, Analysis, Comparison and Reports support multi-week and custom Time Frames.
Home and Charts are limited to one week of data at a time.
SV(M) designates the first full chart week of the year as Week 1. There are no partial weeks. It’s possible for the first chart week of January to start a few days before or after 1/1. In 2025, Week 1 ran from 1/3-1/9.
Week numbers for each year are listed in the leftmost column of the Calendar tool. Open the Time Frame menu to check the week # for a specific date.
All SV(M) dates begin at 12:00 a.m. UTC. Daily streaming viewership is counted from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m UTC.
No. All SV(M) dates are based on the UTC time zone, regardless of viewing location.
We use UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, EST+5) for all day, date and time demarcation irrespective of viewing time zone, title release location or SV(M) user location. UTC is a universal time standard used around the world.
A keyword search returns results ordered by relevance as well as popularity. Scroll through search results to see all potential title matches.
You don’t need to search by exact title, but a full title (vs. a couple of keywords) is more likely to return the desired result. Check spelling and phrasing to ensure a title match.
If you don’t see the show or movie you’re looking for anywhere on the list, it may not be in our database yet. SV(M) does not track all library titles. Titles that are not current or not streaming originals may not appear in search results.
Not yet. SV(M) only supports searching by title or title keyword.
For streaming originals, the release date listed on a Dashboard reflects the streaming premiere date. Non-streaming originals may display a theatrical release or linear TV premiere date.
On a Title Dashboard, the Minutes Watched pane displays increase or decrease compared to the previous period which is always the week immediately prior to the selected week.
Previous period comparisons are only available for time frames of one week at a time.
In SV(M), Activity to Date (ATD) is the total cumulative activity for a title. ATD starts with the earliest date for which we have data for a title and extends to your selected chart week/date range.
If you select a week or date range in the past, the ATD total is only up to that date, not the present day.
SV(M) tracks modeled streaming activity from Week 1 of 2022 onward.
For some titles, including library titles, SV(M) began tracking viewership after Week 1 2022. In those cases, ATD data starts from the week with available viewing figures.
Click … at top left of any Chart to export it in CSV or Excel format.
You can only export one chart week at a time.
A streaming chart week starts on Friday and ends the following Thursday. This chart week designation aligns with the theatrical box office week.
Both of our streaming charts—TV and movies—are available in the platform weekly on Fridays. SV(M) includes next-day data; we publish charts within 24 hours of receiving final streaming figures for the preceding chart week.
Variety also publishes TV and film streaming charts, both based on our modeled viewership figures, on Fridays.
Ranking Reports include all titles within your parameters, whether they’re streaming-first, streaming-window or library content. We do not currently allow for filtering of library content.
Go to Charts to see weekly rankings of streaming original content.
Not at this time.
Not at this time. If you don’t want to exclude any genres, leave the “All” (default) option selected.
Applying a genre filters will include all titles with that genre tag, even if more than one genre applies.
SV(M) genres are not hierarchical; there’s no “main genre.” If you select Fantasy, you’ll also see titles classified as Comedy/Fantasy or Animation/Fantasy/Science Fiction.
SV(M) only tracks viewership from 2022 at the earliest. If you add a pre-2022 title to your Comparison, you’ll see viewership for the first few weeks of 2022 instead of the first few weeks of release.
For example, selecting weeks 1-26 for a 2019 TV season won’t display viewership from 2019. Instead, you’ll see how many people happened to watch that season in weeks 1-26 of 2022.
We do not track historical modeled viewership before 2022.
“No data available” means that SV(M) can’t display viewership data for that title during the date
range selected. This could be for a few reasons:
The title does not have viewership data attached (applies to some library titles).
The title has not been released or made available on streaming yet (i.e. an upcoming TV season).
Platform share is based on the streamers for which we report viewership figures. It does not account for apps and viewing methods outside of that list.
Platform shares are limited to streaming originals, but not to the top 50. Platform shares are calculated based on viewership for all original movie/TV titles on each platform.
Trends automatically compares your selected week(s) to the same week(s) from the preceding year.
Each bar represents combined TV and movie streaming data for one week. If you set Time Frame:Weeks 1-4 of 2025, you’ll see paired bars representing Weeks 1-4 of 2024. The date underneath each bar is the last date of the chart week.
Yes. Visit the Luminate Developer Hub for details and documentation.