'Black Sails' Casts Off With Strong Second-Season Debut
By Mike Reynolds published
Starz’s pirate drama provided the premium network with some impressive Nielsen bounty in its return.
The second-season premiere of Black Sails, the prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island, notched a 25% jump on live+3 basis compared to its series' opener.
The sophomore-season bow captured 860,000 viewers on Jan. 24 at 9 p.m. according to Nielsen live+same-day data, edging past the 846,000 who watched the series opener on Jan. 25, 2014.
Total weekend viewership tallied 2.24 million watchers, down nearly 8% from the 2.43 million watchers for the series’ bow in 2014, but up 27% from the 1.77 million watchers for the first-season concluder. Moreover, Starz officials noted that the second-season’s opening weekend surpassed the first season’s weekend average of 2.05 million watchers by 9.2%.
Starz executives noted that the episode had wind in its viewing sales as partial multiplatform data had the second season return floating toward 4 million viewers. That tally, they said, did not include contributions from additional multiplex runs, Starz on Demand, Starz Play and other digital airings, nor the full live+7 effect.
The second installment of the 10-episode, second campaign embarks on Jan. 31 at 9 p.m. Starz has already ordered a third season of Black Sails.
The smarter way to stay on top of the multichannel video marketplace. Sign up below.
Thank you for signing up to Multichannel News. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.