‘Power’ Season 4 Premiere Viewership Steady With 2016, Starz App Use Surges

Directly up against the New Edition reunion-starring BET Awards on Sunday, the Season 4 premiere of Starz’s Power suffered an overall viewership decline but saw record numbers embracing the premium cabler’s non-linear strategy.

On linear television, the “When I Get Out” episode of the Courtney Kemp-created drama executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson certainly was down from the dizzying heights of its Season 3 debut on July 17, 2016. Partially facing the first part of the BET Awards, the 9 PM ET Season 4 premiere of Power snagged 1.68 million viewers and a 3.2 rating among adults 18-49. That’s a 26% drop from the “Call Me James” Season 3 opener and a 20% downturn in the demo.

However, across all platforms and plays, Power Season 4 opener dipped just 9% in overall viewership from the Season 3 debut total to 3.26 million — which makes it the second-best Starz season debut ever. The Season 3 premiere of Power was and remains Starz’s best original series season debut numbers ever and the most-watched episode of any Starz original.

Taking the series starring Omari Hardwick, Lela Loren and Naturi Naughton off the traditional small screen, Starz and Power established some records with the Season 4 debut. As it has in the recent past with other high-profiles show, the Lionsgate-owned premium cabler offered the opening episode of Power Season 4 almost a day early on the Starz app and on Starz On Demand.

Going live at 12:01 AM on June 25, Power’s latest season opener hit a new premiere high for the app with 830,000 total plays – a big jump from Season 3’s results.

In perhaps an even greater indication of where the audience is and how to find it, Starz OTT subscriber sign-ups shot up nearly 150% over Power’s then-record Season 3 opening weekend subscriptions – which for a premium cabler is all about not leaving any viewer or money on the table.