“The swarm”
Media library record for Schätzing adaptation
Klaas Heufer-Umlauf (left), Leonie Benesch and Oliver Masucci in “The Swarm”.
© ZDF/Fabio Lovino
“The Swarm” gets a media library record. Since the net reach was recorded, no more people in this country have called up a program.
“The Swarm” has set a media library record. This is shown by the streaming charts of the AGF video research for March of this year. Accordingly, the net reach of the first part of the series was 1.694 million viewers.
Like the industry magazine “Meedia” calculates, since the changeover to a new recording method by AGF, no program has had better access figures in a German-language media library. Since “The Swarm” started in the ZDF media library at the end of February, the absolute numbers are even higher.
The three other episodes of the multi-part series based on the bestseller by Frank Schätzing (65) also clearly exceeded the million mark. Part 2 got a reach of 1.563 million. Episode 3 achieved 1.571 and Episode 4 1.308 million. The calculation was based on the TV broadcast in four double episodes and not after eight individual episodes.
AGF Videoforschung has been recording the net reach of media library programs for two years. This means that each access is only counted once per user. Multiple uses are not recorded.
Successful despite Schätzing-Schelte
At the beginning of March, the second German television reported that “Der Schwarm” is the most successful format in the history of the ZDF media library.
The success is all the more remarkable as the template author Frank Schätzing (65) publicly criticized the series before it was broadcast on TV. “It pilchers more than it raves,” the author criticized, referring to the kitschy film adaptations of Rosamunde Pilcher’s novels. The thriller adaptation was also too shallow for many viewers.
Nevertheless, a strong 6.82 million viewers tuned in to the premiere on linear television on March 6 of this year.