Netflix to stream ‘Bridgerton’ spin-off

American streaming platform Netflix will premiere Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, an upcoming drama limited series created by Shonda Rhimes, on 4 May. The series is a prequel spin-off of the Netflix series Bridgerton, and will focus on Queen Charlotte’s rise to power. It will feature Golda Rosheuvel, India Amarteifio, Adjoa Andoh and Arsema Thomas.

Viewership of international content on over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms in India has nearly doubled in 2022 as audiences took to original and dubbed versions of English, Turkish, Spanish and Korean shows and films.

Viewers have become increasingly language agnostic owing to dubbing and subtitling of international shows popular for high-quality storytelling and production, said streaming services firms. Many services also used social media influencers and Bollywood stars to market these shows in India over the past year.

According to media consulting firm Ormax, the most viewed international series last year include House of the Dragon (28.2 million) and Moon Knight (23.4 million) beating last year’s record of 19.3 million by Hawkeye. All three shows are on Disney+Hotstar.

“Indian viewers have high interest and appetite for great global and local content. Stories are universal and streaming with its innate ability to transcend physical boundaries has allowed audiences across the globe to experience them in a language they prefer. People are inherently culturally curious, intrigued by stories from around the world,“ a Netflix spokesperson said in an earlier interview. Another important aspect of stories travelling round the world has been the acceptance of subtitles and dubs, said the person adding that the platform dubs and subtitles shows and films in up to 37 languages.

International TV shows and films that have trended on the India Top 10 row last year on Netflix include All of us are Dead, Stranger Things 4, Red Notice, Bridgerton Season 2, DAHMER: Monster- The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Don’t Look Up.

From international content, English language content dominates viewership, with 65% of SVoD (subscription-led video-on-demand) audiences watching it, with or without language support, followed by Korean language content, being viewed by 30% of the SVoD audience base.