This Week in TV News: DTC Shoppers’ Streaming Habits and Disney+

How many people will tune into “Game of Thrones” this Sunday, and what content will appear on Disney+? Let’s explore these questions, plus a study around DTC shopper streaming habits and a secret Donald Glover movie on Amazon.

“Game of Thrones” viewership predictions. It’s likely Game of Thrones season 8 will premiere to its biggest ratings ever. The show trounces its own ratings every season, so the last season will be big. How big? The record holder is 2017’s penultimate season, with 12 million viewers in the overnight Nielsens, up 36% from the season 6 finale. (Entertainment Tonight)

A whole new world… of Disney streaming. The long-awaited streaming service was announced Thursday afternoon. Content from Disney’s vast repository will include titles from Disney-owned brands (Pixar, Star Wars, the Disney Channel, Marvel and National Geographic) and 21st Century Fox properties. Disney CEO and chairman Bob Iger said the company is “putting forward an aggressive strategy” during the investor day event. (AdExchanger)

DTC shoppers stream, a lot. Research from Telaria and Hulu found DTC shoppers spend 13 hours watching live or on-demand streaming TV every week, 20% more time than they spend watching cable TV. What’s more, DTC shoppers who watch both streaming and linear TV were twice as likely to buy a product after seeing an ad that those consumers that only saw on linear TV. (MediaPost)

Amazon’s secret Rihanna and Donald Glover movie. Amazon is streaming “Guava Island,” both starring and produced by Glover. In its first 18 hours, the movie will be free. After that window, it will only be available for Amazon Prime subscribers. The streaming service is betting that the film will bring in a new audience, who might decide to sample other Prime content. (Adweek)

See last week’s TV trends.