Nearly a year ago, we posted a blog entry about how, in the midst of the COVID lockdown, Passport viewing had spiked in March 2020 as thousands of new Passport acquired donors joined existing donors in seeking out quality content on Passport. After big increases in March, April and May, there was a lull over the summer which lasted into the fall and beyond. At that point, we figured COVID-era Passport may have peaked and that stations might settle into a more traditional pattern of incremental improvement, building on a much-improved baseline (2020 Passport viewership was up 70% over 2019).

But that isn’t what happened. That isn’t what happened at all.

As the nation said goodbye to 2020 and rang in the New Year, our data analytics team tracked Passport usage via CDP’s Passport Analytics Engine and watched as participating stations saw their highest streaming month ever. In fact, for the nearly 90 stations we track, January’s streaming numbers didn’t just break the previous record, set in May 2020. With a staggering 4.1 million streams from 540,000 users in January, they shattered those records by a full 25%.

And those weren’t the only records to fall.

January also set the record for the number of first-time streamers, with 54,000 users making their initial Passport stream. Not only that, another 73,000 users came back to stream Passport content after not streaming for 3 months or more.

And if that weren’t enough, the top two shows of the month weren’t just the most streamed Passport shows in January; each show had more unique streamers than any other show has had in Passport’s history. What were they? All Creatures Great and Small (with nearly 250,000 users) and Miss Scarlet & The Duke (with more than 167,000 users.)

Talk about content driving engagement!

January was also the single largest month for new Passport acquired donors, surpassing the previous highest month, April 2020, by an impressive 30%. And those donors knew what they wanted: to be whisked away to 1930s Yorkshire by immersing themselves in All Creatures Great and Small. It turns out that a whopping 50% of all new donors who streamed Passport in January were eager to take in the new adaptation of the classic James Herriot books.

With January’s Passport data now in the history books, it’s clear that the recent pattern of promoting and premiering popular Passport content in the month of January has started to affect cyclical acquisition patterns for most stations. As a result, effective calendar year-end fundraising will become even more critical as the majority of first-year, one-time givers acquired through Passport and on-air pledge will be working their way through the renewal window in Q4 of 2021.

And then there are the Sustainers. With thousands of new, content hungry, monthly donors added to the file in January, it’s important to do a couple of things.

First, make sure you’re keeping them engaged, and streaming, by being relentless in promoting Passport content for their consideration, surfacing Passport program viewing options wherever possible.

Secondly, now is a good time to make sure your Sustainer recapture program works as it should. Whether it’s outbound calling, a self-service portal or an inbound hotline, proactively working to recapture failed Sustainer payments and update payment information will give these donors uninterrupted service and a better customer experience.

Where does Passport go next? Time will tell. But one thing is certain, CDP will be paying careful attention to January’s large influx of donors, tracking their viewing and giving behavior to help give you the information and tools you need to protect short-term revenues and long-term retention at your station.