‘Suits: LA’ Owes Its Existence to ‘Suits’ Becoming a Transformative Streaming Success
On Sunday, NBC premiered Suits: LA, a new spinoff of the original USA Network series. Why is that interesting? Well, a Suits spinoff had already been attempted with Pearson, which was cancelled after just one season. Such a failure typically would spell the end of the property’s life. However, the show’s crater-sized impact on the streaming landscape following its 2019 conclusion has breathed new life into the banner.
Using Parrot Analytics data, we can measure the sizable value Suits has generated across several streaming platforms, which ultimately led to Suits: LA.
The Suits Streaming Boom
From Q1 2020 through Q4 2024, Suits has generated $356 million in measured subscriber revenue to streaming services Netflix, Peacock and Amazon Prime Video, according to Parrot’s Streaming Economics model. More than two-thirds of this measured revenue was generated on Netflix, which began hosting the first eight seasons of the show in Q2 2023. Its explosion in popularity that summer speaks to the ability of long-running procedurals to drive significant engagement on-platform.
While Netflix is largely to thank for Suits’ resurgence, there was a spill-over effect to other services. Prior to its arrival on Netflix, Peacock (NBCUniversal’s streaming service) housed the series. In Q1 2023, Suits contributed an estimated $3.4 million in subscriber revenue to Peacock. By Q3, that figure had nearly doubled. Not only did Netflix’s exposure drive additional interest in the show, but NBCU wisely drove viewers back to its home platform for the final season, which was not available on Netflix at the time. (More on that shortly).
Driving Retention on Netflix
Suits enjoyed a rare post-conclusion breakout on Netflix, peaking in revenue contribution in Q4 2023 with an estimated $53 million. Thanks to its nine seasons and 134 episodes, the show emerged as a strong retention driver that maintained consistent audience demand and engagement across the streaming ecosystem. On Netflix, it nestled in perfectly with the rest of the library as a stylish binge-worthy lean-back viewing pleasure which worked to reduce churn.
Netflix has long relied on older- library-driven titles to sustain engagement in between big budget originals. Grey’s Anatomy, Breaking Bad, Friends, The Office, NCIS and many others have, at one time or another, played a central role in Netflix’s strategy. Suits is a perfect example of how Netflix can repackage a legacy title for a new generation that may not have tuned in during its original linear run.
Peacock and Prime Video’s Role in the Suits Boom
Netflix may have garnered the lion’s share of revenue from Suits (though NBCU likely received a nice chunk of change in the licensing deal), but Peacock and Amazon Prime Video also benefitted. The final season of Suits did not come to Netflix until July 2024, positioning Peacock and Amazon as the only destinations with the highly in-demand episodes.
For Amazon, this enabled the show to contribute value in a different way as it saw a greater percentage of subscriber acquisitions than Netflix did for the same show. In other words, people were signing up to Prime Video to catch the final season after binging it on Netflix.
Suits’ Bottom Line
Regardless of how Suits: LA performs (and the early ratings for Sunday’s premiere aren’t great), Suits highlights the value of long-running linear content, non-exclusive licensing, and how similar programming can perform different functions for different streamers. The Suits boom wasn’t just a nostalgic-driven outlier, it was a template for how streaming platforms can maximize value from existing IP, especially binge-worthy assets that feed easy viewing.
