Netflix Changes Viewership Metrics, Still Hides Data About Most Shows
By Movieguide® Contributor
Netflix implemented a change in how it measures views, but the data is only public for shows within the top 10 rankings on the site.
Netflix now calculates a show’s views by diving the total time that has been spent watching a TV show or movie by its runtime. This update changes how shows and movies end up on the site’s top 10 list, which had previously been based on total hours watched.
The change to hours-divided-by-runtime “proved to be a more reliable metric for many people,” Netflix said in publicity emails. The new metric is “anchored in engagement – our best measure of member satisfaction and a key driver of retention (which in turn drives our business).”
The change also levels the playing field for shows with shorter runtimes. WEDNESDAY, for example, became the number 1 English-language series on the site following the changes, displacing season four of STRANGER THINGS. STRANGER THINGS has 120 million more total hours of viewing than WEDNESDAY, but is also six hours longer meaning its view count is much lower.
This isn’t the first time Netflix has changed how it measures its metrics. The site originally counted a view after a user had watched 70 percent of the movie TV episode. At the end of 2019, they changed to counting a view after a user had watched two minutes of the content, akin to YouTube counting a view after 30 seconds. In the fall of 2021, they stopped measuring based on views and switched to emphasizing total hours watched. This placed them in line with the Nielsen rankings, which ranks the top series and movies by minutes watched in the U.S.
The change back to ranking by views is meant to better reflect how popular content is on Netflix regardless of how long the content is. However, it does not change much given that popular shows by views were always going to have high hours watched as well. What users really want is for Netflix to make more of its data public and show views for every show and movie rather than limiting it to the top ten of each on the site.
Movieguide® previously reported on Netflix:
The most notable change in the company came when Netflix announced they would be cracking down on password sharing in March of last year. This change came with the introduction of an ad-supported subscription tier, in an effort to provide a cheaper option for users who had previously been using someone else’s account. This crackdown has been tested by Netflix in multiple markets and is planned to be fully rolled out by June of this year.
The company, however, does not expect that the crackdown on password sharing will do much to increase its subscriber count; Netflix understands that it has all but saturated its subscriber numbers from its current markets, mainly the U.S. Thus, the company plans to broaden its original content, creating shows and movies for primarily international audiences to continue to boost its subscriber count.
Netflix also hopes to entice viewers by offering access to live events. The streaming site’s first experiments with this failed. A LOVE IS BLIND livestream didn’t open when clicked and a live-streamed Chris Rock Comedy Special crashed after millions of viewers joined, however, the company views this as an important category to invest in to continue to stand out from other streaming sites.
Even as it focuses on different kinds of content, Netflix plans to continue with its current models of Netflix exclusive movies, which don’t open in theaters, and TV shows that release all at once, rather than on a weekly basis, both of which many of their competitors do.
“You could argue that’s a better business decision – to release a series over 13 weeks,” Chief Executive, Ted Sarandos, said. “But we found a better model for us is to be pro-consumer and give them what they want.”
The company also plans to keep its movie and TV library expansive and continue to add to it every month.
