Netflix has released a trove of viewing data, but to what end?

Since 2021, Netflix shares weekly top 10 and most popular lists, which provide a window into the content consumed on the streaming platform. His new biennial “What we watched” report goes a step further, with comprehensive viewership data showing what new fare looks like the night manager, as well as older, licensed titles such as Breaking Bad and suits, thrive on the platform.

A major point of contention in the Hollywood Writers’ Union strike was that creators is not familiar with stream numbers, and they suspected that they were not compensated according to the income. The Writers Guild of America’s new contract requires streamers to provide data about the performance of shows.

The historical lack of transparency “created an atmosphere of mistrust over time with producers and creators and the press about what was going on,” Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said on a Dec. 12 media call acknowledge. But he denied releasing data in response to the strikes, saying Netflix was moving toward increased transparency anyway.

The new report lists 18,000 titles line by line on an Excel spreadsheet, covering 99% of all viewing on Netflix and nearly 100 billion hours watched. But how can these numbers be assessed and what can they really help anyone evaluate? Viewing time and repeat viewing value of longer series and shorter movies cannot be an apples-to-apples comparison – release dates play a large role in consumption levels. Also, when competitors don’t release similar data, there’s no real barometer to figure out what the data points mean.

Charted: The Night Agent was Netflix’s most watched title in the first half of 2023

Put down the gauntlet

Netflix, which has by far the largest global streaming audience with nearly 250 million subscribers, ideally would guidance on transparency and encourages other streamers to share their own analysis. But some observers suspect there is more to the new report than meets the eye.

“I think it’s about putting down the gauntlet and offering something else to point to with transparency complaints,” Casey Moorewho runs the website What’s on Netflix pointed out in a post on X. “They know that other streamers won’t follow because if they did, it’s going to be a lot more embarrassing for them.”

One big number: 30%

This is the share of all Netflix viewers measured in the report of non-English content.

Quote: Open the black box

“A lot of brands want more visibility into the kinds of shows at a genre and title level that engage consumers — because that’s what they get from regular TV, and streaming has traditionally been a black box.”

—Kevin Krim, president and CEO of EDO, which measures the impact of TV and streaming advertising, in a report from Business Insider