Robin beat Ian to this!

https://deadline.com/2023/12/netflix-reveals-viewing-data-first-time-entire-catalog-the-night-agent-1235664951/

Netflix Reveals Viewing Data For First Time Across Its Entire Catalog

So much for the black box.

Netflix today has revealed viewership data for 99% of its entire catalog,
or about 18,000 titles around the world. It published the numbers in a
report, What We Watched, capturing viewing from January to June of 2023. It
is the first edition of a planned semi-annual look at viewership on the
leading streaming service. The initiative is to document the highs, lows
and in-betweens of the platform instead of delivering the customary lists
of only the top-performing programming.

“This is a big step forward for Netflix and our industry,” the company
wrote in a blog post. “We believe the viewing information in this report —
combined with our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists — will give creators
and our industry deeper insights into our audiences, and what resonates
with them.”

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Netflix Reveals Viewing Data For First Time Across Its Entire Catalog
By Dade Hayes
December 12, 2023 11:38am
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So much for the black box.

Netflix today has revealed viewership data for 99% of its entire catalog,
or about 18,000 titles around the world. It published the numbers in a
report, What We Watched, capturing viewing from January to June of 2023. It
is the first edition of a planned semi-annual look at viewership on the
leading streaming service. The initiative is to document the highs, lows
and in-betweens of the platform instead of delivering the customary lists
of only the top-performing programming.

“This is a big step forward for Netflix and our industry,” the company
wrote in a blog post. “We believe the viewing information in this report —
combined with our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists — will give creators
and our industry deeper insights into our audiences, and what resonates
with them.”

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Hollywood guilds had long objected to the lack of transparency in streaming
data, making the issue a key objective in this year’s dual strikes by the
WGA and SAG-AFTRA. Netflix, which has volunteered significantly more
information than any of its peers, has since last year published weekly
Top-10 lists of viewership and its titles are also represented in Nielsen’s
weekly streaming snapshots.

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In the blog post, the company explained that it is including any title,
original or licensed, that was watched for at least 50,000 hours in the
six-month period.

“While this report is broader in scope, the trends reflected in it are very
similar to those in the Top 10 lists,” the blog post noted.

There is a methodology change from the Top 10 lists, however. Data in the
new report is expressed in terms of hours viewed, which is no longer the
metric that Netflix uses to rank its own Top 10 and Most Popular lists.
Since June, Netflix has reported “views,” which it calculates as hours
viewed divided by runtime. Since then, both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have
adopted that calculation in regard to streaming transparency and
performance bonuses in their latest contracts with the studios.

One of the biggest issues with measuring in hours viewed is that it favors
content with a longer runtime, which generally are drama series. Films are
at an even higher disadvantage. Much like “views,” reporting data in hours
viewed also gives no insight into how many accounts completed a title, or
even engaged with it past the first episode. This is a value piece of data
that all streamers, especially Netflix, use to determine the success of
their content.

The top-ranking title in the new report was The Night Agent, with 812.1
million hours of viewing. It was among several new series to chart, along
with The Diplomat, Beef, The Glory, Alpha Males, FUBAR and Fake Profile.
Familiar originals also fared well, among them Ginny & Georgia, Alice in
Borderland, The Marked Heart, Outer Banks, You, Queen Charlotte: A
Bridgerton Story, XO Kitty and film sequels Murder Mystery 2 and Extraction
2.

“Success on Netflix comes in all shapes and sizes, and is not determined by
hours viewed alone,” the blog post cautioned. “We have enormously
successful movies and TV shows with both lower and higher hours viewed.
It’s all about whether a movie or TV show thrilled its audience — and the
size of that audience relative to the economics of the title.”

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

On 12/12/23 1:08 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

> Robin beat Ian to this!
>
> https://deadline.com/2023/12/netflix-reveals-viewing-data-first-time-entire-catalog-the-night-agent-1235664951/
>
> Netflix Reveals Viewing Data For First Time Across Its Entire Catalog

Just saw this about 5 mins ago on Reddit. Personally, I didn't think
people around here care much about this - I know I don't!! ;p

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:
>On 12/12/23 1:08 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

>>Robin beat Ian to this!

>>https://deadline.com/2023/12/netflix-reveals-viewing-data-first-time-entire-catalog-the-night-agent-1235664951/

>>Netflix Reveals Viewing Data For First Time Across Its Entire Catalog

>Just saw this about 5 mins ago on Reddit. Personally, I didn't think
>people around here care much about this - I know I don't!! ;p

Is this because of advertising? Is this part of the WGA strike
settlement?

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:
>> On 12/12/23 1:08 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>
>>> Robin beat Ian to this!
>
>>> https://deadline.com/2023/12/netflix-reveals-viewing-data-first-time-entire-catalog-the-night-agent-1235664951/
>
>>> Netflix Reveals Viewing Data For First Time Across Its Entire Catalog
>
>> Just saw this about 5 mins ago on Reddit. Personally, I didn't think
>> people around here care much about this - I know I don't!! ;p
>
> Is this because of advertising? Is this part of the WGA strike
> settlement?
>

I don’t think either of those things are why Robin beat Ian.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 15:39:52 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net>
wrote:

>Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>> Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:
>>> On 12/12/23 1:08 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>
>>>> Robin beat Ian to this!
>>
>>>> https://deadline.com/2023/12/netflix-reveals-viewing-data-first-time-entire-catalog-the-night-agent-1235664951/
>>
>>>> Netflix Reveals Viewing Data For First Time Across Its Entire Catalog
>>
>>> Just saw this about 5 mins ago on Reddit. Personally, I didn't think
>>> people around here care much about this - I know I don't!! ;p
>>
>> Is this because of advertising? Is this part of the WGA strike
>> settlement?
>>
>
>I don’t think either of those things are why Robin beat Ian.

Ian hates all forms of lists including those that are made by others,
including Netflix. I don't know that Netflix had to release this to
the public but it was something that needed to be done.

On 12/12/2023 2:49 PM, shawn wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 15:39:52 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>> Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:
>>>> On 12/12/23 1:08 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>
>>>>> Robin beat Ian to this!
>>>
>>>>> https://deadline.com/2023/12/netflix-reveals-viewing-data-first-time-entire-catalog-the-night-agent-1235664951/
>>>
>>>>> Netflix Reveals Viewing Data For First Time Across Its Entire Catalog
>>>
>>>> Just saw this about 5 mins ago on Reddit. Personally, I didn't think
>>>> people around here care much about this - I know I don't!! ;p
>>>
>>> Is this because of advertising? Is this part of the WGA strike
>>> settlement?
>>>
>>
>> I don’t think either of those things are why Robin beat Ian.
>
> Ian hates all forms of lists including those that are made by others,
> including Netflix. I don't know that Netflix had to release this to
> the public but it was something that needed to be done.

The speculation I've seen is that it was to rub the guilds' collective
nose in how few shows Netflix actually has to pay any kind of residuals
on since something like 80% of the catalog doesn't hit the new residuals
threshold.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.