The report, which the company said it will publish twice a year, covers the period from January to June, listing movies and shows that were viewed more than 50,000 hours (more than 18,000 titles in all, with each season of a series measured separately); when they were released; and if they’re available globally.
Timing matters because a title’s ranking was affected in part by where its release fell in the six-month period. Also, as Netflix pointed out, there are some nuances that make apples-to-apples comparisons between different projects difficult. Movies tend to generate lower hours viewed than series (even a long movie is shorter than an eight one-hour episodes, for example), and series’ run times vary widely, which will impact view time.
Still, the results mirror those of Netflix’s weekly lists, and the report marks a big expansion of Netflix’s data sharing. Here are five top takeaways for the future of the dominant steamer’s business as it expands into advertising, continues to lean into licensed content alongside its buzzy originals, and heads into 2024 with plans to ramp up spending:
Fresh material tops the charts
The surprise success of “Suits” on the platform notwithstanding (its first season ranked at No. 73 for the period, with more than 129 million viewing hours), the majority of the top 50 titles were Netflix originals released this year.
This underscores the need for streamers, even one with such a commanding lead as Netflix, to keep the new content coming. On a press call presenting the research, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos emphasized, too, the importance of fresh content to distinguish the streamer and build community around hits.
Older, licensed titles are also crucial
Fully 45% of viewing came from licensed titles like “Breaking Bad” and “Suits.” It’s a confirmation of the benefit that Netflix’s huge platform can bring to rivals and will likely incentivize competitors like Warner Bros. Discovery to keep licensing to Netflix (after pulling back on such deals while they were building their own streamers) in a bid to wring more money out of their library content and make their streaming business profitable.
Thousands of Netflix shows barely get watched
The data confirms what everyone suspected: Many titles get very little watch time. Thousands of shows and movies have been watch for 100,000 hours or less. “A LOT of stuff just doesn’t get watched,” Kasey Moore, who runs the site What’s on Netflix, posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Netflix’s openness will boost its fledgling ads business
A big concession that the striking Hollywood writers’ and actors’ guilds won this year was some participation in the revenue from successful shows, which meant the streamers would have to share some data to substantiate that success.
Sarandos insisted on Tuesday’s call that Netflix was moving in the direction of increased transparency anyway and wasn’t releasing data in response to the strikes. Withholding data made sense when the company was new and trying to keep a competitive edge, but it also created challenges, he said. “That lack of transparency, the unintended consequence was this environment of mistrust around the data,” he said.
There’s another powerful constituency that wants more openness from the streamers: advertisers. Netflix is trying to court brands to buy into its fledging ads business, which has grown more slowly than the company originally projected, with its ad tier currently boasting 15 million subscribers. The data sharing will help attract ad dollars by encouraging creators of high-quality content wo work with Netflix, Wedbush analyst Alicia Reese told CNBC.
The move will turn up the heat on other streamers to follow suit
Disney+, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, and more are in an arms race with Netflix not just for subscribers, but now also for advertising. Advertisers demand data that helps them buy spots on streaming platforms the same way they’re used to doing on traditional TV. Fellow tech giants Apple and Amazon could be insulated from this pressure as streaming is just one of many business verticals for them — whereas for Netflix, it’s the pillar.
“Lots of brands want more visibility into the types of program at a genre and title level that are engaging consumers — because that’s what they get from regular TV, and streaming has traditionally been a black box,” said Kevin Krim, president and CEO of EDO, which measures the impact of TV and streaming ads. But Netflix’s release of viewing data “probably will put pressure on others to follow suit,” he said.
And given that Netflix has the largest global streaming audience by far (nearly 250 million subscribers to Disney+’s 150 million, for example) and presumably vastly greater viewership than other streamers as well, that pressure could give Netflix a big edge with advertisers.
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