Netflix audience data, streaming industry discourse, and the emerging realities of ‘popular’ television

Michael L Wayne

doi:10.1177/01634437211022723

Abstract

Using the media industry studies approach, this article provides a history of the industrial discourses surrounding Netflix’s audience data. From Netflix’s entry into the streaming market in 2007 until late-2018, the company did not publicize information about viewership. During this time, executives’ public discussions of proprietary data are understood in relation to multiple organizational goals: differentiating the streaming platform from the traditional television industry, denigrating traditional television industry practices, and deflecting criticism. In late-2018, the company began selectively publishing viewership numbers for a small number of original titles to highlight the popularity of the platform’s original content. Although the company maintains its anti-transparency policies, the shift toward selective data releases has significant implications regarding Netflix’s relationship with the traditional television industry. This analysis concludes with a discussion of streaming audience data that situates in the emerging realities of ‘popular’ television in the context the medium’s broader transformations and continuities.

Highlights

With more than 200 million subscribers in more than 190 countries, Netflix is the largest subscription video on-demand platform in the world
To understand the industrial discourses related to proprietary streaming audience data, this research examines a variety of publicly available secondary data from sources including trade press articles, press releases, trade and popular press interviews, videos of industry roundtables, promotional appearances, and more than 10 years of Netflix’s quarterly earnings call transcripts and letters to shareholders (2010–2020)
In conjunction with other materials, the trade press offers substantive insight into industry dynamics and provides useful perspectives regarding the development of institutional processes. Given this focus on audience data and related issues in the context of streaming industry discourse, a variety of marketing materials produced by Netflix have not been included in this analysis

Summary

Introduction

With more than 200 million subscribers in more than 190 countries, Netflix is the largest subscription video on-demand platform in the world. In a 2013 interview with GQ magazine, -chief content officer now-co-CEO Ted Sarandos asserted that Netflix’s primary goal was ‘to become HBO faster than HBO can become us’ (Hass, 2013) This organizational strategy was confirmed later that year when the company released a document titled ‘Netflix Long Term View’ which began with the statement, ‘Over the coming decades and across the world, Internet TV will replace linear TV’ (Netflix, 2013a). As Lotz and Havens (2016) note, much of what Netflix promotes as original is more accurately described as exclusive in a particular market Building on such scholarship, this article examines Netflix’s public discussions of audience data and ratings in the context of these competitive dynamics

Methods

Findings

Conclusion