Welcome to the Upside Data… Netflix opened the Mothergate to its streaming data this week, sharing the # of hours viewed for 18K — or 99% — of its shows and movies in the first half of this year. Previously Netflix shared only a top-10 list of its most-watched titles. Now viewers know that, from January through June, “The Night Agent” (season one) was the No. 1 show (812M hours viewed), while “Ginny & Georgia” was No. 1 when including all seasons. More than half of all streaming time was for Netflix Originals, and non-English content had a moment.
Timing: Netflix’s data dump follows the resolution of months-long strikes by Hollywood writers and actors. One key point of contention: transparency around viewership data to help decide how much talent should be paid.
Opening the books… Netflix said it didn’t share its data early on because it didn’t want competitors to use it as a cheatsheet (think: creating copycats of top-performing shows). Back then, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said creatives liked the break from cable networks’ harsh data spotlight exposing which shows flopped or flew. But as Netflix’s audience got bigger, so did creatives’ mistrust over whether they were getting their fair share of the $$ pot.
Season finale: As part of the recent agreements between unions and studios, streamers agreed to pay out residuals for content watched by over 20% of US users within 90 days of its release, which… unions need data to determine.
Transparency builds trust… but too much can give rivals an edge. Sarandos said Netflix wouldn’t break out shows’ performance by region because that would be oversharing competitive intelligence. By choosing to release its #s publicly versus only with unions, Netflix could be trying to set the streaming-industry standard for how data should be shared.