Netflix Reveals a New Way of Measuring Viewership for its Latest Releases

Netflix and the Numbers

Everyone’s been waiting for Netflix to reveal its numbers to the world. Investors and others must watch for the views and realize the strength of Netflix in the streaming domain. Among all the streaming services, it is by far the most widely subscribed service of them all, and the numbers have proved that one way or the other.

However, Netflix has chosen to measure the viewership of its content in a very unique way. Instead of counting the number of people who watch a film or show, it counts the number of households that watch content.

After its first month of release, the Witcher was watched by 76 million households, while 83 million people watched the action-packed film, 6 Underground starring Ryan Reynolds

But there’s an issue.

The numbers are not an accurate representation of how many individuals saw something.

Netflix Is Changing Things Up

Netflix has tweaked other areas of its measuring metrics as well.

Previously, they would consider it a view if someone watched 70 percent of a show or a movie, an action that makes sense. However, now, Netflix believes it to be a view if a person watches more than two minutes of any type of content.

That’s a strange way of measuring content, right ? Especially content that they’re paying obscene amounts of money to produce.

This makes one think how many people only saw the beginning of 6 Underground 6 as a click through from what to watch next and then switched away in the first few minutes.

According to Netflix, the new metric “levels the playing field” they are not trying to gauge viewers who completely watched something, but rather that audiences chose to watch something.

Taking a Different View

Basically, the streaming service has decided they will no longer be measuring in the way that TV ratings work. Instead, they will be going in a different direction and will be measuring the way online views and other internet content is measured.

Netflix has been smart enough to release any information regarding two hits that have become nominated for Oscars Marriage Story, and The Irishman. This is so that any possible negative sentiment does not get in the way of the possible academy award.

However, Netflix has released the numbers of another Netflix original that has been nominated for the best animated feature, Klaus. They probably did so because its numbers are staggeringly good. Klaus was viewed by 40 million households in the first month of its release.

If I were a Netflix investor, I’d think twice about Netflix and its current success. I’d probably think again about the price I’m paying per share when looking at the streaming wars and the different competitors fighting it out to gain the top spot.