It is good to be a king.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos leads the trade with almost 280 million paying subscribers worldwide. Sarandos was talking on the Quick Firm Innovation Pageant in New York this week and on Thursday previewed Netflix’s newest large knowledge dump — its semiannual “engagement report,” displaying 99 individuals on the platform % of the content material’s views and complete watch time.
Within the first half of 2024, Netflix clients watched a complete of 94 billion hours of programming. “I do not assume we will be extra clear than this,” Sarandos mentioned on the assembly. “I hope others within the trade will comply with swimsuit.”
Okay, no kidding. Sarandos hopes that Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, Max or another streamer will launch knowledge on almost all person viewing, as a result of it could expose the depth of the gulf between Netflix and different corporations.
Please be aware that Netflix’s semi-annual Engagement Report, first launched within the second half of 2023, and its prime 10 record are based mostly on self-reported knowledge that has not been verified by third events. However unbiased Nielsen knowledge (albeit overlaying solely america) usually reveals that Netflix’s share of complete TV viewing is at the least twice that of its second-biggest rival, Amazon Prime Video.
Listed here are Nielsen’s estimates by means of August 2024, based mostly on its TV Family Measurement Panel, which incorporates related TVs. Though NBCU’s Peacock’s share elevated by 39% because of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Netflix nonetheless maintains its lead in subscription motion pictures by a large margin:
Different streamers, comparable to Warner Bros. Discovery Channel’s Max and Disney’s Hulu, have additionally adopted top-rated lists like Netflix. However nobody else provides the identical large scores drops as Netflix; there’s little upside. So far, Netflix’s rivals have selectively launched viewership metrics to tout the efficiency of in style titles (Amazon, for instance, claims the Fallout collection attracted 65 million viewers in its first 16 days on Prime Video).
On the identical time, needless to say Sarandos opposed releasing such detailed knowledge earlier than agreeing. Final October, whereas discussing Netflix’s 2023 third season earnings, he mentioned: “After we began creating unique programming, our creators felt like we had been caught on this state of affairs the place success and failure had been decided by in a single day scores and weekend field workplace. world. However he added that Netflix was “main the best way” when it comes to viewership knowledge and that he anticipated the trade to develop into “more and more clear.”
Two months later, Sarandos fortunately introduced Netflix’s first large-scale knowledge rollout, which included licensed titles for the primary time. One driver is the strikes by SAG-AFTRA and the WGA, the place entry to viewing knowledge is a key bargaining concern. “That is in all probability extra data than you want,” Sarandos instructed reporters, “however I believe it creates a greater atmosphere for the guild, for us, for the producers, for the creators, for the media.”
At a Quick Firm occasion, Sarandos elaborated on Netflix’s concepts. The Engagement Report is “a solution to individuals who say, ‘Hey, I actually do not understand how my stuff is performing.’ I agree that is unfair,” Sarandos mentioned.
Clearly, although, an enormous purpose why Netflix is prepared to make use of snapshots of its large knowledge as its large knowledge trove is to exhibit its main attain and engagement. With its main place out there, Netflix pays the filmmakers and expertise who produce its unique programming. “We’re interdependent. We’d like nice storytellers,” Sarandos mentioned. “My aim is that all of them get wealthy and well-known…and in the event that they do their jobs rather well, they’ll.”
Netflix’s most-watched TV reveals within the first half of 2024: Idiot Me As soon as, Bridgerton, Reindeer Infants
Sarandos mentioned the corporate pre-negotiates the worth of a content material deal for a TV present or film based mostly on “how we predict the present or film will carry out” and “pays us accordingly.” He believes that is higher for creators as a result of “the chance is transferred to us.” He continued: What in regards to the “Titanic” phenomenon when “there may be big upside”? “It occurs very hardly ever,” Sarandos mentioned, earlier than claiming that “in lots of circumstances, we pay as if this occurs each time.”
“At any time when there’s change,” Sarandos mentioned, “persons are going to really feel uncomfortable.”
As for YouTube, which purportedly represents Netflix’s major rival within the streaming wars, Sarandos famous that the 2 corporations have very completely different enterprise fashions and curate very completely different content material. The truth is, he mentioned, YouTube is a good distribution channel for Netflix trailers. “We get 20% of all views,” he mentioned on the Quick Firm convention. “What I am doing is searching for the 80% of content material that is not on us or on YouTube.”
Throughout his FC speech, Sarandos additionally recalled Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes’ well-known criticism of Netflix in 2010. “It is form of like, is the Albanian military going to take over the world? I do not assume so,” Bewkes mentioned in an interview with The New York Instances. (This barb has lengthy irked the Netflix group: In 2013, after the corporate turned the primary streaming platform to obtain a significant Emmy nomination, co-founder Reed Hastings Posted on Fb: “Albania is on a better degree.”)
Sarandos mentioned Bewkes’ vitriol “actually served as motivation for Netflix to win.” “Nothing conjures up a group greater than being referred to as ‘the Albanian Military’,” he mentioned with a smile.
Netflix’s ‘Atlas’ and ‘Mom of the Bride’ had been broadly panned and are two of the most important streaming motion pictures of 2024 to this point
