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Netflix Will Start to Release More Viewership Data on Its Shows

The data will give consumers, Hollywood producers and rivals added visibility into its streaming business.

Netflix Will Start to Release More Viewership Data on Its Shows
The Netflix Inc. website home screen on a laptop computer. (Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg)

Netflix Inc. will disclose new data about the popularity of its programs on a more regular basis, giving consumers, Hollywood producers and rivals added visibility into its streaming business.

Later this year, the company will begin reporting the hours viewed for programs. Up to now, it’s been reporting the number of accounts that watch a program for two minutes or more. 

Netflix didn’t disclose any viewership data for its first decade of streaming, infuriating many of its business partners. Over the past few years, the company has cherry-picked a handful of data points every so often to make the audience for its biggest hits seem large. It has released most of that data when reporting financial results.

The metrics will give customers and the entertainment industry a better measure of success. It’s not clear if any of Netflix’s peers, such as Amazon, Hulu or Disney+, will follow its lead. They release even less data than Netflix does.

TV networks and movie studios have long released data about viewership and ticket sales for their TV shows and films. But the metrics have changed in a streaming world. Companies like Netflix don’t make money based on individual titles. They use those titles to drive customers to a broader service.

Netflix collects all kinds of detailed data about the number of people who start a show, watch it for a certain duration and then complete it. It also has created its own metrics, such as adjusted view share and impact value, to reflect a show’s real significance to the company.

“Squid Game,” the company’s newest hit, generated an impact value of almost $900 million, as Bloomberg News reported last week. Netflix didn’t say it would disclose any of these numbers.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.