For the first time ever, Netflix is pulling back the curtain and telling the world what people are watching.
Through the streaming platform's engagement report, titled “What We Watched,” we can see the number of hours viewed for 99% of Netflix's catalog from January to June of this year.
Securing the top spot is "The Night Agent," which premiered in March and amassed a total of 812 million hours of viewership by the end of June. Following closely is the second season of the Netflix original "Ginny and Georgia," with "The Glory," "Wednesday," and "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story" rounding out the top five.
The data is inclined towards television series, and this inclination is attributed to the fact that, according to Netflix, the average movie has a duration of two hours, while the average TV show spans nine hours. Consequently, TV shows contribute significantly more to the overall watch time. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos emphasized that this data is integral to the company's operations.
In July, Netflix announced robust earnings for the second quarter, despite—at that time—the ongoing Hollywood actors and writers strikes.
The agreements ultimately reached by the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America include increased transparency regarding streaming data and residuals for actors and writers. Therefore, Netflix's release of this report to actors, writers, and the public is a positive stride in the right direction.
"The unintended consequence of not having more transparent data about our engagement was that it created an atmosphere of mistrust over time with producers and creators and the press about what was happening on Netflix," Sarandos said. "This is on the continuum of transparency as streaming becomes more and more mainstream. It’s more on par with other forms of media that have quite accessible information about how things are performing.”
Netflix plans to release the data on a bi-annual basis; the next one should be out early next year.
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