Netflix audience data, streaming industry discourse, and the emerging realities of ‘popular’ television

Abstract

Using the media industry studies approach, this article provides a history of the industrial discourses surrounding Netflix’s audience data. From Netflix’s entry into the streaming market in 2007 until late-2018, the company did not publicize information about viewership. During this time, executives’ public discussions of proprietary data are understood in relation to multiple organizational goals: differentiating the streaming platform from the traditional television industry, denigrating traditional television industry practices, and deflecting criticism. In late-2018, the company began selectively publishing viewership numbers for a small number of original titles to highlight the popularity of the platform’s original content. Although the company maintains its anti-transparency policies, the shift toward selective data releases has significant implications regarding Netflix’s relationship with the traditional television industry. This analysis concludes with a discussion of streaming audience data that situates in the emerging realities of ‘popular’ television in the context the medium’s broader transformations and continuities.

Transnationalisation revisited through the Netflix Original: An analysis of investment strategies in Europe

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Are Video Streaming Platforms Stifling Local Production Creativity? The Spanish Case

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“…Media industry studies scholars have been particularly interested in addressing the distribution practices of such highly visible services (Elkins 2019; Jenner 2018; Lobato 2019). Yet, the anti-transparency policies of the most popular streaming platforms (Wayne 2022) and scholars’ lack of access to decision makers (Sundet 2021a) limits the types of research being conducted on distribution practices to those that can be addressed through press coverage, executive interviews in the public record, and marketing materials (Perren 2013). In spite of these challenges, a growing body of media industry studies literature is emerging that uses qualitative interviews and participant observation to address the distribution practices of smaller streaming platforms in national and transnational contexts (Simon 2021; Sundet 2021b).…”