Journal
MEDIA CULTURE & SOCIETY
Volume 44, Issue 2, Pages 193-209Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/01634437211022723
Keywords
media industries; Netflix; platforms; streaming; television; video on-demand
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By utilizing the media industry studies approach, this article presents a history of industrial discourses surrounding Netflix's audience data, highlighting the company's evolving strategies in disclosing viewership information. The analysis concludes with a discussion on the significant implications of Netflix's audience data within the emerging realities of 'popular' television.
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.
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