Nobody was counting on it but, suddenly, this Tuesday Netflix made the platform's audience data public in an unprecedented exercise of transparency in the streaming sector. The file can be found on their website. It reveals the hours of consumption of more than 18,000 titles in its catalog from January to June 2023, that is, the first semester. The criterion is transparent: the data of all those series and films that have obtained a minimum of 50,000 hours of viewing are revealed, which means that the document contains 99% of the viewing figures for the entire catalogue. They also promise to publish the document twice a year.
The main headline that can be drawn from analyzing the data is clear: The Night Agent, the series created by Shawn Ryan and starring Gabriel Basso, was a phenomenon as indicated by the weekly consumption data provided by Netflix during its broadcast. It accumulates more than 812 million hours with a season of eight episodes lasting around 45 minutes. And, as the document indicates, another tremendous success was that of the second season of Ginny and Georgia, which consolidates itself as the largest adolescent phenomenon on the platform with 665 million hours watched with the second season.
Of course, beyond the difficulties of comparing content with different profiles (the list includes movies, series with different durations or number of episodes), here are five conclusions that can be drawn after seeing this unforeseen maneuver:
As a leader in the sector, Netflix is always criticized for its lack of transparency. While free-to-air television has clear metrics that calculate their audiences, since they must be accountable to advertisers, the platform has always been reluctant to reveal exactly how its series worked.
When Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos' company offered data on its content, the metrics were designed to benefit Netflix and only covered the most successful cases. Who remembers when any user who had watched at least two minutes of an episode was counted as series viewers? And why didn't they justify their cancellations by giving the audience data of the failed programs?
The reasoning was understandable: they didn't gain anything. But, after the strike of scriptwriters and actors where professionals asked for transparency in streaming, Netflix has taken this blow on the table: even if it was not in the agreement, they have chosen to offer consumption data for the first quarter of 2023. Finally, the public and the media can understand the company's decisions beyond assumptions based on the limited lists of the most viewed content and the impact of the titles on social networks.
The unions asked for transparency and he offers it, although there are many creatives who would have preferred to consult the data beforehand: they also reveal the poor functioning of many titles. In the process, it goes ahead of the rest of the platforms, always opaque when it comes to offering consumption estimates. They provide the data because they are leaders, they are aware of it and they know that, if other platforms published their audiences, they would pale in comparison.
At Netflix they have always assumed that content from Hollywood had the potential to succeed in the global market. Series such as La casa de papel, Élite, Dark and especially The Squid Game indicated that, when it comes to production, series produced outside the United States and shot in a language other than English could also become phenomena (and In fact, the South Korean series continues to be the most viewed series in the history of the platform).
The document highlights this reality by seeing who is in third place: The glory of Kim Eun-sook. The South Korean production focused on a woman who seeks revenge on those who made her life miserable at school accounts for 622 million hours of viewing. The squid was not a flower of a day but a gateway for Korean fiction to the rest of the world.
In seventh position, The Queen of the South enters with its third season, although it must be understood that it is like comparing apples and pears: it has 60 episodes, so its loyal viewers accumulate a greater number of hours. Two other Korean productions also stand out in the first 25 positions: Intensive Love Course with 234 million hours and Doctora Cha with 194 million hours.
In the next edition of the Emmy Awards, the black comedy Beef created by Lee Sung Jin accumulates 13 nominations, starting as one of the favorites as a miniseries. Actors Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Joseph Lee, María Bello and Young Mazino compete with their performances. And, despite being one of the highest quality bets, reconciling comedy with unbreathable tension, Beef is a ratings success: the ten episodes of approximately 30 minutes in length have accumulated 221 million hours of viewing. He is in 18th position.
The same thing happens with The Diplomat, for which Keri Russell is competing for the Emmy. Her mix between The Good Wife, Scandal and Homeland generated 224 million hours of viewing for its eight episodes. Investing in series with an intelligent and adult profile, therefore, should be understood as a commercial investment, beyond the possibilities of helping to build the platform's brand image at the awards level.
One of Netflix's most painful decisions so far this year was the cancellation of Shadow and Bone after its second season. The platform left fantasy lovers and readers of Leigh Bardugo's saga without a proper ending.
Its data, at first glance, is not terrifying either: it is in 26th position with 192 million hours of viewing. But the cancellation can be argued: such an ambitious series that is not low-cost, whose objective is basically commercial, should obtain better data on the platform. They were looking for a phenomenon and Shadow and Bone was not it. In fact, it is difficult to find disagreements between the positions of the series on the list and the decision to renew and cancel them.
It is notable, perhaps, that Sex/Life, battered by critics, accumulated 175 million hours with the second season and was cancelled. Since it is a very low-budget series coming from the United States, the normal thing would have been to continue with the story. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that actress Sarah Shahi, as she explained in interviews, did not have a good experience filming the second season, feeling little supported by Netflix. The arrival of new episodes of Sex/Life also made the first season add 126 million hours in the same period of time.
The second season of Ginny and Georgia is not only the second most successful series of the first semester but the first, with 302 million hours of viewing, was placed in ninth position by the number of viewers who decided to start watching the series. It remains to be seen if Antonia Gentry and Brianna Howey, the actresses of the title characters, can take a pinch of the bombshell, taking into account that their salary is estimated to have not even earned them a million for the season.
Another actor who urgently needs a contract renegotiation is Gabriel Basso, the only important face of The Night Agent that has given Netflix the main phenomenon, and who will star in a second season. He should consult the Stranger Things actors to see how far he can go. And, with respect to Jenna Ortega, her value is incalculable for Netflix: Miércoles accumulated 500 million hours in the first semester... despite the fact that the first five weeks of the series in the catalog do not count as it premiered at the end of November 2022.
Suits revealed that Netflix has a wealth of money in the purchase of content already broadcast by third parties. It doesn't matter if the old series were available on other platforms where they didn't generate a bit of noise: they, with their mass of 247 million users and the best interface in the sector, can transform your wardrobe into the fashionable series. Curiously, Suits remains in 67th position with 129 million hours watched. The reason? It entered the catalog on June 17, so it has barely been able to count in the statistics, taking into account that its highest volume of viewings will be present in the second quarter.
