DUBAI: In an effort to be more transparent about viewing figures, Netflix has published its first “What We Watched” report, a new twice-yearly document that provides details of user engagement with almost all of the content on the streaming service.
The company said that since it launched its weekly “top 10” and “most popular” lists in 2021, it has provided more information about what people are watching than any other streaming service other than YouTube, and the new report is a further step in that direction.
Published on Tuesday, it includes the total number of hours users worldwide spent viewing each title that was watched for more than 50,000 hours, the international availability of content, and the premiere dates of series and films on the service. It includes information about more than 18,000 titles, which represent 99 percent of all viewing on Netflix and nearly 100 billion hours of streaming.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the decision to publish the data reflects the evolution of the streaming industry, and that as it becomes more mainstream — overtaking cable and broadcast in some markets, including the US — Netflix wants to be more open about activity on the service.
“The unintended consequence of not having more transparent data about our engagement was (that) it created an atmosphere of mistrust over time with producers, creators and the press,” he said.
The data included in the report is global and the company said it has no plans to break it down into country-specific figures, for competitive reasons and because of a consolidated global profit-and-loss statement, Sarandos said.
However, Lauren Smith, vice-president of strategy and analysis at Netflix, said the report is indicative of the diversity of content and audiences, with the average user watching content from six genres each month, and the most-watched titles covering 12 genres.
Although it lacks country-specific data, the report includes information about trends in engagement with non-English-language content, which accounted for 30 percent of all viewing. In addition, 45 percent of English titles on the platform were viewed with the use of subtitles or dubbed audio.
The company has made significant investments in original content, which accounted for more than half (55 percent) of all viewing on the platform during the first half of this year.
The top 10 titles, based on total viewing hours, between January and June 2023 were:
“The Night Agent” (Season 1)
“Ginny & Georgia” (Season 2)
“The Glory” (Season 1)
“Wednesday” (Season 1)
“Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story”
“You” (Season 4)
“La Reina del Sur” (Season 3)
“Outer Banks” (Season 3)
“Ginny & Georgia” (Season 1)
“FUBAR” (Season 1)
