{"id":3339,"date":"2021-10-20T11:44:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T09:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/20\/techscape-from-friends-to-squid-game-why-netflix-viewing-figures-matter\/"},"modified":"2021-10-20T11:44:16","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T09:44:16","slug":"techscape-from-friends-to-squid-game-why-netflix-viewing-figures-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/20\/techscape-from-friends-to-squid-game-why-netflix-viewing-figures-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"TechScape: From Friends to Squid Game \u2013 why Netflix viewing figures matter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Up for discussion in the Guardian tech newsletter: the problem with the streaming company\u2019s outlandish claims<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/info\/ng-interactive\/2021\/jun\/25\/techscape-sign-up\">Don\u2019t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019m going to try to convince you that you should care about exactly how many people watched the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/2021\/oct\/17\/english-council-urges-parents-not-to-allow-children-to-watch-squid-game\">moral panic-inducing<\/a> hit Netflix series Squid Game. Yes, I know there\u2019s a lot going on in the world. But bear with me: I think this really matters regarding how we understand our culture \u2013 and the balance of power in a media business where data is king.<\/p>\n<p>(As a treat, if you stick with this newsletter then further down I\u2019ll tell you about some of the biggest flops that Netflix would prefer you didn\u2019t know about.)<\/p>\n<p>British Netflix users spent more time watching old episodes of Friends in 2020 than watching big-budget original series the Crown.<\/p>\n<p>The three most popular new releases in the UK during August were Clickbait (watched by 2.34m Netflix accounts), Hit &amp; Run (2.1m households), and The Chair (1.64m). These are high ratings but Channel 5 can top them.<\/p>\n<p>Sex Education Series 3 was released on the same day as Squid Game and performed just as well in Europe \u2013 but has had a fraction of the hype.<\/p>\n<p>Shows such Bridgerton, Afterlife and The Queen\u2019s Gambit were all hitting over 80% completion rates in the UK \u2013 meaning people were hooked and watched to the end of each series.<\/p>\n<p>At the other end of the market, the five shows with the worst series completion rates were The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (just 35% of viewers finished it), What\/If (45%), The Irregulars (53%), White Lines (56%), and Sex\/Life (56%) \u2013 which explains why most of them were cancelled.<\/p>\n<p>Any film that is watched to the end by 70% of people is a success. Martin Scorsese\u2019s big-budget much-hyped Irishman? That struggled, on their metrics.<\/p>\n<p>People now watch original series in a very short space of time \u2013 about a quarter of people who watched Squid Game finished it within two days.<\/p>\n<p>Even though Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are not far apart in terms of signed-up users, Netflix dwarfs Amazon when it comes to people actually watching their content.<\/p>\n<p>Oh and almost no one chooses to watch the credits nowadays. Sorry to everyone who made the programmes, we\u2019ve already autoplayed the next episode.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2021\/oct\/20\/from-friends-to-cephalopods-why-netflix-viewing-figures-matter\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2054155cd35848d06117e47d8bea7c22d9111b31\/0_190_3714_2229\/master\/3714.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=f4012543052fcc32cf90e2f02174e9b4\" title=\"TechScape: From Friends to Squid Game \u2013 why Netflix viewing figures matter\" \/>Up for discussion in the Guardian tech newsletter: the problem with the streaming company\u2019s outlandish claims<br \/>\nDon\u2019t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<br \/>\nI\u2019m going to try to convince you that you should care about exactly how many people watched the moral panic-inducing hit Netflix series Squid Game. Yes, I know there\u2019s a lot going on in the world. But bear with me: I think this really matters regarding how we understand our culture \u2013 and the balance of power in a media business where data is king.<br \/>\n(As a treat, if you stick with this newsletter then further down I\u2019ll tell you about some of the biggest flops that Netflix would prefer you didn\u2019t know about.)<br \/>\nBritish Netflix users spent more time watching old episodes of Friends in 2020 than watching big-budget original series the Crown.<br \/>\nThe three most popular new releases in the UK during August were Clickbait (watched by 2.34m Netflix accounts), Hit &amp; Run (2.1m households), and The Chair (1.64m). These are high ratings but Channel 5 can top them.<br \/>\nSex Education Series 3 was released on the same day as Squid Game and performed just as well in Europe \u2013 but has had a fraction of the hype.<br \/>\nShows such Bridgerton, Afterlife and The Queen\u2019s Gambit were all hitting over 80% completion rates in the UK \u2013 meaning people were hooked and watched to the end of each series.<br \/>\nAt the other end of the market, the five shows with the worst series completion rates were The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (just 35% of viewers finished it), What\/If (45%), The Irregulars (53%), White Lines (56%), and Sex\/Life (56%) \u2013 which explains why most of them were cancelled.<br \/>\nAny film that is watched to the end by 70% of people is a success. Martin Scorsese\u2019s big-budget much-hyped Irishman? That struggled, on their metrics.<br \/>\nPeople now watch original series in a very short space of time \u2013 about a quarter of people who watched Squid Game finished it within two days.<br \/>\nEven though Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are not far apart in terms of signed-up users, Netflix dwarfs Amazon when it comes to people actually watching their content.<br \/>\nOh and almost no one chooses to watch the credits nowadays. Sorry to everyone who made the programmes, we\u2019ve already autoplayed the next episode. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Up for discussion in the Guardian tech newsletter: the problem with the streaming company\u2019s outlandish claims Don\u2019t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here I\u2019m going to try to convince you that you should care about exactly how many people watched the moral panic-inducing hit Netflix series Squid Game. Yes, I know there\u2019s &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/20\/techscape-from-friends-to-squid-game-why-netflix-viewing-figures-matter\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">TechScape: From Friends to Squid Game \u2013 why Netflix viewing figures matter<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}