Commentary

Nielsen's Netflix Ratings Finally Arrive: Big Yawn?

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 1, 2016

Nielsen has finally released viewing data for some Netflix programs. And guess what? The numbers are pretty much what one might have expected.

For the fourth season premiere of “Orange is the New Black,” the Netflix drama pulled in 6.7 million viewers for its first three days -- June 17 through June 19 -- according to Nielsen, who released this data at its company event in Las Vegas.

Those numbers are comparable to those for HBO’s big cable series “Game of Thrones,” which for its second episode this season got 5.9 million viewers.

Looking at HBO -- perhaps Netflix’s closest competitor in the pay TV space for programs airing without advertising -- all this makes sense. Netflix has about 47 million U.S. subscribers; HBO, around 49 million, including about 1 million HBO Now subscribers.

For some time, Netflix has poo-poohed the idea of viewer numbers, saying that in a digital viewing world with no advertising, that data has little relevance.

Previous efforts to get Netflix data -- like NBCUniversal revealing some data provided by Symphony Advanced Media -- has come with disparaging comments from Netflix. Back in January Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos said those viewing numbers were "remarkably inaccurate data.”

Looking at recent Symphony data of Netflix program data from September 21, 2015 through May 2, 2016, for example, shows seemingly realistic TV viewership for its shows: “House of Cards” averages 5.1 million viewers through seven days; “Marvel’s Jessica Jones,” 4.8 million; “Marvel’s Daredevil,” 6.4 million; and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” 4.8 million.

Symphony also disclosed estimates for key 18-49 viewers for Netflix shows, as well as original programming for Amazon and Hulu Plus -- as well as viewing through much longer 35-day periods.

Netflix musings are not entire without merit. But it isn’t only about dismissing traditional linear advertising-supported TV metrics.

For many TV programming, marketing, and other executives, it is all about the “performance levels” of shows in these particular SVOD windows which are of importance. And that is primarily why Nielsen says it will start up regular releases of this data -- serving its TV-movie studio clients.

While not quite at the same levels of Netflix’s business efforts currently, HBO, its closest competitor, never really had a problem with telling the business press or consumers what “Game of Thrones,” “True Blood” or “Boardwalk Empire” was doing, viewer-wise. Why not have a much data out there as possible, and let business executives -- and even consumers — decide?

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Clarification: In the post “Cable News Network Viewership Up, Not Surprising For Election Year” (June 29), all network viewer data came from Nielsen.

3 comments about "Nielsen's Netflix Ratings Finally Arrive: Big Yawn?".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics, July 5, 2016 at 9:15 a.m.
Obviously Netflix doesn't want its program producers to know how well their shows are doing for this could lead to those producers whose content is pulling well to charge more for their wares when the next contract negotiation cycle begins. As for why it's relevant for the TV networks and cable channels to know how Netflix is doing and which shows are performing well or not so well, one would think that the reason for this being a concern is self evident. Since Netflix is competing for viewers it makes sense for the competition to know as much about its audience dynamics as possible. Why? Because they might spot some chinks in Netflix's armor ----or something worthwhile that is worth emulating.
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John Grono from GAP Research, July 6, 2016 at 3:32 a.m.

Ed, do you know whether the numbers released and referred to in the article are reach or average minute audience?

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, July 6, 2016 at 6:55 a.m.

John, I can't say for sure but I suspect that they are reach figures not average minute data. Perhaps Wayne can contact Nielsen and clarify as this is a very important distinction.