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> But it's in Netflix's best interests to keep you hooked on a show Is it? For Netflix the more the watch, the more it costs them. The only thing they want i

> But it's in Netflix's best interests to keep you hooked on a show Is it? For Netflix the more the watch, the more it costs them. The only thing they want is to keep you subscribed and that's an entirely different sort of motivation. Traditional TV is focused on selling eye-balls to advertisers; keep you hooked on a show is necessary. For Netflix, they just have to ensure the entire service provides enough value that you'll continue to pay monthly for it.

lifeisstillgood 8y ago
That's a fantastically insightful point - i suspect that Netflix has not truly grasped it either
- 1123581321 8y ago
  We know Netflix doesn’t believe that measurement is good for their company because they spend as much as possible on content and give creators more control than traditional publishers to make the content better. They also talk about their competition being sleep, games, YouTube, etc. These aren’t the actions of a company that wants to give users “just enough.” I think the only time they’d apply this idea (the only place it’s appropriate, IMO) is when reaching the limits of their budget and prioritizing one market over another. In that case it would make sense to avoid dropping below a threshold of attention. However, as in the article, they do what they can to make content watchable in all markets at once so they don’t have to take that risk.
new299 8y ago
I would be surprised if this wasn't an internal metric that the optimize for. I'd be surprised if a drop in viewing time didn't strongly correlate with cancelled subscriptions (which they use as motivation). When a film ends, they always seem to play a trailer for something else (even if you've seen that trailer 10s of times already). They seem to want to push content at you. As noted elsewhere in the thread, they seem to see their competition not just as traditional TV, but as other ways of spending time.

lifeisstillgood 8y ago

That's a fantastically insightful point - i suspect that Netflix has not truly grasped it either

1123581321 8y ago
We know Netflix doesn’t believe that measurement is good for their company because they spend as much as possible on content and give creators more control than traditional publishers to make the content better. They also talk about their competition being sleep, games, YouTube, etc. These aren’t the actions of a company that wants to give users “just enough.” I think the only time they’d apply this idea (the only place it’s appropriate, IMO) is when reaching the limits of their budget and prioritizing one market over another. In that case it would make sense to avoid dropping below a threshold of attention. However, as in the article, they do what they can to make content watchable in all markets at once so they don’t have to take that risk.

new299 8y ago

I would be surprised if this wasn't an internal metric that the optimize for. I'd be surprised if a drop in viewing time didn't strongly correlate with cancelled subscriptions (which they use as motivation). When a film ends, they always seem to play a trailer for something else (even if you've seen that trailer 10s of times already). They seem to want to push content at you. As noted elsewhere in the thread, they seem to see their competition not just as traditional TV, but as other ways of spending time.