Netflix Inc. is ready to reveal the number of people who watch its shows. Netflix disclosed global midyear audience numbers for every title on its service on Tuesday, the first of what the company said would be monthly reports. According to Netflix, the political thriller The Night Agent was the most-watched title internationally in the first half of 2023, producing 812.1 million hours of viewing. Season 2 of the family drama Ginny & Georgia followed, as did the premiere of The Glory, a South Korean serial. When all seasons of a show are considered, Ginny & Georgia had the largest audience.
The Netflix revelation comes after a months-long battle between Hollywood labour groups and major companies
The Netflix revelation — the most extensive ever for any streaming service — comes after a months-long battle between Hollywood labour groups and major companies. Following two strikes, writers and actors received more pay for their work in streaming, and their pay is contingent on firms like Netflix disclosing more US viewer data. With the semiannual “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report,” the business is now providing everyone — users, suppliers, and competitors — with a deeper insight into what people are watching. “Over the last 16 years of streaming, one constant has been people asking for more viewership data,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated on a conference call with journalists.
According to him, the lack of transparency fostered “mistrust over time” among creatives. For years, Netflix refused to reveal viewing data, and other big streaming services quickly followed suit. The creative community in Hollywood initially liked not being subject to the Nielsen audience numbers that broadcast and cable television shows live and die by. Recently, authors and producers have challenged Netflix, claiming that it hides audience statistics to avoid paying more for its most successful shows.
The streaming behemoth has begun to reveal more information. Its coverage includes audience data for a few popular titles as well as weekly top 10 lists of the most-watched movies and TV shows in English and other languages. Netflix, based in Los Gatos, California, also releases these lists for different nations, albeit they do not contain the number of hours watched. The top ten lists have provided the public a decent idea of which shows are popular, but they do not provide numbers for the vast majority of titles accessible. The data, which was revealed on Tuesday, includes over 18,000 titles, including thousands of films and television episodes that generated between 50,000 and 100,000 hours of viewing time.
