For those who always wanted to know urgently what the most popular Netflix series in El Salvador is, the streaming service is now offering a new service. on top10.netflix.com you can watch the most popular programs there for more than 90 countries, sorted by films and series. The list is to be updated every Tuesday in the future.
Now, after almost two years of pandemic couch madness, a large number of people are of course suffering from streaming fatigue. You could argue that not only do they not care what kind of favorite series the Salvadorans have, they don’t even care what the Greeks, the Icelanders, let alone the Germans, are pulling into nonsense again.
Nevertheless, the page with the top ten lists promises, at least at first glance, an insight into a world that was previously hidden.
Because not only Netflix, but almost all streaming services, from Apple to Amazon to Disney +, usually keep a big secret about the audience numbers of their programs. Who looks at what for how long? What are the ratings in linear television, by which you can precisely measure how successful it is Bet that ..?-Revival compared to any black and white film repetition in a third program does not exist for the streaming services. Your metrics are hard to understand for the audience. There are companies that try to measure the success of Netflix & Co. And yes, from time to time the streaming services also report numbers themselves (almost only positive, of course). But which of these is true and in which relation you have to put these numbers and what knowledge you can draw from them remains a secret.
The initiative is the largest ever insight that Netflix has given its data. Nevertheless, the company remains a black box
In this respect, Netflix’s global top ten initiative is the greatest insight that the streaming service has given its data to date. Especially since Netflix is also changing the measuring instruments at the same time. So far, the measure of success has been the amount of all Netflix accounts that have watched a program for at least two minutes. Which is why Netflix conspiracy theorists have long had no idea that series hypes like Bridgerton or Squid Game are actually not as successful as Netflix claims. Because a lot of people were perhaps just curious, took a quick look – and then switched off again after two minutes and a second, exasperated. According to the old metric, they would still have contributed to success with this user behavior.
From now on, Netflix wants to add up all the hours that a series or film has been viewed instead, including among others Variety reported. The company, which currently has more than 213 million subscribers, more than any other streaming service, can then announce impressive new figures. For example that the Korean hit series Squid Game was viewed for over one and a half billion hours in the first month after publication alone.
Not enough viewers? Too expensive Why the Netflix series “Ozark” has not been continued so far is not known.
(Photo: Steve Dietl / Netflix)
But if you take a closer look at the innovations, the transparency initiative is actually more of an air issue. Because this does not make the Netflix black box transparent. Top ten lists, regardless of how they are calculated, are primarily used on the Internet to make successful productions even more successful. They are not intended to provide the average viewer with an industry analysis, but rather encourage them to click further, according to the motto: If so many people Squid Game think it’s great, that’s something for me too. This is how Pablo Perez De Rosso explains it in a blog post. The man is Netflix’s Vice President of Content Strategy, Planning and Analysis and writes that the lists are intended to “help fans discover new stories.”
You don’t find out why a favorite show is canceled. That can be frustrating
That’s fine, of course, because Netflix’s business model in no way obliges the company to publish all the figures. You don’t have to sell advertising and can decide for yourself what to publicize and according to which logic to continue a program or not.
This can of course be frustrating for viewers who like to perceive their favorite shows as a personal insult. For example, if a critically acclaimed thriller series like Ozark suddenly stops even though the action has not yet been completed and one does not know why. Not enough viewers? Too expensive Did the main character sleep with the Netflix boss’s wife? You don’t find out.
Every streaming service has different reasons why it produces films and series in the first place. Netflix does this because it is much easier and cheaper to produce programs yourself than to buy them in and negotiate the usage rights for dozens of countries individually and only ever have them to a limited extent. Amazon is doing this because the group wants to win new Prime customers with film content in order to be able to sell more books, electronic waste and toilet paper.
That’s why it doesn’t necessarily matter how many people wanted to see a production in the streaming age in order to be able to chalk it up as a success. The Netflix movie The Irishman For all that is known, it was not seen as often as other Netflix productions for a long time. But since it was directed by Martin Scorsese, with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the lead roles, so much has been reported about him that he could simply be classified under advertising costs for keeping the company talking. At Netflix, success will therefore still not be a category that can be assigned neutral numbers, but an internal matter that is defined in camera. While the audience should please click on what is already clicked on anyway.
Oh, and before we forget it: The most successful Netflix series in El Salvador right now is the old Colombian soap Yo soy Betty, la fea.