Netflix Top 10 Lists and the Era of Streamer Manipulation

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 847 Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss the growing issue of data transparency in the streaming era, whether streaming rankings— like the Netflix top 10 lists—are manipulated in the absence of credible data, and whether we will ever see how many people are actually watching these shows. For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click here. Email us your thoughts! [email protected] Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Lucas Shaw Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Missa Cwonga and I'm Ryan Hunt and we co-host Stadio, a football podcast on the Ring of Podcast Network.
0:06.7	If you like soccer or football, make sure you search for Stadio, a football podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:15.8	Being a marketer is no sweat. You just have to manage dozens of channels, launch hundreds of campaigns, score thousands of leads and, okay, fine, it's a lot of sweat. Unless you have HubSpot's
0:25.1	AI-powered marketing tools to help you do all that and more. Get started at HubSpot.com
0:29.9	slash marketers. Do we really need another computer? One that's faster, more powerful. Not everyone
0:35.6	does. But to reinvent music using a neural processor,
0:38.9	work off the grid with all-day battery, or bring your vision to life with AI-powered co-creator,
0:43.6	then a copilot Plus PC can make a difference. A powerful AI computer is not for everyone. But if
0:49.4	you're trying to change the world, even if just your own, we built one for you. Microsoft co-pilot plus PCs powered
0:55.3	by Snapchat, the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever. Bachelor life varies with you
1:00.2	and sessions. It is Monday, June 12th. The issue of data transparency has emerged as one of the major
1:08.0	points of contention in the Writers Guild strike against the studios.
1:11.4	We've talked about it before on the show.
1:13.1	In the streaming era, Netflix and the others don't share very much information with creators
1:16.9	about who is watching their films and shows.
1:19.5	Netflix is probably the most sophisticated data collection company in the history of entertainment.
1:23.8	They know exactly how many of their 230 million users start a show, finish a show, stop watching after a particularly violent scene, which stars lead to longer engagement, whether it's The Rock or Anadhaarmus, Craig's favorite.
1:37.3	They have their own consumption metrics and sophisticated algorithms that promote certain content, certain members, based on the data Netflix learns about
1:44.7	those viewers. Almost all of it is kept secret, except for those top 10 lists, which Netflix shows
1:50.4	on the user interface and publishes once a week. They offer a snapshot of what Netflix says its viewers
1:55.8	are watching most, territory by territory, but it's incomplete, which gives Netflix and the others a big advantage
2:02.4	with negotiating with their talent. I compare it to a poker game, where the streamers know what
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Ringer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Ringer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.