In this article, I hope to make it clear to you the question of why we should care about how many people have watched the upheaval Netflix hit "Squid Game".
I know there's a lot more to worry about in the world, but don't worry – by following the ratings of Squid Games, you're actually understanding how our "culture" is competing with the current "data-king" media business.
(Note that a lot of what's to talk about below is a secret that Netflix never wants to be discovered.) ）
In the past, we could easily grasp the ratings of a popular TV show. Traditional television broadcasts have been counting viewers in the same way for decades. Typically, research firms recruit a group of households that are considered statistically representative of a general population (Barb in the UK and Nielsen in the US). With TV-connected devices, businesses can monitor their viewing habits at all times.
After processing this data, the blockbuster or cold works of that era are determined. Journalists liked the numbers because they were catchy and they seemed calm and professional. That's why we always hear from the news media that half of the people in the UK have watched a ball game, or that a new news channel is completely unattended.
The reason for making these numbers public is that advertisers cannot survive commercial TELEVISION channels. Advertisers have to use these numbers to prove that the content they broadcast is actually being watched, so they have to provide reliable and credible statistics from third-party organizations.
Of course, this investigative system is clearly flawed; but broadly speaking, what system is not flawed? In this way, we can judge whether the BBC's program is more popular than ITV, and we can also judge whether the ratings performance of a TV series has greatly exceeded expectations.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > enter the Netflix era</h1>
Until, Netflix appeared with subscription streaming services.
They don't have to confront advertisers because their only goal is to attract, retain, and encourage customers to use their services forever until the latter sees those services as an ingrained part of their lives and never again thinks they should stop paying monthly subscription fees. To figure out how they do this, you first need to start with how they collect user data.
Netflix certainly knows what shows users are watching, how many seconds people watch in each program, when they feel bored, which channel they will cut to when they are bored, and even what time users will watch "minor" programs at night. In its own interests, Netflix will never share this information with any reporter, competitor, or even show producer.
Let's go back to the original question:
How many people have seen Squid Games? Why is this question so important?
Well, if people trust Netflix, they occasionally announce a little ratings news at the right time. For example, "Squid Games" has been watched by 142 million households, making it the most popular series of all time, and so on.
But the follow-up is not yet public to publish the data, it all depends on Netflix's own judgment. And by Netflix's standards, the so-called "audience" is the person who opens the program and watches it for more than 2 minutes. There must be many people who have watched it for a few minutes and think that this drama is just general. But such users, including you and me, are also identified as audiences for Squid Games, and are treated no differently from those who have chased nine episodes in a row.
From a journalistic point of view, there must be a big problem here. We can only accept the data released by Netflix and there is no room for rebuttal. With such a premise, streaming service providers can get what kind of data they want to tell stories. As a result, they will hype up the return on investment of high-end original dramas, packaging this as a cool and profitable business. (Indeed, Netflix is a real throw at high-end originals.) In contrast, information such as repeated re-reading of Grand Designs or the gradual loss of interest in some old shows is completely uncool and naturally not mentioned by streaming.
What's more, it's all distorting our view of audiences and even pop culture. Are Netflix TV series really more popular than BBC episodes? It's certainly possible, but behind this uncertainty is the traditional foundation of fixed programme licensing fees that British audiences have been accustomed to for years.
Does the public prefer an Oscar-nominated heirloom film or a comedian's clichéd little film? This is a cultural confrontation, and it is necessary for us to dig deeper into the truth behind it. What kind of program can closely connect the whole society? It's hard to be sure because we can't get any instructive data from Netflix.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" > truth is there</h1>
The solution of a small family business from Bristol may be a lesson to be learned. Employees at the Digital i company realized that while Netflix doesn't publish viewing data, it does provide each user with historical data about individual viewings.
Digital i realized that with the ability to pay a fee to convince thousands of users to share their personal viewing history, they could build a statistically significant survey system that would create audience "ratings" for Netflix shows and sell the results to other competitors. At present, they have opened up markets in five major European countries and hope to expand their business globally in the next step.
Sophia Vahdati, from the company, said that "we are working hard to level the playing field for Netflix's competitors" and that companies such as the BBC and ITV have become their customers.
Her company has also revealed Netflix's biggest secret: how many viewers are constantly looking back on classic old shows. Without this information, one would mistakenly think that the entire world is captivated by high-profile original episodes.
She stressed, "In the midst of the frenzy, we noticed that classic sitcoms still play an extremely important role in Netflix subscriber retention. "Classics such as "Detective Detective" and "The Big Bang Theory" are no less attractive to users than the original series currently promoted by Netflix, but the outside world does not feel this at all.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the Digital i UK audience data study she shared with The Guardian:
In 2020, UK Netflix users spend more time watching old dramas than watching the big-budget original series "The Crown".
In August, the three most watched episodes in the UK were Clickbait (2.34 million Netflix views), Hit & Run (2.1 million Netflix views), and The Chair (1.64 million Netflix views). The results are good, but still not as good as the British commercial television channel Channel 5.
"Sex Study Room 3" was released on the same day as "Squid Games" and also received widespread attention in Europe — but it accounted for a very low share of Netflix's publicity.
Episodes such as Bridgeton, The Second Half of Life and The Queen's Chess Game all have a viewing completion rate of over 80% in the UK, meaning they are all so charismatic that most people can stick to the last episode.
Let's look at the worst-looking end-of-air shows: The Magic Crystal: Age of Resistance (35 percent), What/if (45 percent), The Irregulars (53 percent), White Lines (56 percent) and Sex/Life (56 percent). Netflix is certainly well aware of this data, so most of it is cut straight away.
The average audience can watch 70% of the total length of the film, even if it is a market success. Martin Scorsese's high-budget work The Irishman barely met that target.
People will chase the original series in one sitting in a short period of time – about 1/4 of the audience has watched all 9 episodes of "Squid Game" in two days.
Although the number of registered users between Netflix and Amazon Prime Video is not much different, in terms of actual number of viewers, Amazon is still difficult to hope that Netflix will not be able to match.
It is worth mentioning that the current audience simply does not have the patience to watch the credits. Sorry, guys, we not only turned on the next episode automatically, but also skipped the opening credits.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="43" > what's the point of all this? </h1>
This lack of transparency can lead to small businesses being powerless to fight back against global giants like Netflix.
An independent producer who sold the film to Netflix felt from the online response that their work seemed to be doing well. But they can't be sure because "Netflix generally doesn't provide producers with information on how many people have watched a movie — which is bad for producers because they can't come up with specific data to convince subsequent investors." ”
So how exactly does Squid Game perform? According to Digital i's research team, 79 percent of European Netflix users have seen the show and watched the second episode within two weeks — but only 50 percent ended up watching it. It looks like the audience has fallen off a cliff, at least not as successfully as Netflix itself advertised.
A few days ago, Netflix announced that it will slightly adjust its own ratings measurements and abandon the outrageous standard of "watching two minutes" in favor of total viewing time. But whether or not to disclose information, when to disclose information, the dominance is still in their own hands.
Vahdati says her company's data proves that streaming services can selectively release data to shape what they want to achieve: The original series "Squid Games" is indeed sharp, tense and aesthetically innovative. But at the end of the day, British audiences haven't yet developed the habit of watching foreign-language dramas.
Finally – if you're part of the audience for Squid Games, don't spoil it, I haven't seen two episodes myself :)
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