Commentary
Netflix TV Viewing Doubles in Three Years
- by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, November 4, 2015
Netflix lovers love their Netflix -- a lot.
Not only is the service adding subscribers by leaps and bounds, but its users are gobbling up more programming than ever. A survey of regular Netflix users said they watch 10 shows per week on Netflix and four movies. That’s a rise from five shows per week three years ago, according to the research firm GfK, which conducted the study.
Much of the new viewing is occurring on mobile screens, since mobile viewing has more than doubled in three years. Now, 24% of regular Netflix viewers have watched on a mobile device in the past month, GfK says. Consumers are also viewing Netflix more frequently on TVs, such as connected TVs. That type of viewing has risen from 36% to 47% for regular users. PC viewing is up, too, from 17% to 25%.
The takeaway from these figures? Netflix is a force in the TV business and also a “TV ecosystem unto itself,” GFK says.
As Netflix continues to spread its reach and become indispensable with consumers, expect traditional networks to adapt, says IHS Technology in related research. Netflix’s growth as well as its content acquisitions plans may spur more traditional networks to go direct in TV Everywhere style or via online streaming, IHS says. IHS predicts Netflix will count more than 100 million subscribers globally by 2018, a growth of 22%.
It seems odd that Netflix needed an independent survey, based on people's viewing claims, to come up with these findings. Doesn't Netflix record all of its streaming activity automatically? What levels of frequency do these measurements indicate for Netflix users?
Not so odd, for the same reason that stations use Nielsen instead of their own viewing response data. If a station conducts its own viewing survey, its authenticity is suspect. If the station subscribes to Nielsen, its advertisers are more inclined to trust independent research. Netflix might be accused of cooking the results, so they used GfK data. (I'm not a big fan of GfK, after they announced two years ago that only 82 percent of homes relied on satellite or cable signals, contradicting Nielsen's measure that was closer to 92 percent.)
Viewer recall is extraordinarily inaccurate. Exceptionally inaccurate. Or Netflix to offer this data is absurd. Especially with a pRoss hyped service like Netflix, we should expect these claims to be exaggerated badly. I believe wise observers will ignore this study.
Correct, Doug.
Douglas, the reason that ad-supported channels, stations and networks use independent sources like Nielsen is that advertisers insist upon that since they buy time to present their commercialds and require an objective measurement of audience. Also, despite their flaws, meter-based methodologies are far more accurate indicators of set usage than human recall studies. Netflix doesn't sell ads---not yet, anyway. So its human espondent study, like so many we are seeing recently, is just another way to get attention and publicity while exploring things like demographic mindsets, general behaviour, attitudes, etc. Nothing wrong with that but at the same time, it's no big deal.
Hi all. I just want to set the record straight that Netflix had nothing to do with this report - they did not sponsor it, nor do they buy it. For that matter, the article did not state or even imply that anywhere, so one should be mindful before jumping to conclusions.
Thanks for the clarification, David.