Why Netflix Does Not Release Any Show Ratings
The New York Times has a great piece on Netflix titled, “Netflix’s Opaque Disruption Annoys Rivals on TV”. The article talks about how Netflix, which has around 70 million subscribers around the globe, has never published its show ratings or has no plans to.
Ted Sarandos, the Chief Content Officer at Netflix says that he wants to avoid a “weekly arms race” and says,
Once we give a number for a show, then every show will be benchmarked off of that show even though they were built sometimes for very specific audiences,
and adds
There is a very natural inclination to say, ‘Relative to this show, this show is a failure.’ That puts a lot of creative pressure on the talent.
I signed up for Netflix after their global availability announcement at CES 2016 and have been a happy subscriber since then.