Netflix Unveils When Fandom Begins For Some of Today's Most
Popular Series
LOS GATOS, Calif., Sept. 23, 2015 /CNW/ -- It may have taken
Walter White nearly an entire season
to become Heisenberg and Frank
Underwood 13 episodes to become VP (spoiler alert!), but it
turns out fans committed to these series long before those plot
twists unfolded. Hint: it wasn't in the pilot episode.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) analyzed its global streaming data* across
the inaugural seasons of some of today's most popular shows - both
Netflix original series and shows that premiered on other networks
- looking for signals that pointed to when viewers became hooked.
It turns out that when commercial breaks and appointment viewing
are stripped away and consumers can watch an entire season as they
choose, you can see fandom emerge. That is, 70% of viewers who
watched the hooked episode went on to complete season one or more
poetically, when members were hooked and there was no turning
back.
"Given the precious nature of primetime slots on traditional TV,
a series pilot is arguably the most important point in the life of
the show," said Ted Sarandos, Chief
Content Officer for Netflix. "However, in our research of
more than 20 shows across 16 markets, we found that no one was ever
hooked on the pilot. This gives us confidence that giving our
members all episodes at once is more aligned with how fans are
made."
While the data identified the hooked episode, it was shy on
pinpointing exact moments**, but we have a few ideas of our own to
help jog your memory... For starters, in Breaking Bad it may
have taken the flip of a coin to decide whether Jesse or Walt would
put the finishing blow on Krazy 8, but when the decrepit heap of a
former drug dealer rains down from Jesse's ceiling, there's no
denying viewers would stay to see how the season cleaned up
(episode 2). Speaking of messes, Crazy Eyes drops both poems and
fluids in her roller coaster romance with Piper in Orange is the
New Black, but it was likely the throw of a pie to defend her
(then) bae's honor that had members asking for seconds (episode 3).
For Dexter another episode equals another body, this time
courtesy of the "Ice Truck Killer," but our money's on Dexter's
trip down memory lane reliving his inaugural kill that was the real
tipping point - after all, fans never forget the first time
(episode 3).
"There's a unique sense of intimacy with creating a show for
Netflix. Knowing you have an audience's undivided attention and
that in essence, they are letting these characters in their home,
we unfolded storylines at a more natural pace," said Marta Kauffman. "In episode four, we see Grace
and Frankie having no choice but to confront their fear, anger and
uncertainty head on, which to me as a creator was a nice turning
point to shift the narrative to focus on the future instead of the
past; it is nice to know viewers were there right along with
us."
While around the world the hooked episode was relatively
consistent, slight geographic differences did present themselves.
The Dutch, for instance, tend to fall in love with series the
fastest, getting hooked one episode ahead of most countries
irrespective of the show. Germans showed early fandom for
Arrow whereas France fell
first for How I Met Your Mother. In Better Call Saul,
Jimmy McGill won Brazilians over one
episode quicker than Mexicans. And Down Under, viewers prove to
hold out longer across the board, with members in Australia and New
Zealand getting hooked one to two episodes later than the
rest of the world on almost every show. Despite these differences,
the hooked moment had no correlation to audience size or attrition,
regardless of show, episode number or country.
Methodology:
The data in this research was pulled from accounts who started
watching season one of the selected series between January 2015 - July
2015 in Brazil,
Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK and US and between April 2015 - July
2015 for Australia and
New Zealand. A hooked episode was
defined when 70% of viewers who watched that episode went on to
complete season one. Hooked episodes were first identified by
country, then averaged to create the global hooked episode. The
hooked episode had no correlation to total viewership numbers or
attrition.
*Denotes shows where for one or more countries, the show was
unavailable to watch on Netflix and therefore the average is
comprised of data from less than 16 countries
**The Netflix research didn't indicate exact plot points, but
it did confirm episodes.
About Netflix
Netflix is the world's leading Internet television network with
over 65 million members in over 50 countries enjoying more than 100
million hours of TV shows and movies per day, including original
series, documentaries and feature films. Members can watch as much
as they want, anytime, anywhere, on nearly any Internet-connected
screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without
commercials or commitments.
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SOURCE Netflix, Inc.