Netflix Introduces New Metrics, Amazon Might Rename IMDbTV

1. Netflix Introduces New Metrics

For many years Netflix, which provides its own metrics, has been using a formula whereby they would count the number of viewers who had watched a show for at least two minutes and call it a view. 

Given that most all their shows were 30 minutes or longer, many people felt they were counting a whole lot of people who tuned in briefly and then said “Nah!” and went on to watch something else.

Worse still, it sounded a lot like the way a certain highly unpopular social media platform would consider anything three seconds or longer a “video view” and really, who wants to be associated with that?

So this week Netflix rolled out a new measurement platform that uses “total hours viewed” as its key metric, a metric that will also be subject to independent auditing.

Why It Matters

Netflix is being pretty savvy here. They know that their sizable international presence is going to make those “total hours viewed” numbers seem really impressive. 

Especially when there’s nothing to compare it to because no one else uses that metric.

They also know that one of the big complaints they hear is that it’s hard to figure out what to watch next, and so their updated Top 10 charts may help solve for that. (People seem to love those charts. Just ask Spotify.)

Mostly though, they know why viewership metrics in general are important to them even though they don’t sell advertising.

It’s all about creating the impression that lots of people are watching. 

On one level, that helps them to attract and retain viewers, many of whom operate under the theory that if a lot of people are watching something it must be good. (Or at the very least, worth checking out.)

But more importantly, it helps them to attract talent at a time when all nine Flixes are looking to attract the same talent.

Say you are Quentin Tarantino and you’re deciding on where you’re going to make your first TV series. A bunch of impressive sounding numbers about how many people might watch that series may well be a key factor in your deciding to pull the trigger on Netflix.

Wall Street is another target. The financial community has traditionally been fairly clueless about television, streaming television in particular, and if it looks like hundreds of millions of people are watching hundreds of millions of hours worth of Netflix, that’s going to help stock prices.

So there’s all that, plus the chance to give the finger to Nielsen, which has had the temerity to try and measure Netflix on their own terms.

What You Need To Do About It

If you’re one of the other Flixes (or FASTs, for that matter), those Top 10 charts are a great idea. 

You see, when you make suggestions, you’re in a no-win situation. Either people think it’s super creepy that you know their tastes so well, or (more likely) they’ve accidentally clicked on a show with “spiders” in the title, thinking it was a nature documentary, only to find out it was a horror movie, or someone was visiting and watching shows they don’t normally watch and now that’s all you’re recommending.

With Top 10 lists, you give people the illusion that they have agency, that they are making independent choices based on what is popular with other people. You can slice and dice those lists however you want too: age, gender, zip codes, genre. 

It costs next to nothing and I suspect you will see a notable increase in stickiness as a result.

If you’re everyone else, give Netflix a hat tip for coming up with a measurement formula that makes them look good.  Yes, more transparency is always better than less transparency, but this is just a way for them to look really good, not a seismic shift in the way TV is measured.

So nothing to get all excited about.

2. Amazon Might Rename IMDbTV

Unconfirmed reports are circulating that Amazon has finally realized that “IMDbTV” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

A realization up there with “water is wet.”

IMDbTV is the second (or maybe third) iteration of Amazon’s FAST service’s name—it was initially called “Freedive” which seemed to connote rapid failure.

So names are clearly not their thing.

Why It Matters

The name of the service is the least of its problems. 

Or more accurately, it is emblematic of them.

Why Amazon chose to align its FAST service with IMDbTV is puzzling, given that IMDb is a niche service mainly used by movie buffs that once upon a time had a (semi) popular message board that became so troll-infested and toxic they had to shut it down.

But that’s not the half of it.

Amazon, which seems committed to the service at one level (they’re creating original series for it) has done nothing to promote it.

As in people frequently have no idea it exists even though they’ve been watching it.

The problem is that when you search for a show or movie on Amazon, “watch for free with ads” will often come up as an option in the search results. 

Since people are searching on the main Amazon site, they naturally assume that this is just another layer of Prime’s offering, which includes a confusing mix of transactional and free options. 

Mostly though, people aren’t paying all that much attention to it because they subscribe to Amazon for the free two-day delivery and the video offering is just icing on that particular cake. 

What You Need To Do About It

If you’re Amazon, yes you should change the name. It’s not as if the vast majority of people are aware of it, so confusion will be minimal.

But once you change the name, market the hell out of it. Let the world know it exists and it’s free and it’s part of the overall Amazon offering.

You’ve got more data than anyone in the TV industry—use it to target people who might be interested in the service’s original shows, only let them know that they are not watching it on some heretofore unknown ad-supported section of Prime, but rather, on a different and completely free service.

Use this service as your entree into emerging economies where “free” matters a whole lot more than it does in the U.S. and where your core offering of $129/year for free two-day delivery is pretty much meaningless for vast swaths of the population.

And as for “Zon”, the alleged new name, well, let’s just say it’s better than “IMDbTV.” And only one syllable.

If you are one of the other FASTs, just be glad that Amazon hasn’t figured out what to do with IMDbTV yet. As you no doubt realize, they have deep pockets and deep pockets can be dangerous when they belong to your rivals.