The data could also have positive effects throughout the industry, with Britt Augenfeld, vp of advanced TV and video at Captify, noting that the move could push other streamers to release more data down the line.
The Cons:
On the conference call, Sarandos acknowledged that streaming advertising deals needed third-party verification, which this report doesn’t have.
For Benes, the lack of third parties makes the data like “Netflix graded their own homework.” Additionally, the report provides no real-time data.
“An advertiser who’s making immediate plans for the next quarter, it doesn’t do them a lot of good to know Wednesday was really popular in February and March,” Benes said. “They would want to have a little bit more recent data rather than a big dump twice a year.”
Other concerns include the viewership for TV shows and movies being treated the same, a lack of granularity and no audience information.
“While it’s great to see hours viewed by title, advertisers will want intel on the demographics on who’s watching, specifically for Netflix’s ad tier,” Mike Proulx, vp and research director at Forrester, said. “For brands, it’s all about reaching their target audience at scale.”
The What We Watched report has no breakdown of gender, income, race, psychographic or behavioral information, which advertisers might find on Facebook and Google.
“Advertisers will undoubtedly want more granular information to support their investment decisions,” Jon Watts, managing director, Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, said. “Data about the split between ad-free and ad-funded viewing, demographic information, share of total viewing across different audience segments and so on.”
The split between ad-free and ad-supported viewing will become increasingly important as Netflix continues pushing viewers to its ad tier through a password crackdown and price increases.
“Are Stranger Things viewers more likely or less likely to have ads for an average Netflix viewer? Are there some shows that are only watched by ad-free viewers or some shows on the ad-supported plan doing crazy numbers?” Benes said. “Getting some breakouts on ad-supported viewing versus ad-free viewing would be another thing that’s in shortage.”
Though there are positives for marketers, Benes said the selective data serves as a “flex” for Netflix, with other streamers looking on in envy.
“No one else in streaming can touch this,” Benes said.
