As a binge-watching aficionado with years of experience under my belt, I must say that Netflix‘s strategy of splitting some of its popular scripted shows into two parts is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it keeps me on the edge of my seat, eagerly waiting for the next installment. On the other, it feels like they’re drawing out the agony of waiting, much like a cat toys with a mouse before finally pouncing!
Netflix’s choice to split certain scripted series could lead to an increase in the number of series watched, despite a decrease in overall viewing hours for some shows.
In the week of October 7th, the fourth season of Netflix’s teen drama series, “Outer Banks,” premiered at the peak of Netflix’s television rankings globally, amassing an impressive 62.3 million hours of viewership worldwide. This performance was quite robust, especially considering that it was for just half a season. Notably, Netflix often segments some of its more successful scripted programs into two parts and releases them approximately a month apart, which seems to have been the case here.
Interestingly, you should know that the first week of viewing for Outer Banks season 3 clocked in at almost double the previous one, which had approximately 62.3 million hours viewed. Specifically, it was nearly 155 million hours during a full-season binge release, indicating a trend observed across many popular Netflix series: When seasons are split into multiple parts, viewers spend less time overall with that season’s episodes, even after all parts have been released.
Instead of the original statement, consider this rephrased version:
The longer term of viewer engagement, though, can translate into more views. The first half of Emily in Paris season four, with a run time of a little under three hours, accumulated 45.1 million views worldwide in four weeks, with an additional 27.5 million after the remainder of the season dropped (bringing the running time to about six hours). That beats the roughly 54.6 million views season three had over six weeks in the top 10, despite a slightly shorter run time and about 9 million more viewing hours.
The third season of The Witcher didn’t perform quite as strongly compared to its previous season. Over eight weeks, it garnered 57.8 million views in the top 10, which is a decrease from the 67.2 million views during a six-week period for the second season that was binge-released. This represents a 17% drop in total views, while the viewing hours decreased by 37% from season two to three (based on top 10 weeks). However, dividing the season into more episodes helped somewhat with the view count, but the significant gap (nearly 15 million fewer views) meant it couldn’t fully compensate for the difference.
(One other wrinkle: In compiling the rankings of its all-time top 10, Netflix counts views over a title’s first 91 days (13 weeks) of release. In the case of split seasons, however, Netflix adds together the total viewing time for each part over its respective 91 days, then divides that by the full running time of the season to calculate the number of views.)
Currently, only one week’s worth of data is available for the second half of ‘Outer Banks’ season four. The first part garnered 122.7 viewing hours over a period of four weeks, and the full season accumulated 77.1 million hours in the week that part two was released. Some of this viewership will be allocated to both halves of the season and their respective totals and counts. As it stands now, season four has amassed nearly 200 million hours of viewing, trailing behind the 341.4 million over the same period for season three. However, with both parts now accumulating watch time and views, the view count for season four in the subsequent 13 weeks may surpass that of season three. Since Netflix primarily focuses on views as a metric, it’s this figure that matters most.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3APe1/4/
This tale was initially published in the November 13th edition of The Hollywood Reporter’s magazine. If you’d like to get the magazine delivered, simply click [here to subscribe].
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2024-11-15 21:54