TV shows are far more popular than movies, and other interesting Netflix findings

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: Netflix has published a top 10 list highlighting the most popular movies and television shows on its platform each week for a while now, but coming to any solid conclusion regarding viewing trends is tough if you’re not willing to analyze months of data at a time. Fortunately, Bloomberg recently did just that and came away with some interesting findings.

The deep dive, which involves every top 10 list published since late June 2021, reveals that TV shows account for roughly 75 percent of viewing. That may be surprising, but it makes more sense when you consider TV shows are longer than movies and thus tend to stay in the top 10 list for longer.

The publication further noted that due to Netflix’s penchant for binge releasing entire seasons at once, shows don’t stay in the top 10 for every long. In fact, the average top 10 show only stays on the charts for a week or two, and less than a quarter of all shows find themselves in the top 10 for more than four weeks.

Also of interest is the fact that foreign-language TV programming garnered more hours viewed than English programming over the observation period, although that metric was a bit skewed due to the global success of Squid Game.

Speaking of South Korea, it's the second biggest supplier of popular programming on Netflix behind the US.

Image credit David Balev

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93794-tv-shows-far-more-popular-than-movies-other.html

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Eventually Shorts will replace TV Shows.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Having grown up in the 80's, I find it astonishing that people allowed themselves to be put on as "subscribers" just to watch TV shows.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Having grown up in the 80's, I find it astonishing that people allowed themselves to be put on as "subscribers" just to watch TV shows.

Free pig slop or pay for filet mignon? Which do you choose?

 

[dirtyferret]

While covid itself is not the turning point of the Movie industry it will be used as such. Movies are not dead and obviously large action movies like Batman & Spiderman can still draw a crowd but the days of going to the movies every other weekend or even once a month for a lot of people are over. The industry now turns every drama into a ten part mini-series. Hulu's Dropout is one perfect example; instead of making a two hour movie similar to the Social Network for $60m+, you can make the mini series for five times the length at half the cost. From a business model it makes complete sense.

 

[pencea]

It'll be nice if Netflix actually continues their shows instead or cancelling or stopping them.

So many of the original ones don't get a second season at all when the story is clearly not finished yet.

 

[winjer]

Having grown up in the 80's, I find it astonishing that people allowed themselves to be put on as "subscribers" just to watch TV shows.

We paid by watching ads. Tons of repetitive ads.
And we had fewer options to choose what programs to watch.

But today there is always the option to navigate the high seas. If you get drift.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Free pig slop or pay for filet mignon? Which do you choose?

Are you saying Netflix is filet mignon?

I don't think so.

 

[brucek]

Having grown up in the 80's, I find it astonishing that people allowed themselves to be put on as "subscribers" just to watch TV shows.

I grew up in the 80s and we had cable TV packages back then too. Also magazine subscriptions, newspaper subscriptions, and the early beginnings of VHS rental (which at least in my neighborhood included at least one outfit with a monthly membership fee.)

 

[kiwigraeme]

Having grown up in the 80's, I find it astonishing that people allowed themselves to be put on as "subscribers" just to watch TV shows.

So a RTX 3090 solely for yourself and anyone else who can use your PC

Or 6 years Netflix subscriptions for up to 4 households on 1 plan ( ie giving it to a nephew or niece - feel good factor )

I'm astonished someone buys a RTX 3090 when they could of bought a RTX 3080 for a lot less ( tbf maybe MS Flight Simulator needs lots of GPU memory ) -

For someone who goes on about all their shares in various tech companies - and how you can afford things and jetset lifestyle
Why are you worried a lot of people sub Netflix for a nominal amount of money - I have ignored the frugal - who Netflix canx then HBO then canx the Disney etc - each time for cost of a Movie or 2 for a month .

To be fair you can sell RTX 3090 still an upfront cost

 

[SirDigby]

Having grown up in the 80's, I find it astonishing that people allowed themselves to be put on as "subscribers" just to watch TV shows.

You always had to pay for TV, for the US you were beholden to whatever company serviced your area and forced to pay for a bunch of channels/ packages you didn't use, in the UK you had up to 5 free channels (depending on the decade) before freeview came along and BBC is paid for by TV license and the rest is paid for by advertising.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with subscribing to a cancel anytime streaming service like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu (US), Disney+, NowTV (UK), even Youtube Premium, as long as you feel like you're getting your money's worth. Many TV packages cost £20+ a month in the UK, or you could have Netflix, Prime & Disney+ and not have to pay for ads, or wait til the show is live, you just watch it at your convenience.

And all these services have their own exclusive quality shows that make it worth it to many.

So what really is the difference between subscribing to Netflix, and paying for TV packages 20, 30, 40 years ago?

 

[netman]

"Netflix is a TV-first platform"___ That's the reason it sucks...!

 

[Lew Zealand]

Are you saying Netflix is filet mignon?

I don't think so.

It's an example, an idea to consider.

Would you prefer what you're given freely no matter how good or bad (1980s antenna TV), or would you rather pay for something you actually want? If I have the money, I'd rather pay for something good.

There are additional places to pay for "TV" other than Netflix.

 

[wiyosaya]

It's an example, an idea to consider.

Would you prefer what you're given freely no matter how good or bad (1980s antenna TV), or would you rather pay for something you actually want? If I have the money, I'd rather pay for something good.

There are additional places to pay for "TV" other than Netflix.

I think @QuantumPhysics is saying that he does not think that Netflix fare is all that good. However, there are those, like myself, that consider it the only service worth my subscription money. IMO, Netflix has quite a few interesting series as well as quite a few original movies without catering to specialty markets like Star Wars, Star Trek, DC, or Marvel.

However, I have a great diet of OTA TV, with a small directional rooftop antenna mounted in my attic, as well. Since DTV came along, the number of channels has multiplied literally in an exponential fashion. Where there used to be four channels in the Analog days in my area, now there are in excess of 30, although, just like a cable/satellite subscription, there are quite a few channels of, as Pink Floyd said, "Sh!t on the TV to choose from". And to add to that, a new DTV standard is rolling out ATSC 3.0 with the promise of substantially better reception (IMO, the ATSC 1.0 ruined their attempt at Digital TV by adopting a broadcast standard that is totally disrupted to the point of not being able to get anything in areas that should have great reception because the standard is highly susceptible to something called multipath interference - note that airplanes were notorious for this in analog TV days) and 4K 120Hz broadcasts.

I also think that QP thinks the movie theater experience is better. Perhaps, if you live in an area that has a Dolby Cinema - there is at least one in NYC as I understand it, however, IMO, it is not all that difficult to put together even a modestly priced HT Sound System and decent display, and is well worth it to avoid all the people in theaters that routinely make the movie going experience trash these days.

 

[kiwigraeme]

"Netflix is a TV-first platform"___ That's the reason it sucks...!

Is that why series of books are so unpopular - Harry Potter, Jack Reacher , Nancy Drew . Is that why comics as on going stories don't work .

Who are we to got against what the people want and give them what we think they need and what we want .

Techspot is a like a series - your sport team is like a series and not a one off movie .
Ignoring your complete lack of understanding of the human condition , nor understanding how a series has pros and cons vs short formats .
You should just relax and let people do their thing . If you want people to get out and do community work , or go hiking with self or family that's great - but we need to get better at NUDGE- not telling people - Nudging is a way to gently change peoples actions - that can have a greater success of working.
Also remember - some people have a hard life - work long days , suffer stress - Watching their favourite show/characters with a warm meal is something they looked forward to the whole day - Lots of us nearly died back in the day trying to change TV channel - can we just have a laugh and watch Taxi for one night a week than watch The Young and Restless while we eat .( dinner knife thrown at you )- CHANGE the STATION and I WILL FN KILL YOU - in a voice befitting a hell spawn - that 90% happened to me - no knife thrown - was Taxi - other show was an Aussie Soap The Flying Doctors , wasn't a woman , was a young guy I worked with as a holiday job - working on a high country farm in the middle of no where - outside of that normal guy (he was getting a credit . for Agriculture University ) - except when we went to main house for evening meals the Wife was a dreadful cook - so he used to grab dog biscuits on way back to eat - 2 weeks later in a town shop I bought baking stuff - as our house had a cold range with ******* for hot water - so I baked biscuits every night - we were fit working the land - Just ignored Young Doctors had my bath ate my biscuits

Now I'm blasting your comment out of the water - it was probably flippant and you support somethings I say - and maybe it was it sucks for me .
But it you read the forum TS enough you know I start ranting at useless soundbites with incessant rage

 

[Lew Zealand]

I think @QuantumPhysics is saying that he does not think that Netflix fare is all that good. However, there are those, like myself, that consider it the only service worth my subscription money. IMO, Netflix has quite a few interesting series as well as quite a few original movies without catering to specialty markets like Star Wars, Star Trek, DC, or Marvel.

Agreed, actually Netflix what we have though I don't watch much TV as I'm stuck in gaming mode most of the time at home. Actually I got the DVD mailers forever until I exhausted everything I wanted to rent.

However, I have a great diet of OTA TV, with a small directional rooftop antenna mounted in my attic, as well. Since DTV came along, the number of channels has multiplied literally in an exponential fashion. Where there used to be four channels in the Analog days in my area, now there are in excess of 30, although, just like a cable/satellite subscription, there are quite a few channels of, as Pink Floyd said, "Sh!t on the TV to choose from".

More or less than 15? . We use an antenna as well and if and when we move, the maps on Antennaweb will be our guide of locations to avoid.

And to add to that, a new DTV standard is rolling out ATSC 3.0 with the promise of substantially better reception (IMO, the ATSC 1.0 ruined their attempt at Digital TV by adopting a broadcast standard that is totally disrupted to the point of not being able to get anything in areas that should have great reception because the standard is highly susceptible to something called multipath interference - note that airplanes were notorious for this in analog TV days) and 4K 120Hz broadcasts.

I also think that QP thinks the movie theater experience is better. Perhaps, if you live in an area that has a Dolby Cinema - there is at least one in NYC as I understand it, however, IMO, it is not all that difficult to put together even a modestly priced HT Sound System and decent display, and is well worth it to avoid all the people in theaters that routinely make the movie going experience trash these days.

I'm cool with theaters. Except for all the awful people. OK OK, most are definitely not awful but yeah, those vocal few ruiners...

 

[kenny loris]

I wonder why people complain that Netflix has bad quality of productions. I accept that they cant ace every production, but not all of them can be hated.

 

[Aaron Fox]

I can't name a film that has impressed me since Battleship Potemkin and that film only had one good sequence (the Odessa steps). My standards are too high, apparently.

As for television, the last series I saw that was at all worth watching was Black Books. Some of Black Mirror was also fine (and most of the Netflix reboot of it was subpar). 99% of TV shows are terrible and the same goes for films. It's probably 99.9%.

Someone would have to pay me a lot of money to sit through one of the superhero things, Pixar sludge, or a sitcom like The Middle, Modern Family, et cetera — that has no idea how to include even a single funny joke. In the past, sitcoms would eventually run out of ideas and become bland. These days, they're that way from start to cancellation.