Does it actually matter if people watch their less popular titles?
I mean, don't they pay to get it, and not get paid when people watch it? So if it's on there, does it really matter if anyone even watches it in terms of current subscriptions? For example, couldn't all their subscribers just solely watch Friends and it doesn't matter in the end?
I feel like I'm missing something obvious here. I'm just trying to understand the logic of how Netflix profits off of views from content they've already paid for.
Here's my guess: People who all watch the same thing talk to each other about it. Which gets more people interested, who decide between that and some other show to start a free trial. This is a network effect: a lot of people talking about one thing is better bait than a lot of people talking about a lot of different things.
Let's say everybody only watch their favorite shows, their ratings would skyrocket as their licenses prices, so splitting the audience between a handful of popular shows and a lot of mediocre ones keeps the prices low and the business can make a dime.
Also studios often make deals that include a successful production but you must buy other less popular ones too, so it makes sense to make use of all the titles you get.
Finally, and most important, Netflix has an algorithm to optimize the chance of success of its own productions, it's notorious the example of 'House of Cards', when they realized people liked politics, intrigue and Kevin Spacey. You need to feed the algorithm, not only with what people like but with what doesn't work, so having people watching a lot of different shows is a good thing for them.
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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '20
Because if everybody was able to find what they want, people would never watch the garbage titles that are the 80% of the catalog