If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? And if Netflix releases a series or movie and we don't have data about the audience, has anyone seen it? The tree in the forest makes noise when it falls, whether we hear it or not, but how much noise each Netflix tree makes we cannot say for sure.
The premiere of “The Snow Society” in Spanish cinemas (on Netflix from January 4th) was bigger than any other Spanish film on the platform in our country: 110 cinemas showed the Creature from Bayonne. However, we don't know how many people saw it since Netflix has locked up its box office results. It's not new. As has been the case since its inception, the Red Ene platform is opaque because this lack of transparency has protected its interests.
Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of the company, recognized this last week when presenting a report on what and how much was watched on the platform in the first half of 2023 – limited to productions with more than 50,000 hours viewed. A blink. The door unprecedented and still inadequate. Your data will not be checked by outside companies, except in rare cases where advertising comes into play. Since these are global figures, data by country is not available.
The fact that this strategy benefits the interests of the platform does not necessarily mean that it also benefits its series and films, and of course it harms the industry and therefore the creators and workers in the industry. This also does the press a disservice, which limits itself to being the spokesperson for the data published by the company itself and demanding clarity in this foggy society.
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