Netflix Viewership Finally Gets a Yardstick

Netflix is notoriously secretive when it comes to sharing audience viewing information -- be it with content providers, the media or Wall Street -- arguing that since it doesn’t have advertisers to please, ratings for its subscription streaming service are irrelevant. But now Hollywood is getting its first real peek inside the black box of online video streaming. In recent months, measurement specialist Nielsen has been scaling up a program to track viewing on Netflix and other online services like Amazon’s Prime Instant Video and Hulu. Nielsen said it is now tracking nearly 1,000 shows. Most major TV studios are receiving detailed readouts on how their own programming is performing, including the total viewers for any episode and basic demographics such as age and gender, Nielsen said.

Netflix has been dismissive of Nielsen’s efforts, noting that the company still doesn’t provide ratings for content viewed on tablets and phones and that its numbers wouldn’t include viewing of shows outside the US. Netflix does share some viewing information with select studios. Studios that do large content-licensing deals with Netflix have been able to negotiate for data such as the number of times a show has been streamed on a monthly basis and some tracking info to see how a show is retaining an audience over multiple episodes, people familiar with the matter say. But Netflix doesn’t provide demographic breakdowns or how many people watch any individual episode.