What Netflix’s Latest Data Dump Means for Advertisers

Advertisers, are you still watching?

Netflix recently released the second installment of its What We Watched Report, which represents 99% of viewership from July to December 2023. The biannual report includes some new data of interest to advertisers and marketers.

“Netflix expanding what they publicly report about what’s viewed on their platform could be seen as an increasing willingness on their part to share more data to appease advertisers,” said Ross Benes, senior analyst of TV and streaming at eMarketer. “It’s not a coincidence that they held this information tight before they became ad-supported.”

The first What We Watched report left something to be desired for marketers, with viewership being treated the same for TV shows and movies and a lack of overall granularity. However, the newest version adds runtime and views (total hours viewed divided by runtime) and separates films and series.

“The new views metric is a better indicator of the ‘stickiness’ of the content while also providing a more accurate ‘apples to apples’ comparison of title popularity,” Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester, told ADWEEK.

Among the viewership highlights: The first three parts of Lupin generated nearly 100 million views in the second half of 2023, while evergreen juggernauts such as Wednesday (98 million), Red Notice (62 million) and Squid Game (25 million) also continue to attract strong viewership.

In addition, the report showcased how spinoffs and adaptations, including the live-action One Piece series and reality show Squid Game: The Challenge, increased viewership for the original IP. For instance, Squid Game: The Challenge, which received around 33 million views, increased viewership for the original Squid Game series by 34%.

“When a series or movie is a big hit, people, of course, want more of it,” Proulx said. “But there’s a limit, as we’ve learned from Netflix’s competition: Disney rushed to get loads more Marvel content out at a higher frequency and lower quality that fatigued and disappointed viewers. Netflix will be smart to heed the adage, ‘everything in moderation.’”

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Despite the updates, the list still has room for improvement. Marketers previously told ADWEEK that the What We Watched Report could benefit from more granular breakdowns of gender, income, race, psychographic or behavioral information.

This type of information is more readily available for marketers using Facebook or Google for advertising, and ad buyers recently told ADWEEK they were also looking for more granularity and attribution from the streamer following the TV upfront announcement that it’s bringing its adtech in-house.

“For advertisers, I’d still like to see this all further broken down by unique households as well as demographics,” Proulx said. “This would give media planners a sense of what their specific target audiences are watching.”

In addition, the What We Watched report data is self-reported, and marketers could benefit from third-party verification to validate information before making any investment decisions.

Despite the report’s shortcomings, including two yearly data drops not being fresh enough for campaigns to activate, Benes said the release also plays into Netflix’s overall strategy as it moves away from reporting subscribers, a practice it will cease in 2025.

“Giving more visibility into how time is spent on their service gives them a stronger story to tell around those metrics,” Benes said. “For generating ad inventory, view time is more important than mere views.”