Here's what Amazon looks for when deciding whether or not to greenlight a series

Streaming companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu have a programming advantage that TV networks don't have: user data.

The streaming video companies, especially Netflix, have traditionally been secretive about viewer data and how they make decisions regarding series orders.

Well, Amazon, is being much more transparent. For example, it has already said that its most-watched original series is detective drama, "Bosch."

Earlier this week, it went further. Amazon Studios says that it has a whole host of data that factors into their decision to move forward on shows. On one level, the company has a deep amount of reviews on its site that have "been a helpful part of the process," say execs, but there's a whole other unseen level of data that helps in the greenlighting process.

"It's not just the explicit feedback, you know, the critical ratings and reviews, but also the implicit feedback [that is important]," Joe Lewis, Amazon Studios' head of comedy, said, according to a transcript obtained by Business Insider.

He continued, "And what we are getting at is never what is the most amount of people we can get to watch a single episode of television, but, rather, how do you make someone's favorite show? I don't know that you measure that by measuring solely the amount of people that are there at the beginning."

What does Lewis mean by implicit feedback? He means that a viewer's consumption of a show can say a whole lot about whether the show is hitting a nerve with audiences or not.

"When I talk about implicit feedback, it's how many people rewatch the show? How many people complete the show that they are watching? How many people talk about it in social media?" said Lewis. "We are always trying to get at this question: How do you measure someone's favorite show? And, you know, that's the major factor when we are picking up these shows, but it's not all the explicit parts that people can see."

The method seems to be working for the streaming company. It picked up 12 Emmy nominations this year, mostly for "Transparent," the series about a transgender woman, played by Jeffrey Tambor, and her family.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.