Netflix chief responds to the competition's criticism around its ratings secrecy
Earlier this week at the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles, NBC's research executive Alan Wurtzel reported to journalists that the network had potentially engineered a way to closely estimate the amount of viewers for Netflix's original series.
On Sunday, Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos said that their numbers are "remarkably inaccurate" and then joked about the network's obsession with the streaming company's ratings.
"There's a couple of mysteries in play for me," Sarandos said. "One is, why would NBC use their lunch slot with you guys to talk about our ratings? Maybe it's because it's more fun than talking about NBC ratings."
As an aside, NBC is currently the No. 1 broadcast network in the ratings most important to advertisers: viewers aged 18 to 49 years old.
Sarandos went on to explain how ratings "make no significant affect" on the streaming giant's business, as their business model depends on subscriber numbers not ad sales according to viewership. He also added that if they did start to report numbers for their shows, it would be bad for business.
"It only takes one press of a button to cancel Netflix," Sarandos said, revealing that the service has 70 million subscribers, 43 million of those are from the US.
Sarandos explained that Netflix's profitability comes from its international business and not its original content. That said, Netflix's model, again unlike TV's need to bring in broad audience numbers, allows the streaming company to produce shows with certain viewers in mind.