Netflix co-CEO reveals the 'unsexy' reason for its streaming-data dump

• Netflix released its most detailed viewership report to date on Tuesday.
• Co-CEO Ted Sarandos says keeping the data under wraps helped keep rivals at bay and reassure talent.

Netflix this week put out its most detailed report to date on viewership for its catalog of programming, and one of its CEOs just explained why they waited so long to do it.

The company on Tuesday said it plans to publish "What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report" containing data on over 18,000 titles twice a year. The first report covers content viewed between January and June 2023.

Co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently explained why the company went so many years without providing such comprehensive data on its titles.

"At the beginning, we did not want to lay out the breadcrumbs for future competitors. And also it really did resonate with talent really positively that we weren't going to have the overnight ratings or the weekend box office," Sarandos said on an episode of Puck's "The Town" podcast, released Wednesday.

"You couldn't compare overnight ratings or 'live plus seven' to a perpetually available show where all the episodes dropped at once," he added. "So, I was concerned that people wouldn't get the nuance of the difference of the two, so rather than generate comparison, just don't give it."

But the absence of this information eventually created "an atmosphere of mistrust," Sarandos added.

"They thought we were hiding something," he said. "It's not that mysterious, honestly. As unsexy as this answer is, this business is kind of simple. You make great stuff, and if people watch it, you win."

Netflix's viewership report Tuesday showed the importance of original content as well as licensed material to the streamer's business. Most of the platform's top 50 titles were Netflix originals released this year, while 45% of viewership was for licensed titles like "Breaking Bad" and "Suits." (Another big hit: Cocomelon.)

The report puts pressure on Netflix's streaming rivals to release similar data of their own.