Clara Beckwith-Jamieson / Edge Columnist
Netflix is known as one of the leaders in streaming, but the company faced a loss in customers over the last year. The company had a dip in customers for the first half of 2022 and people who continue to subscribe to Netflix have also been frustrated with them.
One reason for this frustration is the company’s new habit to cancel its own original series after one season. An article by Chris Smith for BGR explained that in the past, they would generally allow shows at least two seasons before pulling the plug. In an article for The Direct, Alycia Leach stated that “[Netflix’s] reputation for cancelling popular shows may be most subscribers’ biggest gripe.”
Some shows cancelled by Netflix in 2022:
- The Baby-Sitters Club
- First Kill
- Warrior Nun
- 1899
- Fate: The Winx Saga
- Resident Evil
Peter Friedlander, chief of series for Netflix in the US and Canada, said that “cancellations are the hardest part of this job” and that “it’s not something that we take lightly.” Friedlander explained that shows were cancelled based on the company’s views of their long-term life but did not give specifics on how that is measured.
Subscribers are upset with the cancellations because they will see shows on Netflix’s top ten charts one week and cancelled the next. It is obvious that Netflix is not making their decisions based on the hourly views that a show receives.
When looking at data from the London-based analytics company Digital I, it shows a comparison between two series released by Netflix in 2022, First Kill and Heartstopper. When looking at the hours viewed for both shows in their first four days First Kill received 97.66 million hours while Heartstopper only received around half of that, 53.4 million. Despite that, First Kill was cancelled after one season, while Heartstopper went on to be renewed for two more seasons.
The numbers that do explain this are the completion rates. Only 43.11% of people ended up finishing First Kill after watching it while 73% of people finished Heartstopper. Though it is speculation based on data analytics, Netflix seems to follow a pattern of cutting any shows that don’t receive a completion rate of 50% or higher.
The reason Netflix would be using these numbers to make their decisions on renewals would be that it gives them an idea of what kind of views future seasons would get. If people are not finishing the first season of a show, they are unlikely to go on to watch any more that Netflix releases.
According to a CNN article by Frank Pallotta, even though the company is recovering after a stock dip earlier this year they are still looking to cut costs. One of the consequences of this is the fact that Netflix will cancel any shows that aren’t highly profitable. Even though this is upsetting for the subscribers that enjoy the shows that are cancelled, it doesn’t look like this will be changing much in the future.
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