Why Traditional Audience Ratings Hurt Diversity

There’s a reason Netflix do not publish audience ratings, and as someone who wants to increase diversity in the television industry I’m grateful.

Netflix notoriously do not publish their ratings, much to the annoyance of many in the industry. It has drawn criticism from the likes of FX Networks chief executive John Landgraf and, more recently, senior BBC figures such as  BBC’s head of TV strategy Becky Marvell.

I have sympathy with a lot of the traditional broadcasters’ criticisms of how Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) services like Netflix publish their data and how their lack of transparency can mean it can feel that broadcasters are not competing on a level playing field with SVoDs.

However when it comes to diversity I am firmly on the side of Netflix in this argument.

HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY TRADITIONAL BROADCASTERS

When I worked for the BBC a large measure of whether a  programme was a success or not, was linked to its audience ratings.

I would come into the office the next day and wait for the “overnights” to see how many people had watched it.

A few days later I would get the number of people who had watched it on catch-up services such as iPlayer.

Then I would also receive the Audience Appreciation Index figures, (known as the AI’s). The AI’s are a qualitative measure of what a representative sample survey thought of your programme.

The higher the ratings and the higher your AIs the more successful a programme was deemed to be and overtime the success of one’s career depended in no small part to these figures.

Traditional broadcasters have been slaves to these figures but there’s now growing evidence that it has been to the detriment of diversity.

HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY NETFLIX

In an interview with Amol Rajan on the BBC Radio4 Media Show the CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, said that he had no intention of publishing traditional television ratings.

However what he was interested in publishing was which programmes people watch when they first subscribe.  “What people watch in the first month does give us some indication – the first month which they join – why they joined.”

That is because the business model of subscription television services means that a series that gets a small audience but gets 10,000 new people to subscribe is more important to them than a series that millions of people watch but fails to attract a single new subscriber.

Ratings are not important - new subscribers are.

In the same way a series that gets a high average AI is not as important, as a series that gets a low average AI but a few people absolutely love . Because it is the "extreme love" that will get people to continue their subscription. Conversly even if the majority of people hate the show (bringing down the AI average) it won't stop them subscribing if they can find other shows targeted to them which they love. 

IMPLICATIONS FOR DIVERSITY

While traditional broadcasters try to maximise audience numbers and AI figures, subscription services like Netflix are looking to maximise the emotional connection the range of their content has with different types of groups to get them to subscribe.

For example imagine a programme that is only popular among the traveller community in the UK. The audience figures would mean this would be seen as a failure by traditional broadcasters, but for Netflix if the programme got every traveller family to take out a subscription it would be seen as a massive success.

Netflix’s business model is all about seeking out different audience groups and producing content they love enough to subscribe. By definition this is how you grow a diverse audience.

As a television producer with twenty five years at the BBC I know it is almost impossible to avoid the “tyranny” of audience ratings. In another interview with the New York Times Sarandos said: “Once we give a number [audience rating] for a show, then every show will be benchmarked off of that show even though they were built sometimes for very specific audiences.”

He then went on to say; “There is a very natural inclination to say, ‘Relative to this show, this show is a failure.' That puts a lot of creative pressure on the talent.”

And Netflix wants producers to continue to produce shows that capture (or retain) diverse audiences. Not to loosely appeal to a mass audience just for the sake of it.

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

The BBC and ITV are about launch BritBox - a new SVoD service.

If they want BritBox to be a success they need to concentrate on increasing the range, breadth and emotional connection of their audience. Not the size of the audience for any one specific series.

For Britbox’s sake and for the sake of diversity I hope they take a leaf out of Netflix’s book and do not publish audience ratings or AI figures - not even internally - putting pressure on producers. Please just publish which programmes attract new people to subscribe to the service.

There is an old saying “what gets measured gets done”. Netflix’s measurements help increase diversity. Standard audience ratings do not.