Anyone who has followed Netflix long enough knows that the streaming giant doesn’t rest on its laurels, and isn’t religious about anything.
advertisements? They are bad. So that they are not. Live sports? Not for us. Until it’s done. Original content? No need for that. Until he was there.
The Netflix model is to crawl, start walking, then sprint, without fear of quickly changing course if things don’t feel right.
It’s this context that makes some of the experiments and subtle tweaks Netflix has made over the past few days all the more interesting. The streaming giant is bringing back free trials in some markets, a practice it abandoned in 2020 (What’s On Netflix, which first reported on the trials, noted that they’re not available in the US at the moment).
In conjunction with its earnings report, it announced that it would step back from sharing viewership data for shows twice a year, and switch to a once-annual cadence. It only began sharing this data in more detail in December 2023.
Data hiding may not be creator- or media-friendly, but it gives Netflix wiggle room and take risky bets without the distraction of analysts wondering whether or not it works.
Once again, Netflix runs a veritable alchemical laboratory for content experimentation: YouTube Shows! Video Podcasts! Live broadcast channels! Cloud-based video games!
“When we expand into new entertainment offerings, new initiatives, we do so gradually,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told investors on Thursday. “We do it where we think we can add more value for our members, and we do it where we think we have a right to win. Then we look for positive signals before we invest on a material scale. That’s our advantage, it’s been our advantage for some time.”
One such experiment is the bundling of French TF1 channels into Netflix, with one analyst wondering if the service is eyeing similar deals elsewhere. The answer is an undeniable “yes.”
“We’re just adding to the set of capabilities that we have to do and the mechanisms that we have to do,” said Greg Peters, co-CEO. “We’ve built a leading streaming entertainment service by combining an unparalleled portfolio of high-quality programming, and a best-in-class product experience. We have a global footprint, significant reach and the ability to then deliver huge audiences, deep engagement, and industry-leading monetization. So whether through licensing or through new partnerships like TF1, we believe we can help other producers and other services increase the value and relevance of the content they invest in by finding those larger audiences.”
Netflix, of course, started life as a DVD company, mailing out new titles to members, disrupting the blockbuster world. But when streaming was still in its infancy, the company jumped in, acquired rights that older studios didn’t know what to do with, and built a juggernaut.
In 2009, when AI and machine learning weren’t something most people thought or cared about, the service launched a $1 million “Netflix Prize,” to convince AI researchers to develop a machine learning algorithm that could be Netflix’s best content recommendation engine. The company has been a market leader in content recommendation ever since.
And when it comes to original content, Netflix has taken a few titles…and found they worked, so they went all out.
So, when Netflix brings back experiences, pulls data and starts getting weird with content experiences again, in some ways it’s taking it back to the glory days, when it was a disruptive company rather than a juggernaut.
Of course, at the time, this was disrupting the traditional entertainment giants. Now you need to disable itself.
