How streaming viewership is measured in this ‘chaotic’ era for TV data

by Don Clarendon, TV Insider

Until a a decade or so ago, TV viewership stats were easily accessible through Nielsen ratings, and the only trick was knowing the difference between a ratings point and a share. But in the streaming era, TV viewership has become a guessing game.

Many streaming platforms don't share in-depth viewership data with the public, leaving it to companies like Nielsen, Luminate, and Parrot Analytics to estimate audience sizes for streaming TV series - for a cost.

And even then, streaming numbers for a given programme can differ from one analysis to another.

Net introduced its Top 10 lineup in February 2020, but that feature is only a ranking with no viewership numbers to be seen.

The streamer took another step toward ratings transparency in December 2023, when it started releasing twice-a-year engagement reports showing six-month viewership tallies for its offerings. That's progress, but streaming viewership data remains scarce.

When streamers are forthcoming, they tout their successes through various metrics. Here's some of the most common terminology in this evolving and often confusing field of audience measurement:

Hours/minutes viewed: The amount of time users have spent watching a given film or TV show. For hit TV shows - especially ones with many seasons available for streaming - this number can soar into the tens of billions of minutes.

Views/streams: The number of times a given film or TV show has been streamed. Netflix's latest engagement reports include the number of views as well as the hours viewed for each title.

Viewers: The number of people who watched a streaming title - or at least, the number of accounts that have. Amazon Prime Video and Max often use viewers as a metric for their public-facing viewership stats.

Cross-platform viewers: The number of viewers who watch a linear TV program live, on PVR, on-demand, or through streaming. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, a linear TV programme's streaming viewership numbers can be reverse-engineered if a TV network shares data about that programme's other viewership.

First X days: A qualifier for viewing statistics to show a film or TV show's reach and engagement over the first X number of days that the title has been streaming - the first 3 days, first 7 days, first 25 days, first 28 days, etc.

Completion/retention rate: The percentage of streaming viewers who finish a film or TV series, relative to the number who start it. The analytics company Digital I determined in 2022 that Netflix TV shows with completion rates below 50% were likely to be cancelled at the time, per What's On Netflix.

Binge rate: The percentage of streaming viewers who watch the episodes of TV series in rapid succession, relative to all of that title's viewers. 

In its viewership report for the second half of 2024 the analytics company Samba TV shared that docuseries and crime dramas have higher binge rates - defined in that report as the percentage of 31-day season finishers who binged that season in the first 5 days — than comedies or other dramas.

Starters, watchers, and completers: Categorisations Netflix has used for its viewers, as revealed in a July 2019 letter to a United Kingdom parliament committee. "Starters" are households that watch two minutes of a film or a TV episode, "watchers" are those that watch 70% of a film or a TV episode; and "completers" are those that watch 90% of a film or a season of a TV series.

Netflix must stop clinging when you cancel

by Thinus Ferreira

To cancel video streaming subscriptions like Netflix will now become easier for Americans and through that likely for consumers in the rest of the world as well.

According to American news reports, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has received over 16 000 complaints from consumers who've said they struggle and feel trapped when trying to cancel online subscriptions like those for video-on-demand (VOD) services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and the like.

After the avalanche of complaints, the FTC has now introduced a "click-to-cancel" regulation which will come into effect in six months. 

The Washington Post reports that according to "click-to-cancel" consumers must be able to cancel digital subscriptions in it takes to sign up for them.

Lina M. Khan, FTC commission chairperson, in a statement said "Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription. The FTC's rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want".

"The FTC's updated rule will apply to almost all negative option programmes in any media."

According to NPR, the click-to-cancel will be enforced for anything from gym memberships to satellite pay-TV.

Vodacom Video Play streaming service bites the dust as it gets out of buying video content upfront.

by Thinus Ferreira

Vodacom Video Play has become the latest video streaming service to bite the dust in South Africa, with the telecom that has pulled the plug on its multi-million rand streaming venture just short of seven years and getting out of the business of acquiring video content directly, rather letting consumers buy data and watch Netflix or any of the other rival local and international streamers.

Vodacom Video Play, which by the end of March 2019 had 869 000 active users and reached a high point of over 9 000 film and series titles in its content carousel, joins the video streaming scrapheap littered with tried-and-failed streamers in South Africa like Cell C black, VIDI, the Altech Node, MTN's FrontRow (later rebranded VU), PCCW Global's OnTapTV, Kwesé Play and Kwesé TV, and others.

South African video streamer customers have a growing flurry of remaining choices, ranging from Netflix SA, Disney+, MultiChoice's Showmax, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+, to TelkomONE, eMedia Investment's eVOD, PCCW Global's VIU, BritBox SA, Acorn TV and a few more.

Meanwhile, the South African public broadcaster plans to launch SABC+ around September this year, as Paramount+ is expected to debut in early 2023, and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is expected to roll out its combined HBO Max and Discovery+ streamer at some point in South Africa as well, with NBCUniversal yet to bring Peacock to the country.

Vodacom had high aspirations for Video Play when it launched in August 2015, with the telecom that said it planned to add further linear TV channels and even its own set-top box. After adding The Bold and the Beautiful American daytime soap to Vodacom Video Play in October 2019, Vodacom said the content was "blowing the lights out".

In November 2020 Vodacom started to offer customers Amazon Prime Video for free for half a year, and in March 2021 Vodacom Video Play snagged its final big get by acquiring the rights to The Justice League Snyder Cut from WarnerMedia before Showmax or M-Net could get it.

After Vodacom pulled the Video Play app from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, and removed the Vodacom Video Play website, Vodacom told customers simply to "Please take note that as of 30 June 2022, this service will no longer be available".

Byron Kennedy, Vodacom spokesperson, confirmed to TVwithThinus that Video Play has been shuttered from 1 July 2022.

"From 1 July 2022, the Video Play service was decommissioned completely, meaning users can no longer access the service."

"Given the rapid evolution of content streaming in recent times, Vodacom has taken a position to become an enabler for consumers to access the growing demand for video and content streaming through our add-to-bill capability and our VodaPay Super App."

"This will enable customers to access quality SVOD services currently available in the market. The move is also aligned to the VodaPay strategy, which promises customers an all-in-one lifestyle marketplace."

Vodacom says it has "migrated all its Video Play customers to a free-mode model, with the subscription functionality decommissioned, meaning between the first quarter of 2021 up to 30 June 2022, customers still enjoyed free content on the Video Play platform."

Vodacom didn't want to say what the company's multi-million rand investment in infrastructure, video streaming network set-up and content acquisition for Vodacom Video Play had been over the past seven years.

Vodacom says it started scaling down Vodacom Video Play in 2021. "It was a deliberate gradual decline in users as we implemented our new strategy which included a move away from content acquisitions," says Byron Kennedy.

Will Vodacom be replaced by a new video streaming service, or is the telecom rather going to focus on supplying data for customers to watch services like Netflix SA or Amazon Prime Video on devices?

"The discontinuation of Video Play is a strategic decision to no longer be an upfront purchaser of content in keeping up with our launch of VodaPay, which is our lifestyle Super App where we provide access to a variety of third-party content services, and products from over 90 merchants."

"This will see Vodacom move to a subscription service model which will offer our customers a variety of subscription bundles for the large variety of local and global entertainment services through our lifestyle app, VodaPay."

Vodacom says it will continue to offer customers access to other video streamers and services.

"Vodacom's move to a subscription service model promises to offer customers a variety of subscription bundles from a variety of local and international entertainment services offered through the VodaPay Super App."