CBS Blames Netflix For Its Own Secrecy Over Streaming Video Numbers

Overhype

from the I'll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours dept

After spending the last few years suing the hell out of every and any disruptive TV innovation on the horizon (from Dish’s Hopper to Aereo), CBS recently announced the launch of its own “All Access” streaming video service. The service, only available in 14 metro markets, lets users view CBS content the day after it airs on traditional television — with advertisements included. It’s a somewhat shaky value proposition, and when pushed this month to disclose how many subscribers the service has signed up since its October launch, CBS CEO Les Moonves not only refused to get specific, he felt the need to throw a jab at Netflix:

“Moonves would say only that CBS All Access was ?ahead of projections,? but acknowledged that could mean as few as 10 subscribers…I’ve been extremely impressed with the product,? he said, adding that its subscriber base would grow as more affiliates sign up to provide a live feed of their stations? programming over broadband…Pressed for a hard number of subscribers, Moonves replied, “When Netflix tells you how many people are watching House of Cards, we?ll tell you how many subscribers we have.”

It should be fairly obvious that when you’re a subscription service, ratings matter less than when you’re a traditional broadcaster dealing with advertisers, but this faux outrage at Netflix secrecy was the tone CBS took for much of last week. Case in point is CBS’s chief researcher David Poltrack, who couldn’t help taking shots at Netflix’s original series viewership numbers:

“The average adult watches 5.2 hours of content on Netflix per week, 3 hours of which are spent watching television programming of some kind. Netflix?s original series account for 6.6 percent of that viewing, David Poltrack, CBS chief research officer, said at a UBS conference today in New York. “Self-reported behavior is always subject to error,? Poltrack said. ?But it?s all we have. If Netflix disagrees with anything I?m about to report, I welcome them to provide anyone with the correct numbers.”

The irony is that CBS is part of an industry that’s been intentionally burying its head in the sand when it comes to emerging cord cutting trends for years now, with companies like Nielsen lagging on tracking viewing on tablets and phones, and often obscuring data that tells the industry things it doesn’t want to hear. Namely, that the current cable TV cash cow model has a hard expiration date that’s coming up faster than executives think. Now contrast CBS’s ratings and secrecy-obsessed mindset to Netflix, which points out that ratings aren’t as important to the company because they can hinder the creation of good content:

“The reason we don?t give ratings is not to frustrate the press,? said (Netflix chief content officer Ted) Sarandos. ?It?s an irrelevant measure of success for us.”…”Maybe it has been necessary for the business of entertainment, but it?s been terrible for the creative side of television,” he said. “I do think that the ratings discussion has been negative for television.”

The end result has been the heavy catering to the lowest common denominator (oh hi, didn’t see you standing there, reality television). Note that Netflix isn’t saying ratings are worthless, just that they’ve traditionally been taken too seriously, and this logic only extends so far. Netflix last week premiered its $90 million magnum opus “Marco Polo.” It has the second-most expensive budget on television right now, behind only HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Early reviews are rather mixed and Netflix obviously isn’t going to ignore viewership numbers for a venture of that scope, but the point remains that the traditional cable and broadcast industry has been so obsessed with ratings (quite often incorrect ratings telling them what they want to hear), it has sometimes struggled to see the forest for the trees.

Filed Under: david poltrack, les moonves, numbers, ratings, streaming, ted sarandos, tv
Companies: cbs, netflix