What the Netflix Imbroglio Means
Streaming service Netflix has gotten the executives of traditional television broadcasters in a lather over its refusal to release it’s ratings.
A ratings point measures viewership and each point represents 1.07 million viewers. So when Game of Thrones gets ratings of x.x that means advertisers know how many eyeballs have they gotten in front of, which in turn informs the efficiency of their current spend and helps them plan their future spend.
And then along comes Netflix who doesn’t play by these rules. Why should they? Netflix doesn’t have advertisers. In some strange way, it’s entertaining to watch broadcast executive protest like children just before a parent says, “Sorry, the world’s not fair.”
It may not be fair. And today, unfairness travels by the name disruption. Some examples:
- The Wall Street Journal accumulates 2 million readers and becomes one of the most influential media points in the world. Then Facebook accumulates 1 billion members and relegates the WSJ to a portion go it’s news feed.
- Taxis prosper for hundreds of years by getting in the way of pedestrians. Then Uber figures how to connect any person sitting in the warmth of their home to any drive in the vicinity.
- Hotels pour billions into infrastructure and then Airbnb aggregates almost every spare room in the country into a unified source of competition.
- Alibaba makes up a holiday — Single’s Day — and then sells more merchandise in a day then JC Penny sells in a year.
And it’s not just commerce. Radicals proclaim statehood, fight without uniforms, and send suicide bombers into the fray.
