Streaming Era Weakens Transparency of Film and Television Viewing

The Verge points out that the streaming era makes it harder for outsiders to obtain reliable and comparable viewing data for films and television; as audiences migrate from a unified linear television viewing system to multiple closed platforms, content performance is increasingly defined and disclosed by the platforms themselves.

Traditional television relies on third-party sample measurements like Nielsen, which can estimate average viewers, reach, and ad exposure with a unified standard; streaming platforms, however, directly control data such as playback per second, devices, accounts, and duration, but typically do not open complete raw data to the outside.

Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Max, Apple TV+, and YouTube define "viewing" differently: some platforms disclose hours watched, others use the number of accounts reaching a specific viewing duration, and some only publish selected content rankings. Different metrics cannot be directly converted, making it difficult for external organizations to assess the true audience size and completion quality of content.

Nielsen's The Gauge can track the viewing share of various streaming services on U.S. television, but it covers specific devices and regions, which does not equate to the total viewing behavior of global platform users; mobile, computer, non-TV devices, and data not opened by platforms still create measurement gaps.

Streaming services simultaneously act as distributors, ad inventory holders, and data controllers, thus choosing when to disclose, which programs to disclose, and what viewing windows to use. The publicly announced "viewing figures" serve as market signals and content marketing tools, not necessarily corresponding to the auditable ratings of the traditional television era.

In market mechanisms, advertisers, production companies, talent agencies, and copyright holders are the buyers of credible viewing data, while platforms are the sole sellers and controllers of the original viewing data. This situation is not catalyzed by a single piece of content but is a result of changes in media distribution structures: the more closed the platform data, the greater the platform's bargaining power in ad pricing, content renewals, copyright procurement, and talent negotiations; third-party measurement firms like Nielsen, ad verification companies, and cross-platform attribution data infrastructures will benefit.

Source: Public Information