• theUnlikely
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    9 months ago

    As someone who doesn’t know much about that industry, why is transparency on what people are watching important?

    • numlok@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      The more popular a show, the more money writers get (residuals). In the old days, viewership was measured independently and those numbers shared (Nielsen). In the steaming age, streaming services basically tell writers, “trust us”.

    • AppaYipYip@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      From what I understand a lot of Hollywood contracts (for writers, actors, etc.) include residuals for tickets sold or views on streaming services. However, streaming services did not have to provide the actual numbers of streams so people couldn’t determine how much money in residuals they were owed.

      I believe there were also some questions about streamers fudging numbers to say shows were more/less watched than they actually were so it’s a big step to knowing what’s actually going on.

    • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Streamers are generally just a kind black box when it comes to what they recommend and what each show’s ratings are. If I’m understanding this correctly, transparency will allow for things similar to Nielson ratings and keep streamers honest.

      Wouldn’t you want to know if everyone is actually watching that one show Netflix keeps recommending or if they’re just trying to make it seem like everyone’s watching it to inflate its popularity?