Yesterday Netflix released details around the viewing habits of its subscribers and what they’ve found is that viewers are changing their TV watching habits. From the time we get up to the time we go to bed we have changed the type of TV we watch thanks to our ability to choose our own programming. And the data suggests that we really like our dinner with a side of thriller.
To determine viewing habits Netflix took six months of streaming data, which consists of about 77 million accounts per month spanning 22 countries. Peak viewing hours were identified based on weekday viewing as well as the hours certain genres peaked in relation to the genre’s overall share of daily viewing.
According to viewer data, thrillers like The Walking Dead and Stranger Things are watched most in the evening – globally the genre sees a 27% increase come 9PM. But apparently, we don’t want to go to bed with visions of Walkers or the Demogorgon dancing in our heads because we abruptly shift to shows like Parks and Recreation and Bojack Horseman by 11PM.
“For years our lives had to fit around television, now it’s the other way around,” said Cindy Holland, Vice President of Original Content. “We’ve given consumers control and it’s interesting to see the behaviors that emerge when viewers aren’t tied to a schedule. And even more so to see that these routines are replicated by millions the world over.”
In some ways, it’s not surprising that we prefer to watch the creepier offerings from Netflix in the evening, as many families probably wait until their little ones are in bed before binging on things that go bump in the night. Regardless of why we do it, it’s interesting to see how different we watch TV now that we control the programming.
