WGA contract pushes for more transparency around streaming data
WGA contract pushes for more transparency around streaming data
Thousands of film and TV writers went back to work Wednesday after a five month-long strike. Members of the Writers Guild of America will now vote on whether to ratify the new contract with the organization representing Hollywood studios.
The deal includes a first-of-its-kind bonus for writers whose work on streaming platforms ends up drawing big crowds. And that means streamers like Netflix, Amazon and Disney will be obligated to share some of their tightly held audience data with the union. It could be a first step to greater transparency in an industry that hasn’t had a whole lot of it.
Figuring out what content TV and movie audiences are watching used to be fairly straightforward: count movie tickets sold at theaters or track a representative sample of household TV sets like Nielsen does.
“With streaming, it’s really a different model today,” said Jennifer Kent, who conducts market research on consumer habits with consulting firm Parks Associates. “A lot of the audience isn’t watching a same title at the same time. You might be watching a title on your mobile phone or on this smart TV, and then this other TV in your household is actually an Amazon Fire Stick.”
Kent said that fragmentation has made it hard for a third party like Nielsen to accurately track streaming data.
But it’s given platforms unprecedented insight into their viewers, said Charles Schreger, a business professor at New York University and former HBO executive.
“They know exactly who is watching their show, how long they’re watching it,” he said. “They know whether or not you’ve watched the whole season, they know how many minutes you’ve watched of episode one, they know everything.”
And platforms haven’t been very forthcoming with that information, said independent analyst Paul Erickson.
“For most streaming services, maintaining a certain level of opacity has been advantageous, as they can essentially manage the messaging and perception around the performance of their content portfolio,” Erickson said.
And that’s because it’s not just writers or actors who might want to know how content performs.
“There’s a number of different stakeholders that have wanted greater transparency for a while,” Erickson said.
Like shareholders and advertisers, who are usually pretty nosy about seeing how their investments pay off.
Of course just because the WGA will get some data doesn’t mean it will become public — it’s under a nondisclosure agreement.
But Erickson said the streaming platforms will be under increasing pressure to show their hands.
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