I read the post, and I’m thinking it’s the opposite: that a new standard for views came at about the same time they finally exposed a setting to turn off previews and autoplay. I’m going by the date on the MediaPost.com post.
Mileage may vary between platforms, but on Roku reading an episode description required allowing autoplay to start streaming the program. I got very good indeed at reading the description, then zipping back to the main thumbnail for the program itself.
If in fact this was the next iteration of making autoplay useful to Netflix, then you’d have to allow that stream to run for two full minutes, which doesn’t seem likely for someone browsing program descriptions.
Of course, it could all be random and Netflix doesn’t have a single cohesive strategy here.
No way! Netflix has been successful because THEY TRACK A LOT. But compared to Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc., etc., it’s hardly negligible. Check out the privacy policy here:
For me, what brings joy is the ability to watch the credits. I’m often the only person left in the movie theater as the credits roll by, and (in some cases, pathetically) the best parts of a film are sometimes buried or revealed in the credits. I found it maddening that Netflix jumped me to the next episode so disruptively even when I was girded for a binge watching of an entire season (no, I don’t REALLY do that, but you’d think Netflix believed that’s what their typical subscriber does!)
My husband and I both watch love watching credits. We rewatched “Gimme Shelter” this Sunday, and once again noticed George Lucas credited as a camera man. Lucas, a big technology nerd, founded Industrial Light & Magic to develop state of the art equipment and software, and always plows big bucks into it. But when he was stuck with an extremely big bucks divorce settement, he had to quickly sell some property off, so he unloaded the animation division to the highest bidder, Steve Jobs, who renamed it Pixar.
