Netflix Claims 80 Million Subscribers Watched “Bird Box”; They Have 139 Million Accounts.

Bear with me here. 

Due to Netflix's persistent refusal to release its viewership numbers, a case could be made, and has been made, of the streaming giant skewing with their final tallies. They also have tendency to selectively highlight some of their successes. Take, for example, today's announcement that they have hit 139 million subscribers and that 80 million of them watched the Sandra Bullockhit "Bird Box." That means, according to Netflix, that 60% of their subscribers decided to stream, in part or fully, the movie. “We are seeing high repeat viewing,” company executives wrote in their letter to shareholders when speaking about the “Bird Box” success. Given the fact that I know plenty of people that have Netflix and have yet to see the film, I have decided to take those numbers with a slight grain of salt, but do admit just how outrageous of a phenomenon it has become.

Other numbers announced include their declaration that 40 million households tuned in for thePenn Badgley-led series series “You,” which had originally premiered on Lifetime before changing homes to Netflix. Also, their just-premiered title “Sex Education” is also on track to hit the 40 million subscriber mark.

However, they did elaborate on how a "view" would count in their metric system. Netflix claims to only count a view if someone has finished at least 70% of an episode of a TV show or a movie. 

In retrospect, this was also an occasion for the streaming giant to belt out a warning to its competitors. The numbers divulged on Thursday afternoon claim that the streaming giant accounts for 10% of all TV hours in the U.S, adding that they are "becoming less focused on 2nd run programming" and "ready to pay top-of-market prices for second run content when the studios, networks and producers are willing to sell," a clear back-slapping warning to its competitors. Netflix is now explicitly saying that they don't need content from Disney and NBC to be successful, both of which are ready to launch their own streaming services this year.