Netflix, for the first time, shared some of its viewership numbers in its Q4’18 report. It also said that it’s focusing more on stealing time from other activities than subscribers from competitors.
Netflix has always gone about being feisty as far as its ambitions go. In 2013, Netflix’s Reed Hastings – who was then, and still is, the CEO – told GQ that «the goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.” A lot has changed in these seven years; the rights to stream Disney content that once cost Netflix a mere $25 million are now out of its reach. There’s more competition than ever before, and while Netflix continues to lead, some of its competitors have the ability to burn more money faster.
In its report for the Q4 2018 results, Netflix revealed quite a few interesting numbers – some, for the first time. Netflix says it has 139 million subscribers worldwide. It has announced its subscriber count before, but the company has refrained from publishing viewership numbers for its shows and movies, until now.
Bird Box, a Netflix-original thriller starring Sandra Bullock, has been watched by 80 million households since it began streaming. Elite, the Spanish-language original, has been viewed by 20 million households.
A viewing household is defined by Netflix as an account in which at least one profile member has watched at least 70 percent of a movie or at least 70 percent of a single episode of a show.
