We are only a few weeks into the year and Netflix has continued its streak of canceling series with force at the first change in a year that promises to be scandalous in that sense. A fame of cancellation that has practically become a meme among the world’s series fans.
This is an ingredient more than one season of change for the company both in organization (Reed Hastings leaving his CEO position) and in user experience (implementation of its plan with ads, shared end of accounts, etc.). There is, of course, true image problem that the platform should address.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflixhas had the opportunity to defend the controversial (and relentless) cancellation policy that the company has exercised during this time, stating that they have never touched a successful series:
«We have never canceled a successful series. Many of these shows are well-intentioned but speak to a very small audience on a very large budget. The key to it is that you have to be able to speak to a small audience on a small budget and to a large audience on a large budget. If you do it right, you can do it forever.”
Audiences and “likes”
Although it is logical (they would throw stones at their own roof otherwise), what is not clear is what they consider a success. Especially since the trend that we observe (and that the creators behind the series usually comment on) implies that what is most interesting is that the season be consumed in the shortest possible time by the greatest number of people. And, if by the way, you give “I love it”, better.
It would also be necessary to assess what other factors can be taken into account or with what figures we can ensure that it is a success in something with a large budget. We have an example with ‘1899’ which, despite having accumulated 257.16 million hours viewed in its first five weeks, was cancelled.