How is it that Netflix provides an endless river of television content and yet it still often feels like there is “nothing on”? There is simply too much choice for the viewer to commit to a program that looks reasonable when the perfect show could be the very next on the slider. Add in the fact that we generally watch TV when we don’t want to do too much thinking and you have the dangerous mix of too many options and a lazy mind, which is pretty much what happens when considering what to have for dinner tonight.
The Problem with Netflix
The limited offerings of free-to-air broadcasters and even pay TV providers like Sky mean that viewers stop flicking through the channels as soon as something catches their eye. A show does not have to be perfect to be chosen because if you are too choosy you will eventually reach the porn and radio channels and run out of options.
With Netflix the ability to browse so many sub-genres with nothing more to “sell” each title than a single frame and a couple of lines of written summary means users have become extremely hard to please. Customers can always settle for something from the landing page but instead they scroll down and right to see what else might be better.
The Mysterious “match” algorithm
Netflix tries to help subscribers choose programs by using their past viewing habits to recommend new selections, which is explained on its website. “Netflix pays attention to what people are actually doing and watching on Netflix to better understand what a member may enjoy and make personalised recommendations.
Whether it’s looking at which new series you’re watching, how much of an episode you finish, what types of genres you tend to watch the most, or what language you prefer watching in, Netflix is constantly using our members’ own preferences to offer up TV shows and movies we think they’ll love.”
That means that the more you use Netflix the more accurate those suggestions should become, although the system cannot account for the customers’ varying moods or the fact that the person sitting next to you on the couch may be overruling your choices. Most of us find that after burning through the latest film releases we are left hungry and poke around looking for something inspiring.
The Solution?
Many of us believed at the end of our free Netflix 30-day trial that, at a fiver a month for a vast collection of quality television we would never renew our television licenses again. Streaming has indeed managed to free viewers from the tedium of stair lift adverts or tired repeats of ‘70s sitcoms.
But that freedom from advertisements has still come at a cost because we have lost the comfortable predictability of being able to just sit and zone-out.
You know what you are getting from traditional TV: an hour or so of escapism to end the day. Before the era of endless choice we would “make do” with whatever reasonable broadcast was on, whether it was the Simpsons or circa-2004 Top Gear on Dave. Netflix has given us the power to choose but really we just want to passively absorb light entertainment.
The answer might be to find a way of limiting the choices we have to make so we can go back to being served rather than having to help ourselves. We could simply trust in the “match” scores or perhaps be guided by friends’ recommendations via a simple Facebook status. That would make viewing a bit more of a risk but the sheer volume of material available through streaming means that if we don’t like what we are watching we could simply try something else, just like the days when we all depended on broadcast television. Even that beats scrolling.
by Stewart Vickers @VickHellfire
The post Dear Netflix, I Can’t Find Anything to Watch appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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