Ever since ‘House of Cards’ hit the web Netflix has been closed on the exact viewer counts. Now it turns out that even the creator of ‘House of Cards’ dose not know the viewer count.
In a interview with WNYC Beau Willimon creator of ‘House of Cards’ said “I have no idea how many people watch ‘House of Cards”.
It is not unusual for Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu to hold back numbers. In fact many companies hold back exact numbers to protect product markets.
“Netflix closely guards data for a whole host of reasons, and I’m glad that they do, I wouldn’t want access to that data,” Willimon said. “That sort of data leads to pandering, which is the antithesis of creativity.”
Many networks with hold data like this to avoid limiting advertising market or risk worrying investors over a one day slight dip in viewers. Often short term viewership drops can be explained away by a change in weather. Sadly in today hyper sensitive market revealing even positive numbers can back fire on companies after the data has been ripped apart.
You can hear the full interview from WNYC website here: http://www.wnyc.org/story/stories-numbers/