TBI Weekly: How savvy licensing & value-added originals are boosting Netflix’s numbers

Forget the top 10 lists and watercooler talk, TBI’s Mark Layton delves into the latest Netflix engagement report to find out what the streaming giant’s viewers have really been watching and why licensed content is proving as valuable as its biggest originals.

Netflix has published the second edition of its biannual engagement reports, offering detailed viewing data for its shows and movies between July and December 2023.

As with the first instalment at the end of last year, the global streamer aims to share the full picture of what its audience is watching, beyond the mercurial Top 10 list.

Audiences watched more than 90 billion hours of content in the second half of 2023, with apocalyptic thriller film Leave The World Behind the clear leader among the streamer’s original offerings, racking up 121 million views.

This equates to 286,300,000 hours spent watching the Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke-led movie, which was no small feat as it only landed on the service on 8 December, so this figure will cover just three weeks of viewing time. With previous apocalyptic-themed features such as 2018’s Bird Box and 2021’s Don’t Look Up having also generated significant buzz, Netflix may have a winning genre on its hands.

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