NBC Executive Releases Viewership For ‘Jessica Jones — Netflix Ratings

According to Symphony, from September through December, the average episode of Jessica Jones had around 4.8 million viewers in adults ages 18-49 during a 35-day viewing cycle. Alan Wurtzel, an executive at NBCUniversal, has revealed their own estimates for several high-profile Netflix shows, as well as Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle.

The figures were gathered by tech firm Symphony, which measures TV viewing using audio content recognition technology loaded onto volunteers” phones – in essence an app that “listens’ to what they’re watching.

Parks & Recreation star Aziz Ansari launched his Netflix comedy Master of None, supposedly pulling in an average of 3.9 million viewers.

Even though the Symphony numbers came from such a small sample, Wurtzel said he was still confident in them, noting they’re in “beta”, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Season 4 of OitNB won’t be released until the summer, but the Symphony data found that season 3 was still averaging 644,000 viewers two months after its June release and that users spent 23 to 25 percent of their TV watching time streaming the series.

Wutzel’s speech attempted to temper reports and put into “perspective” the idea traditional TV had been put in danger by the rise of digital platforms; he stated, “The notion that they are replacing broadcast TV may not be quite accurate”.

Netflix typically keeps its metrics private (except when it comes to The Ridiculous Six, maybe?) but their commitment to secrecy has been divisive in the entertainment industry for years, with more conventional networks protesting the streaming service’s unwillingness to reveal ratings for their original titles. Wurtzel said Symphony data confirmed that “OITNB” ranks as Netflix’s “biggest show by far”. It must be noted that none of these are Netflix’s most popular show.

The share of viewing pattern was similar for “Narcos” and “Master of None” during each show’s first week of availability on Netflix. “So not every program on Netflix is a broad appeal program”.

Series on TV networks like NBC are rated by Nielsen, whereas streaming platforms like Netflix have not released their rating information.

‘But I always wanted the TV shows to be more fantastical than they were, I was always thinking, “OK, but when is there going to be an alien invasion?”