Netflix Changes Rating System

Netflix has announced that it is going to replace its star rating system with a simpler thumbs up and thumbs down system.

The company says it settled on the new system after testing it with hundreds of thousands of users previous year and discovering that they were 200% more likely to rate a movie when the choice was just up or down, Variety reports. For instance, Netflix subscribers would give documentaries 5-star ratings and stupid Adam Sandler movies 3-star ratings, but the data showed that the users would seek out those comedies time and time again. Ratings increased 200 percent, Yellin claimed, when users were given the new system in a test previous year.

As justification for the update, Netflix VP Product Todd Yellin said that what people actually watch differs from the importance they assign to stuff. So this new system may lead to better suggestions from Netflix for you as an individualized viewer. But when you scroll through your Netflix feed, you’ll also see star ratings for content you’ve never reviewed.

This story, “Netflix is dropping star ratings for a simple thumbs up or down” was originally published by TechHive.

“We put them in communities based on others who watch what they tend to watch and it helps us percent match what kind of titles”, he added.

While the move makes little sense on the surface, providing far less scope to provide the feedback that drives future recommendations, Netflix claims that the stars we award are less relevant than we might think …

Besides this, the company will also start to show the percentage match below movie/show.

“Think of Netflix as a dating service where we want to fix you up – nearly a hundred million members – with movies and TV shows that you love”, Yellin added. The service then “surfaces content that is suggested based on their viewing history”.