Netflix claims 10% of US TV viewing time

This week we have seven stories, including Netflix’ latest numbers, more on last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, Amazon’s free samples, and an advertising medium with a potential audience of 7 billion people.


This week's top stories...

Netflix claims to have 10% of US TV viewing time
Netflix released its latest quarterly numbers last night, including some numbers on viewing and specific shows.  Bird Box, the Sandra Bullock film, which it earlier said had 45m accounts viewing in seven days, has had 80m viewing in 4 weeks, and Netflix total US viewing of 100m hours a day, which is an estimated 10% of the time spent watching TV (caveat - not all of Netflix viewing is on a TV, but a lot of it is).  They also  added nearly 10m new subscribers around the world, but missed some revenue numbers...

Carat’s Trends from CES
Essential reading:  Our American colleague’s trends from CES, including Transparency, Human Design, Immersive Media (including eSports), and some thoughts on 5G.  Lots to think about, and there’s even a handy grid to help you prioritise between different technologies. 

A16Z partner Steven Sinofsky’s review of CES
Always a great read.  This year he went everywhere and walked 26 miles, and these are his thoughts.  He’s very enthusiastic on how voice is being integrated everywhere, and about the smart home, but he’s less convinced by the automotive and mobility technology that he saw.  Well worth ten minutes of your time (& there’s also a DNA testing kit for cats).

One more from CES - the data collected by your smart TV makes it cheaper
It makes perfect sense, but it may alarm people that the new model for selling TVs includes potential revenues from content, advertising and data means that a smart TV will actually be cheaper for the consumer than a non-smart one.  The ‘post-purchase monetisation’ of the hardware is something which is going to get increasingly important, and so there will be lots of pressure to make use of data supplied (with full consent) by the purchasers.

Facebook is investing $300m in local journalism
Facebook has often been criticised for its impact on the news industry - studies show that some demographics have Facebook as the main source of news - and now it is making moves to invest real money into journalism in the US.  This includes donating to organisations like Report For America to pay for journalists in newsrooms, and also working with news groups to develop technology.  It will be interesting to see how this goes, and also if it extends beyond the US.

Amazon is going to start sending out free samples with packages
Another brilliant idea from Amazon.  It is going to test sending out free samples of things that you might want, based on previous purchases, and presumably payments from brands.  Given how much empty space there is in many Amazon packages (I bought a shoehorn, and it came in a box you could serve a pizza in), why not put other items in too?  

& finally - Space - the final (advertising) frontier
Possibly launching in 2021 - the ability to place an ad in orbit 400-500km above the earth, with a potential reach of 7bn...
Thanks to Camilla Hibbert for the link!