I've said this before but netflix should stop wasting money and honestly invest in the library. Even if a show isn't the most popular thing in the world, as long as it ends well it becomes a solid asset for them. Some percentage of people will enjoy it and feel happy that netflix brought it to them.
Shows that start and never finish will just sit in their library untouched by anyone who knows better or as something certain to piss off another customer when finally discover they'll never get a conclusion. No one watching those shows will be happy about netflix.
There are many netflix shows I'll never start because I've already heard fans were screwed over, and now many more I won't even bother to start until I hear they've concluded.
I don’t think so, to be honest. The landscape for media consumption is so much different than 10-15 years ago. Without any supporting data, I have a hunch that, shows are mostly watched within a year of its original air date. New shows aren’t on a rerun (I recall Scrubs, House being on from time to time), they are not turning into a comfort background tv show (like The Office, Friends) or have a religious fanbase that’ll just follow along because there are 20 seasons of it (NCIS, Greys Anatomy and so on.).
On top of everything, media is extremely fragmented. So much choice that there isn’t any specific shows that people watch because everyone else is watching and will talk about it on Monday during lunch (a la Game of Thrones). So all these companies are left with churning new shows trying to find a holy grail of the Stranger Things size to bring them new subscribers. Until then, anything that doesn’t stick on the wall, will get cut off.
We have a huge movie industry scene in my city, so you hear from people who jump from working show A to show B. None of the shows I’ve ever heard of and never will. But producers are still hoping for a genre defining hit somehow.
> shows are mostly watched within a year of its original air date.
This depends a lot on what else is available, but old shows can find success in steaming services. One of the most successful shows on netflix this past year was Suits, a show that was released 12 years ago. Schitt's Creek gained huge popularity two years after it's original air date.
> So much choice that there isn’t any specific shows that people watch because everyone else is watching and will talk about it on Monday during lunch (a la Game of Thrones)
That's why streaming services have started to withhold episodes and only allow you see one episode a week. They want to control who is watching what and when. When people can watch whatever they want to on their own schedule they might not get around to new shows immediately and advertisers don't like that. It also makes it harder to control the conversation on social media.
The Tick was canceled after it didn't get enough views just 6 weeks after release, but as you said, there is so much to watch right now, and so much else besides TV competing for our time, that those kinds of metrics are meaningless.
It'd be better for netflix to make sure their library is filled with quality and to have confidence that audiences will find those shows in their own time rather than worry about how many people are watching the newest thing immediately and cancel anything that doesn't show immediate success.
Shows that start and never finish will just sit in their library untouched by anyone who knows better or as something certain to piss off another customer when finally discover they'll never get a conclusion. No one watching those shows will be happy about netflix.
There are many netflix shows I'll never start because I've already heard fans were screwed over, and now many more I won't even bother to start until I hear they've concluded.