Survey Report of Netflix: Analysis and Report

Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

University of Southern California
 Survey Report of Netflix: Analysis and Report
Method
This report presents selected results from a 2013 survey for Netflix, an online media instant

streaming service. The objective of the survey is to gain an understanding of Netflix subscribers’ attitudes

towards the service and how to improve subscribers’ satisfaction with Netflix, ultimately increasing

subscribers and surpassing growing competition. For the survey, we used a convenience sample. A

convenience sample is a non-probability sampling technique in which the researcher uses any subjects

that are available to participate in the research. We used this sampling technique because our client

needed the results in a very short time frame (two weeks); therefore, convenience sampling helped us

gather information more quickly from a large amount of respondents. The strengths of convenience

sampling are that it increases the accessibility of participants in a short time frame. It is also cost effective

and easy to carry out with few rules governing how the sample should be collected. However, this

technique limits the range of your sample in regards to how the participants’ characteristics (such as

gender, age and income) match the characteristics of a larger population. This results in a bias, a major

weakness of convenience sampling.

We distributed survey links of an online survey questionnaire to collect information from

subscribers. Our research team contacted 100 current subscribers of Netflix. We each emailed the survey

link to friends and family. We also posted the link to social media groups of organizations that each of us

belongs to (such as sororities and campus clubs). We chose this distribution method because it was the

cheapest and timeliest way to retrieve information. Netflix users are also tech-savvy and online oriented;

therefore, we determined that the best way to reach out to them was through an online survey.

It was estimated that the survey took each participant 10 minutes to complete. All responses to

the survey were kept anonymous to protect the respondent’s confidentiality. During the survey process,

we found that participants were more likely to respond when we contacted them directly through email

rather than just posting the survey link on an organization’s social media site. Overall, 72 Netflix users

responded to our request and 69 completed the entire survey.

Results

In this survey, due to convenience sampling, the majority of people who we surveyed (78%) are

between the ages of 19 and 22. Due to this young, college-aged majority, most of the respondents (65%)

have zero income while 17% have an income of under $40,000. The majority (97%) was also female.

Our first major finding is that Netflix users tend to use the service primarily for watching

television shows and seasons. According to our results, 82.81% of respondents primarily watch television

shows on Netflix (Figure

1). Netflix original

content was found to be

the least watched type of

media (only 3.12%). Even

though the original

content is unique to

Netflix, people tend to stick to the shows they enjoy and those that air on television. We can, therefore,

infer that subscribers care more about what type of content is on Netflix rather than if they can produce

content. Users would rather watch popular television shows rather than new original shows made by

Netflix.

Even though the percentage of respondents who prefer to watch television shows on Netflix is

over ten times as many as

those who prefer to watch

movies through the streaming

service, a majority of

respondents prefer the same

genre when watching either.

Thirty-six respondents chose “Comedy” as their preferred genre for both television shows and movies,

which represented close to 60% of the entire group polled (Figure 2). These results suggest that Netflix

has a solid collection of comedic shows and movies, and an audience of viewers with a strong preference

for the genre. Unlike the drama genre (the second-most popular among TV series watchers) those that

prefer comedy TV shows are more likely to explore Netflix’s movie selection under the same genre.

When selecting what original series subscribers preferred the most, the majority (59%) answered

“Orange is the New Black.” These results reinforce the idea that comedy is the preferred genre among

users - even when comparing Netflix original content. “Orange is the New Black” was even preferred to

Emmy-winning series “House of Cards.” Zero percent of all respondents said they preferred Hemlock

Grove, proving that horror is a genre that Netflix viewers tend to stay away from.

Additionally, we found that when focusing on television genres, there is a direct correlation

between age and preferred genre. Comedy and drama were the overwhelmingly popular responses, with

zero respondents choosing action and only one choosing horror (Figure 3). Among respondents ages 19

to 22, comedy was

the highest preferred

genre. Comedies

were also favored

among those 27 years

and up. Most

respondents 18 and

under, however,

preferred drama, and those between ages 23 to 26 were split between comedy and drama. The results

show that comedies do not appeal to younger respondents, specifically those under the age of 18. The

material in these shows appears to appeal to an older demographic while drama is more popular among a

younger Netflix audience.

 Another major finding we discovered from the survey is that the majority of people surveyed are

still renting physical DVDs. When asked who rented a physical DVD within the past five years, the

majority of respondents answered “yes.” Out of the 48 participants that said “yes,” 39 were from the 19 to

22 age group (Table 1). Within the specific demographic of respondents ages 27 and up, all participants

had rented a physical DVD within the past five years. These findings suggest that older generations are

more likely to rent physical DVDs; however, interestingly, young adults are still very likely to rent

physical DVDs as well.

Although most of the survey participants responded “yes” to recently renting a physical DVD,

Netflix was not one of the main sources respondents use to rent DVDs. The majority (65%) of the

responders rented from Redbox, with the next rental location being DVD rental stores (Table 2). In all age

demographics, Netflix had the least number of DVD rentals.

Finally, we examined how Netflix subscribers felt about the service’s selection of movies and

television programming. When asked if Netflix has a broad selection of movies and television shows, 38

respondents responded “agree” on a likert scale that ranged from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.”

We saw a standard deviation of .81, which indicates that most respondents “agree” that Netflix has a
broad selection with little variation from the majority (Table 3). The mean of 2.19 shows how most

people answered between strongly agree and agree that Netflix has a broad selection.

However, despite these findings, it is important to note that when open-endedly asked what

subscribers would fix about Netflix the majority put “not enough options and selection.” In addition to

saying Netflix needs more options, users said they need to add certain popular shows like “The O.C.” and

“South Park.” A reason for this change in opinion could, perhaps, be because Netflix does have a lot of

content but users wish they had a broader range of more popular content.

Discussion & Implications

The purpose of this survey was to measure the overall satisfaction level of users with the Netflix

service. Overall, the survey showed that an overwhelming majority of Netflix users stemming from the

convenience sample are college-aged students with a reported annual income of less than $40,000. Within

this target demographic, Netflix users prefer to stream television shows over all other provided content.

An interesting fact to note is how Netflix users place a higher importance on genre regardless of content

type (television, movies, DVD queue, original content). The majority of survey responses ranked comedy

as the leading genre, followed by drama, romance, action and horror. Surveyed Netflix users also reported

unsatisfactory ratings for the selection of instant streaming content, often citing that many newer releases

of movies and television shows aren’t available in a quick enough time frame. With rising competition,

Netflix must address the issues that current customers are expressing as well as cater to current customer

preferences.
 Based on these findings, we believe that Netflix should focus on creating more licensing

agreements with production companies rather than allocating a larger part of the budget on creating

original content. Our findings suggest that consumers are much more concerned about whether or not

Netflix can provide the shows they want as opposed to providing original content. We believe that Netflix

should reserve a larger portion of its budget on licensing by removing its DVD rental services. With so

little consumers utilizing Netflix for DVD rentals, we believe that it would be best to just drop that

service altogether. Lastly, we advise Netflix to be more selective in which television shows or movies to

put in its streaming queue. Netflix can utilize its budget more efficiently by cutting licensing agreements

for shows that are rarely watched and using that money to provide more television shows that customers

want.

While utilizing these company changes, we suggest that Netflix create an awareness campaign to

increase subscriber’s (and potential subscriber’s) awareness level about the quality content that Netflix

provides (particularly focusing on television shows). Netflix can send out weekly emails to their

subscribers about newly added content. They can also create a social media component to the campaign,

giving users a series of options of television shows and having them vote on the next series that will be

added to Netflix. This will help to create customer engagement and help Netflix identify what consumers

actually want to watch. If Netflix follows these suggestions, we strongly believe that it can improve its

quality of service and keep its customers satisfied.