Though its reported choose-your-own adventure technology may be a while away, Netflix is gearing up to make a simpler change to its service. As The Verge reports, the company is set to drop its traditional five-star rating in favour of a thumbs up/thumbs down system.
While the company has been beta testing the new rating system with select users around the world for the past year, the change will be pushed globally come April.
"Five stars feels very yesterday now," vice-president of product Todd Yellin said at a press briefing yesterday (March 16). "We're spending many billions of dollars on the titles we're producing and licensing, and with these big catalogs, that just adds a challenge."
He added that "bubbling up the stuff people actually want to watch is super important."
Yellin revealed that the company's beta testing saw over 200 percent more ratings logged with the thumbs system as opposed to the stars
"What's more powerful: you telling me you would give five stars to the documentary about unrest in the Ukraine; that you'd give three stars to the latest Adam Sandler movie; or that you'd watch the Adam Sandler movie 10 times more frequently?" Yellin said. "What you do versus what you say you like are different things."
With the thumbs also comes a new percent-match feature, showing how good of a match a show or movie is for each individual subscriber. Yellin told journalists that this feature will be personalized.
While the company has been beta testing the new rating system with select users around the world for the past year, the change will be pushed globally come April.
"Five stars feels very yesterday now," vice-president of product Todd Yellin said at a press briefing yesterday (March 16). "We're spending many billions of dollars on the titles we're producing and licensing, and with these big catalogs, that just adds a challenge."
He added that "bubbling up the stuff people actually want to watch is super important."
Yellin revealed that the company's beta testing saw over 200 percent more ratings logged with the thumbs system as opposed to the stars
"What's more powerful: you telling me you would give five stars to the documentary about unrest in the Ukraine; that you'd give three stars to the latest Adam Sandler movie; or that you'd watch the Adam Sandler movie 10 times more frequently?" Yellin said. "What you do versus what you say you like are different things."
With the thumbs also comes a new percent-match feature, showing how good of a match a show or movie is for each individual subscriber. Yellin told journalists that this feature will be personalized.
