Nielsen Report Reveals 66% of Streaming Users Know What They Want to Watch Before Logging On

Netflix‘s algorithm may be the talk of Silicon Valley, but according to a new report from Nielsen, most users already have a sense of what they want to watch before tuning in to the service. Nielsen’s Q1 2019 Total Audience Report reveals that despite SVOD services’ best efforts to market additional content to viewers, a whopping 66% of users know what they want to watch “always or most of the time” before they open up the platform. The report goes on to explain that those without an initial idea of what to watch spend between 8 and 10 minutes looking for content before making a decision, although not everyone falls into this camp: 21% of users give up after their search and decide to do something else entirely. As someone who often feels exhausted by Netflix’s seemingly-endless library, I definitely understand.

Nielsen’s Q1 Total Audience Report features a detailed section about “Video Content Discovery,” or in layman’s terms, how people find stuff to watch. The ratings agency surveyed everyday Americans about their streaming habits and discovered that a majority of users in all age demographics “know exactly what [they] want to watch” when they search for TV or videos. In the key 18-34 and 35-49 demos, a respective 61% and 67% of participants said that they log on to an SVOD service with a specific title in mind. Far fewer respondents noted that they “don’t know what [they] want to watch at all prior to watching”: Nielsen found that only 30% of adults in the 18-34 demo and 26% in the 35-49 demo went in without any idea (even a “rough idea,” which has its own data set) whatsoever.

The ratings agency also reports that viewers who have a good sense of what they want to watch are three times more likely (66%) to stick around than those who have no idea what to stream (only 22% of those in the latter group are likely to actually watch something). If you’ve ever searched through Netflix’s recommendations only to get distracted by something on your phone, please stand up.

Those who have resigned themselves to the search usually spend between 8 and 10 minutes doing so, Nielsen reports. Viewers aged 65 and up reported spending an average of 5 minutes looking for content (the lowest end of the spectrum), while 18-34 year olds averaged about 9.4 minutes of search time (the highest end). Younger adults and millennials are clearly the most open to browsing for content, but they’re also the most fickle. Nielsen found that 28% of adults in the 18-34 demo who go in blind ultimately “decide not to watch and do another activity,” while 65+ year olds are only 8% likely to give up. On the whole, 21% of users who don’t know what to watch end up doing something else, which is, to say the least, not great (for the algorithm) Bob!

If you’re looking to educate yourself before logging in to your favorite streaming service, may we suggest taking a peek through our What to Watch module? There, you can sort by mood, platform, and/or genre to find the perfect thing to add to your queue… without spending 8 to 10 minutes scrolling through Netflix.

For more streaming insights from Nielsen, check out their Q1 2019 Total Audience Report.

Watch Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix