Netflix plays peekaboo with its ratings. Hollywood isn't amused
When it comes to ratings, Netflix treats the public and many of its business partners like the characters in "Bird Box" - blindfolded and left to feel their way through the dark, except for a rare glimpse of light.
Secrecy is a charge often leveled at Netflix. In Hollywood, where TV ratings and box-office stats are the lifeblood of business, the streaming entertainment titan plays by its own rules, keeping its viewer statistics out of sight and making it difficult for outsiders to measure the success of its shows.
Recently, though, Netflix has publicly revealed some fuzzy performance figures for a handful of projects, among them the former Lifetime series "You," the Spanish-language teen drama "Elite" and most prominently the science fiction thriller "Bird Box," which the company said had been seen by more than 45 million accounts in its first week. But these are the exceptions. Viewership for Netflix's hundreds of other original series and movies remain corporate secrets.
As Netflix continues to grow, this game of peekaboo has become increasingly irksome to other studios as well as
