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Conversations about the media economy, and how to think clearly when things get messy.
This is Puzzle, Problem, Mess. Conversations about the media economy and how to think clearly when things get messy. For the last decade, players in the SVOD category have been obsessed with subscriber volumes. The game has been a race to acquire subscribers directly, then through bundles, and layer in new tiers, and ultimately stop them leaving. But in 2026, in a world of ad tiers and slowing subscriber growth, the streaming battlefront has moved past subscriber volumes.
Dan Fahy:The new front is Habit. Digital Eye is a UK based global streaming media measurement company that tracks subscriber engagement and content consumption. And Digital Eye recently published research on a new metric, what they call the first view of the day, defined as the first title watched on a streaming platform after 4AM local time. The research suggests that the first view of the day may be the most important moment in streaming because increasingly, it determines whether a platform gets used at all on a given day. The research offers a portrait of Netflix as a habit platform more than a content platform.
Dan Fahy:Millions of people go to Netflix instinctively when picking up the remote or turning on their device. But if you're not Netflix or YouTube, you have to earn that first watch. So in this episode, I speak with Matt Ross, Digital Eyes chief analytics officer, to explore what actually drives that first choice and what kind of content makes someone open a platform in the first place. Here's Matt Ross. Matt, welcome.
Dan Fahy:And you're
Matt Ross:in Bristol this morning. Good morning. Yes. I am. Bristol, Southwest Of The UK.
Matt Ross:Perhaps we
Dan Fahy:should start with just an explanation from you on digitalized first stream of the day work, what the metric is, what you were trying to understand and what stood out most for you in the findings.
Matt Ross:Yeah, this piece of work, which I think is a really interesting one. It's come from from various projects that we've done. We have a very, pretty rich dataset, a pretty granular dataset where we can understand really kind of mark out the viewer journey. So what people do first when they turn on a streaming platform, where they then move, how they interact between streaming platforms as well. So we've done a lot of work in this space, but this is one particular area that stood out to us because, first of all, because it really speaks to an area that can support streamers with strategy.
Matt Ross:You know, what is it that's driving that first view? And it's about hooking that viewer in and getting somebody into your platform watching. And then once they're in, then you have opportunity to try and encourage them to to stay with you and spend more time with you. But also, as we discovered, the metric has a real bearing on the overall performance of that streamer, one that the streamer like Netflix performs particularly well differentiates itself from the others. And to give a bit of an overview of what the metric is, what we've done is we've identified at a streamer by streamer level, the first thing that a household is watching post 4AM.
Matt Ross:We chose AM really because when we look at the data, that's where we observe the sort of low point in viewing. The sort of curve of viewing over time on streaming isn't too dissimilar from a traditional linear broadcast curve where you have that viewing towards peak, the prime time, and then starts to reduce down across the nights. And 4AM is where we saw that low point.
Dan Fahy:What was particularly interesting for me in digitalized research was that once a viewer is inside a service, time spent is broadly comparable. And the real competitive differentiator is frequency Digitalised research shows that Netflix doesn't rely on individual titles to drive that first choice. It has become a default first choice service in many homes. It has become a habit. But if you're not Netflix or YouTube I'd say, although the research doesn't cover this, the dynamic is very different.
Dan Fahy:The other SVOD services are far more dependent on specific pieces of content to trigger that first stream. And to gain some ground against Netflix, they need content that reliably triggers that first stream and over time builds habit.
Matt Ross:There's two ways we're looking at this. First of all is within the streamer. So if you're a Prime Video or a Netflix, how often are you first stream of the day? How often do you get somebody in? What's your frequency?
Matt Ross:And then what is the content that you're watching that is driving that first stream of the day? So this is much more of a content lens. So what is the content that's most effective at driving them to open up their phone or turn on their television and click your streaming platform? The other way that we have also looked at that is to then look at it across streamers. So we cover multiple streamers and we can say actually what's the first thing that somebody is choosing to watch across streamers?
Matt Ross:Are they choosing to watch Netflix first or Prime Video first? And how does that then relate to how much viewing they then spend and how much time they spend, and again, the content that drives that. So there's two ways that we have looked at it and both really interesting approaches because one looks at the sort of competitive space. So who is most effective at getting that first stream of the day? But also, I think taking it just by streamer by streamer, you can just look at the content that's most effective at bringing people in and driving people to a platform.
Dan Fahy:Really interesting. And when you looked at it, what sort of stood out for you in the findings I've read in your blog? There's lots of different elements to this, but what was the most interesting piece of
Matt Ross:that? Two things really stand out. The first of those helps frame why I think the metric's really important, and that is that when you actually look at the differences... So we cover 20 markets, and this is pretty consistent across the markets that we cover. When you look at the differences in terms of the viewing levels that Netflix are able to achieve against that sort of chasing pack and talking about the sort of Prime videos, HBO Max's, Disney plus, these guys, One of the biggest metrics that we've seen the difference in is frequency.
Matt Ross:So once you're in a platform and once you actually started watching a Prime video or you're watching a Disney plus, the actual average time spent via a viewer at that point, the gap between those guys and Netflix isn't huge. It's closed compared to the frequency. And the frequency is really how often people are coming in. What percentage of your subscriber base you're getting in to watch on a daily basis or how often somebody is then turning to that platform. So for Netflix, we're seeing around 50%.
Matt Ross:So on a daily basis, around 50% of that subscriber base are tuning in to Netflix to view something, but it's more like 25% in the other services as well. That indicates there's a pretty big gap in terms of frequency. So that sort of helps us frame why we think this metric's important because in the context of that, it's important to understand, okay, what is it that content that's helping us drive frequency? What more content could we be investing in that can improve that frequency and get us closer? The second thing that stood out for me was when you actually look at the content itself.
Matt Ross:So there is actually then also another difference between Netflix and the chasing pack again regarding the content that is being viewed. So on Netflix, they do have a high proportion of total streams, but the content that drives the first view is really disaggregated and spread across a lot of content. So you might have a top show that drives the first stream, but it's actually driving a relatively small percentage of those first streams. So it's not like there's a specific piece of content that's bringing people in to watch that platform. It's maybe a little bit more habitual, and it's actually just I'm gonna go to Netflix, and I'm gonna find what I wanna watch.
Matt Ross:Whereas on some of the other platforms, we see a much higher proportion of streams being delivered to a single piece of content. We've seen examples where we had the Big Bang Theory being one of those shows. Bluey is another one of those shows that we saw that has a really effective at driving a high number of streams, first streams to a platform. Even so that actually they drive more streams to their platform than any Netflix show does to Netflix. But Netflix just has this sort of habitual platform presence where people are going in there to find content and that's the way it generates its frequency.
Matt Ross:So it's really, it's an interesting combination because you can focus in on the content, but also when you look at Netflix, you say there's not
Dan Fahy:actually nothing specific they're doing or no specific piece of content that they have here that is driving up that frequency. The deeper you go into the digital eye data, the clearer the role of habit in driving first stream behavior becomes. Digitalized research suggests that repeat viewing content tends to fall into three categories. Kids, sport, and what Digital Eye calls comfort TV, familiar, repeatable low friction viewing. Here's a key passage from the research.
Dan Fahy:For kids, the first view of the day is a functional one, switching on a trusted, family friendly program, likely as part of a daily preschool routine. For sport, it tends to be appointment viewing. Perhaps says less about Habit and more about must watch content. Then a very large source of first stream is Comfort TV. Titles like Grey's Anatomy, Gilmore Girls, and Seinfeld suggest that the first stream is very much driven by familiarity and avoiding decision friction.
Dan Fahy:Matt explains.
Matt Ross:On the comfort side of things, these are all shows with a high volume of episodes primarily, and they are shows that you might just go back into on a daily basis to watch a lot of. They're a extremely good, effective tension driver as is the kids content. We mentioned Bluie already because they just create this habit get you back into the platform more often. So not only are they driving up viewing and time spent, but they're also very good for retention. They continue to provide value and keep you engaged with that platform.
Matt Ross:The the comfort, we see a high proportion of that viewing coming in the morning than we do with some of the sort of dramas and what you would perhaps more associate with prime time viewing. So it is effective at driving that first view because maybe earlier in the day, you're not looking for something that is going to... That you're gonna lose yourself in. You're looking for something that is gonna perhaps give you comfort or something that you can have on in the background, perhaps while you're getting ready for work or whatever. So it is that type of content that we see that is most effective, particularly on on some of the streaming platforms like HBO Max and Disney plus where there's specific content that really does drive up a huge proportion of those first streams.
Dan Fahy:Digitalized findings land at a particularly important moment because in 2026, ad tiers are the central feature of SVOD growth strategies, that and churn management. The game today is about hanging onto your subspace and overlaying more monetization layers onto them. And in this environment, the value of a subscriber base is increasingly determined by engagement. From a value point of view, a bundled, discounted subscriber who never really opens the app is much less valuable than an engaged ad tier user who watches daily, even though from a subs volume perspective they're treated the same. In The UK, the engagement divergence is stark, with recent data showing that Netflix reaches 19,100,000 households monthly and holds them for eighty minutes per day, compared with Prime Video, which reaches 15,400,000 households monthly but retains them for just thirty four minutes per day.
Dan Fahy:Subs reach is no longer enough. There must be engagement. Habit is arguably becoming the defining commercial metric in streaming.
Matt Ross:We've been focusing so much in the last five, six, seven years on understanding what drives subscriptions and retains subscriptions. Okay? Because that... That's a space that we've been living in at Digital Art and working in this subscription streaming model. The...
Matt Ross:What drives most interest is what creates subscribers and then what keeps them subscribed because that's what's driving the revenue. But now it's not the same. We're seeing big take up of some of these advertising subscription tiers. We're seeing that these are not as heavy viewers as those that would pay to subscribe to a non ad tier, but they're still watching a fair amount. So it's gonna be an increasing proportion of the revenue for these platforms in a way that they can increase profitability of their existing subscriber base.
Matt Ross:The content that is effective at driving up frequency and driving up time spent is going to become more important. And the types of content that brings people into the platform gets them to spend more time and gets them in more frequently is gonna be hugely important. It takes us back to metric we look at when we focus on linear viewing. It's how often can you build frequency and reach with your viewers. And we and we know that frequency for those platforms that are not Netflix is a challenge.
Matt Ross:And this is a way of understanding the types of content that can be effective in that space and getting that first stream, getting people into the platform more regularly is just gonna drive up the value of that platform for advertisers.
Dan Fahy:I've seen some data recently, and you've published some data that really illustrates how stark the frequency differential is. Yeah. That's right.
Matt Ross:And the way to to think about often with those metrics like the average daily viewing, it could be interpreted that it's people watching every day and spending that amount of time on a daily basis, but it's the amount of total time they're spending across the month divided by the number of days. And so the frequency is a factor that builds into that metric. So it's an important one. We look at, okay, Netflix are driving more engagement, but this sort of analysis allows us to go a little bit of a level deeper there. What is actually behind that average time spent per day?
Matt Ross:Is it that they're not spending the time when they're in? Or is it that they're not going in enough? What we've been really underlining with this analysis is that it's actually the latter more than the four in the sense that they are not engaging with that platform on enough of a regular basis. When they're in, the time spent is much more significant.
Dan Fahy:This all does seem to reinforce the growing importance of habit or habituation in streaming. It's no longer enough to have a solid subscriber base. You need the base to open the service habitually. What else are you seeing around the topic of habituation or the influence of habituation in streaming generally?
Matt Ross:There's a few things that have changed in recent years, and they've been strategic moves by some of these platforms, which have impacted on the way that we view some of the data. We used to think about these platforms as huge binge viewing spaces, and there's still an element of that where people are going in and watching lots and lots of episodes back to back, and you have a high portion of heavy viewers. But they've done certain things to change that slightly. Their advertising tiers are driving more revenue, but they factor in on the sort of viewing experience a little bit there. The crackdown on people sharing accounts just has reduced the amount of people that are accessing that content and has skewed some of these platforms into a slightly older demographic as well.
Matt Ross:Whereas I think when sharing was more encouraged, you were seeing larger households of younger people viewing these and these might be slightly more likely to be binging through content as well. So what we're seeing in some of the platforms is, first of all, is just a reduction in the time because less people are accessing this account, and it's starting to skew a little bit older. But we're also seeing a move to think of engagement really as a quality rather than the quantity, especially with original content as well. One of the really of interesting metrics that we still look at very consistently and think is really important from a content performance perspective is completion rate. So it's how many people are actually then going through that show and watching that and how engaged they are with the content, or are they becoming a little bit tired with the content?
Matt Ross:Naturally, what you find is that content that is of a shorter length has a better completion rate, and that is a really important metric for a streamer to understand. Not always the case, but documentaries are a really good example of this. If you go back a few years, there was a sort of wave of documentary series that were landing on some of these streaming platforms. Netflix is obviously very closely related with this stuff. And they were six, seven, eight episodes long, and they weren't driving huge completion rates.
Matt Ross:You actually look at the most recent set of documentary series that have been added onto these platforms. They're about three, two, three, four max episodes long, and they have really high engagement, really high completion rates. So there's a shift in the strategy there, which I think has an impact on the habits and behavior of viewers. But what actually means is that you're finding that you're more engaged with that content from start to finish. And I think they're trying to minimize the amount of times that you're finding that your...
Matt Ross:These pieces of content are perhaps losing you and you're losing that interest in that
Dan Fahy:show. Stepping back, what becomes clear from digitalized data and elsewhere is that Netflix and YouTube are habit platforms. You may indeed go there for a specific show, but more than that, you go there to find something to watch. And that's a fundamentally different competitive position. For everyone else, whether that's the SVODS or indeed the BVODs, the challenge is to build that same habitual relationship.
Dan Fahy:Which makes it all the more striking that some of the most effective habit driving content, particularly kids, is seeming less of a programming feature, and even more striking that the broadcasters, who historically understood better than anyone how to build daily viewing routines, are the ones seemingly most visibly retreating from this type of content. If habit formation is becoming critical, does it seem the industry might be missing a trick with the drawback from kids content and also comfort TV as you've termed it. It's it's obviously playing a critical role in getting a service open repeatedly. Do you think this first stream of the day lens might prompt a reappraisal of content strategies on some of the services? I think
Matt Ross:it would definitely be a worry for somebody like Netflix right now, where a lot of the platforms are taking back some of this content that we would describe as comfort. In The UK, HBO Max has launched here very recently. Friends is on HBO Max, and that was a huge show in The UK. Still is a huge show in The UK and obviously around the world. It was consistently a big driver of regular habitual viewing on Netflix.
Matt Ross:And, of course, HBO Max are utilizing that as a way of driving up subscriptions and time with their own platform here. We get to have any data on that platform in this country. It's all very fresh. But when we do, I think it will be really interesting to understand what impact that show in particular has had on migrating subscribers. Netflix has traditionally lent on that licensing model there.
Matt Ross:And there is perhaps a risk there that they might need to think about what they can do. Is there more content out there they can work with to license to still drive that habitual regular comfort viewing? Or are they going to need to think about trying to use their original space to drive up some of that as well, because it's not necessarily been hugely prominent in that original strategy. Kids is... Yeah, it's it's a really, really valuable and important one as well.
Matt Ross:The repeatability, of course, is just huge on that content. And so when we talk about frequency, when we talk about first view, kids' content outperforms in both of those spaces far more than any other type of content. It's highly repeatable. It drives that first view. It engages a household in watching a platform.
Matt Ross:So I think that it needs to be an important part of any strategy, and it's a fantastic retention tool for subscribers as well. So if that is not considered as an important part of strategy, it would be... I think it would be a misstep.
Dan Fahy:We have to, of course, talk about YouTube. How does the picture change if you include YouTube and the BeeVods in this framework? We have quite a
Matt Ross:bit of visibility on YouTube. So YouTube is a service that we capture and measure, and it certainly is in the same sort of space as a Netflix in terms of frequency, if not in a higher space. It's a much more ingrained part of the habit of users more generally, but it's a completely different conversation when you start to break that down by the types of content because it's just incredibly disaggregated and personalized. So it's certainly... And you can make this argument on the Netflix case as well.
Matt Ross:It's certainly platform above specific content that appears to be driving up the time certain frequency metrics that we see is that we're going to that platform to go find a piece of content. I'm going there to browse a piece of content. And you're given the content, your algorithm tells you to watch. And people are spending a huge amount of time on YouTube and it's got incredibly strong frequency, but it's not anything specific content wise, but it's not specific content creators that are necessarily driving this. It's the fact that it's a platform you would habitually go to every day, much more likely than you would some of these streaming platforms.
Matt Ross:But the challenge from us from a YouTube perspective generally to really break down and understand what that viewing is and the types of content that people are watching because there's a lot of questions, I think, around around YouTube at the moment and trying to understand what it is that people are watching, what it is that drives people to watch every day. And if you try to really understand it and try to think of it through a content lens, which creators will create, it's almost too overwhelming to actually understand that. Because when we look at streaming data, you often see that a large proportion of the viewing is driven by some of the biggest shows that everybody's talking about at the moment. And then you have something else called the long tail, which is just the long tail is basically everything else that generates a reasonable amount of viewing, but it's completely spread across a huge amount of other shows. But YouTube is effectively just one big long tail, which isn't great for measurement purposes.
Matt Ross:And what we're trying to do is trying to aggregate that at some levels to help us understand what types of content. It's not necessarily creator a or creator b, but what is it they're making? Are they making podcasts? Are they making music based content? And what is it?
Matt Ross:And then once you have that lens, I think then you can start to understand a bit more about the habits and how YouTube drives that. And what type of content am I going in daily for? Is it my news? Or am I going in it to listen to music whilst I studying or doing my work? Or am I going in to put it on my TV set because it's prime time and I wanna watch more professionally made content?
Matt Ross:So that's what we're doing. YouTube is an incredibly strong service right now for driving habits. And broadcast television across the whole spectrum of all the channels then again is also a space that, you know, has more frequency than some of these streamers. And particularly for an older demographic, for younger audiences, YouTube and some of these streaming platforms, particularly Netflix, are doing a better job at the moment at getting that frequency.
Dan Fahy:Broadcast television historically understood dayparts, routines, scheduling extremely well, and streamers sort of bypass that because everything was on demand. But it looks like another example of the broadcasterification of streaming where these broadcast sensibilities are becoming valuable in the streaming environment.
Matt Ross:Yeah. And I think that ties into to this when we were working on a broadcast space, you have a schedule, and you you can say, we want to compete at this time. We want to compete at that time. This is the time that we know we can bring audiences in. You can talk about things like lead in, where you say, we put a show in here, it's gonna bring an audience in, and then this next show can maintain that audience.
Matt Ross:And there's a real strategic element to time of the day, you know, when people choose to watch, and you can place content based on that. And there's a real sort of strategic art to that. And that's lost a little bit with streaming because everything goes on at the beginning of the day, and people choose to watch what they wanna watch when they wanna watch it. Sports is a slight different perspective on that, and, again, can be really effective at driving people in because it's live, and live content in general can do that. But it's now really a case of what content, not when the content is aired.
Matt Ross:And so we see a lot of areas where streamers are moving back into models that we're more familiar with. You can talk about bundling. You can talk about advertising. You can talk about live sports. But scheduling, not quite so much.
Matt Ross:They're still working on a principle that it's on demand, but it's really about the types of content that can deliver that. Perhaps there can be something that could be done. And maybe this is something that's already happening regarding prominence. So what content do you make more prominent within your platform or within bundles or in other spaces at certain times to drive up those first streams?
Dan Fahy:Fantastic. Matt, thank you so much for sharing these insights with us today. And and also congratulations on the the ongoing work that you and the team at Digital Eye are doing. It's it's terrific to keep across.
Matt Ross:Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Mess me
Dan Fahy:That was Matt Ross, and you'll find the link to the Digital Eye research in the show notes. Thank you for listening. I'm Dan Fay. Original music is by Lee Rosevere and So Cal. And if you think any colleagues or friends might enjoy this episode, please send it on to them.