Netflix Clarifies How WWE RAW Viewership for Shows is Tracked & Calculated Compared to Other Top 10 Shows on Service

Netflix has been posting the viewership numbers for WWE’s RAW shows on their service since its January 6th premiere show.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Netflix very likely has been providing inflated numbers for their releases of RAW viewership. Meltzer reported that outside of the premiere show, Netflix has been doing something to how they track the numbers due to the peculiar situation with how they reported the February 3rd post-Royal Rumble show numbers. Meltzer reported that under an assumption of a 80% live, 20% non-live viewership split for shows, the only way RAW could have generated those mixed numbers for that show was if basically everyone who watched it wasn’t a live viewer.

Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that the calculation used by Netflix for RAW shows is different than what they use for other shows that rank in the Top 10 for their weekly charts.

In an official statement to Thurston, Netflix clarified stating that they use a “Blended Views” approach when it comes to tracking RAW’s numbers.

“This is a matter of the runtime changing live versus on SVOD. For live titles, we show the latest runtime on our Top 10. As an example, the January 6 premiere is listed as 2.4 hours long on Tudum (and on the product today) but was even longer live because of ads. When calculating Views, we implement a ‘Blended Views’ approach which calculates views for each individual cut (with its own runtime), and then takes the sum total.”