IFH 446: How Netflix's Algorithm Impacts Indie Films with VOD Clickstream's Stephen Follows

In this age of streaming platforms, knowing your distribution route and audience's comfortable viewing habits as filmmakers is crucial. Today on the show returning champion and film industry data analyst ninja, Stephen Follows, breakdowns the build-up process and goal of his newly-launched data analysis platform, VOD Clickstream.  The first phase of Stephen's VOD Clickstream is an independent research of Netflix streaming history between 2016-2019 of two-third billion data points that reveal what folks have been watching on Netflix. The research provides insights into the streaming sector by anonymizing browsers and users' history through a plugin to analyze clickstream data from Netflix.  Being an entrepreneur himself, he explores, through this project, the future of VOD Clickstream's impact on independent filmmaking and creating a feedback loop with the audience to gauge films and television shows performances. Stephen and I discuss the interlink between the upswing of film and television content and the growth of streaming platforms and the challenges this situation poses for indie films to succeed on these platforms. Enjoy my conversation with Stephen Follows. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.