Netflix has to be one of the most popular video streaming services around nowadays, which means the company needs to stay on top of what its viewers want to watch on its service. What better way to learn what people want to watch online than through checking piracy statistics in order to determine what shows they should buy?
It turns out that’s exactly what Netflix is doing as their VP of content acquisition Kelly Merryman admitted the company keeps tabs on what programing does well on piracy sites. This method resulted in the company purchasing Prison Break, which just so happened to be a show that received a high amount of torrenting in the Netherlands.
Don’t start thinking the only way Netflix considers new shows is solely by how popular they are among pirates as Merryman also goes into detail some other considerations they have for adding shows to their service. For example, shows like The Voice would only be popular for those who watch the show live or at least within a certain amount of time after their live airing, which also means that kind of show as well as sports and evening news shows would probably not be ideal for Netflix’s audience.