Netflix What College Students Tell Us Regarding Their Attitudes Towards Netflix: A Focus Group Report Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism University of Southern California Methods and Introduction Netflix is an online instant streaming service that also provides a mail DVD service. Founded in 1997 by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings, the company has grown as one of the largest global entertainment distribution services. Netflix now partners with many consumer electronics companies to offer streaming services on various Internet-connected devices, such as tablets and smartphones, and has recently introduced their own exclusive content. The objective of the Netflix focus group was to find Netflix’s overall reputation and performance from the perspective of college students. The focus group method was chosen in order to better gauge how college-aged customers felt about Netflix. The open-ended exploration of focus group research allowed us to explore student’s thoughts about Netflix through both positive and negative perspectives. Students from the University of Southern California (USC) were invited to discuss their opinions, comments and suggestions regarding the service. The focus group offered an up-close look at the participants’ experiences, attitudes, behaviors and language in relation to Netflix. Convenience sampling was used to gain participants. This allowed us to conduct our focus group in a timely matter for our clients. The casual setting of the focus group helped urge the participants to be completely honest and forthcoming with their responses. The focus group method gave access to a large number of participants at one time. One focus group with nine USC students was conducted. These students consisted of eight girls and one boy all ranging in age from 19-21. To get our participants we used the convenience sampling method. The focus group lasted 30 minutes, and it was held in a small classroom on the second floor of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism building on USC campus. The focus group participants sat facing one another around a large rectangular table, which encouraged engagement and conversation among them. Each participant signed a consent form and introduced him/herself to the other participants before the discussion began. The focus group was led by a single group member, while the others took notes and later transcribed the recorded discussion. Qualitative data analysis methods were used to find emerging themes related to the research question. Coding of data for key terms related to original series, outdated movies, binge watching, shared accounts, variety and convenience allowed a thorough look of the topics that emerged naturally from the data. The coding encompassed anything related to Netflix content and customer satisfaction. Eventually, we identified broad “themes” around each of these instances. Finally, we synthesized each of the emergent themes into three main problems that customers encounter with the Netflix service. Findings and Discussions Theme 1: Lack of Movie Variety. Comments on Netflix’s lack of variety when it comes to current films revealed a shared problem with Netflix’s service. Throughout the entire focus group, Netflix’s lack of content, specifically for movies, was mentioned most frequently. Netflix’s movie selection was often described as minimal, and there was a firm consensus that Netflix needs more film variety. Undertones of frustration were present in the comments of many of the participants. For example, one student explained: When I just want to have a movie night with a friend, we’ll go to Netflix first and usually nothing’s on there, so we’ll usually just go to another site to watch movies. Netflix just isn’t that great when it comes to movies. It’s better quality, but I’ll usually just go on another website where I can find a current movie for free. Another student expressed similar frustration: “ I feel like their movie selection isn’t very current. There’s a lot of old stuff. It’s just not the best variety.” One student said, “To be honest, I’m kind of disappointed in Netflix. Whenever I want to watch anything, like movies, they never have it.” A similar sentiment was echoed by this student: “I have to use iTunes and rent movies because Netflix isn’t current at all.” Netflix’s lack of movie variety appears to be a common problem that Netflix users share. Many participants felt like they could get better content on free websites, while others even admitted to buying movies off of a different service, such as iTunes, despite the fact that they already pay a monthly fee for Netflix. Therefore, Netflix should focus a greater amount of their efforts on acquiring new and current films. Our focus group revealed that many college-aged Netflix users turn to Netflix for impromptu movie nights with little satisfaction. Netflix began as a service that predominantly offers movies, and Netflix users are still turning to Netflix for this reason (with unsatisfactory results). Theme 2: Unwanted Emphasis on Original Content. Netflix’s newfound emphasis on original content was the second most frequently cited problem that users had with Netflix. While many of our participants have watched at least one episode of a Netflix original series, there was a shared sentiment that they prefer to watch current film and television shows that are already on television. For instance, one student said: I feel like a lot of the reason why you pay a certain amount of money a month is not for [Netflix] to produce a new show. It’s to get new content. It’s like Spotify. You pay for Spotify because you want to stream multiple artists and listen to a variety of things. Whereas, I think you would want the same from Netflix. Another student shared a similar sentiment: “I think that [current, second-run content] is the original reason that people signed up for Netflix, and if they change that, then they would lose a lot of customers.” Another participant commented that she did watch a Netflix original series; however, it is not her top show to watch on Netflix. “I watch Orange is the New Black. It’s the only original series that I’ve seen…It’s not my favorite, but it’s decent and fun to watch.” Several participants expressed that the reason they have Netflix is to gain access to current movies and television series, not necessarily to gain access to a slew of new Netflix original series. When asked if they would be disappointed if Netflix began focusing the majority of its efforts on producing original content a resounding “yes” came from every single participant. While Netflix has had much critical success with their original content series, they must not put too much emphasis on producing this content. Participants in this study revealed that while some of them may like watching Netflix original series, such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, they prefer to use Netflix to watch movies and TV shows that are currently on-air. Additionally, participants had never even heard of some of Netflix’s original series, such as Hemlock Grove. Netflix should, therefore, focus the majority of its efforts and finances on procuring content from movie studios and television networks, rather than producing a mass amount of original programs. We recommend that Netflix continue to produce one or two popular programs, while focusing the majority of its time procuring and promoting new and current content. Theme 3: Too Expensive for the Quality of the Content. Netflix streaming service is only eight dollars a month. This price fits well-within a college student’s budget, which is a why Netflix is trying to target this demographic in the first place; however, our participants revealed that many of them do not pay for their own Netflix account. In fact, only one out of the nine participants present paid for their own Netflix account. A common theme was, therefore, revealed that the quality of content that Netflix currently provides is not satisfactory enough for the current price, despite the already low price. One participant said: I use my mom’s account. I definitely wouldn’t pay for it on my own if my mom didn’t have it because I can watch the shows I want to watch on other sites. I guess I sort of like [having it] but like I said, my mom’s paying for it. Another student said: “I think for the price it’s okay, but yeah I use my friend’s account. I wouldn’t get my own.” This sentiment that Netflix content is still too much for a college student was present for the majority of our participants. Many expressed that the content was simply not good enough for them to spend a small fee once a month. In other words, there is not enough material to find on Netflix that is worth eight dollars. We propose that Netflix should, therefore, update their current content, but also promote exclusive content for college students. Netflix could create a social media campaign that allows college students to vote on upcoming movies and television shows that will be added to Netflix. This will help to keep college students engaged in Netflix and will also motivate them to pay that eight dollars a month by ensuring them that Netflix will have shows and movies that they want to watch. Overall, identifying these three main problems that customers have with Netflix will allow Netflix to better their services and better cater to their customers needs. Because college- aged students are one of Netflix’s main target audiences, Netflix will be able to use these suggestions to, hopefully, gain more subscribers in this target demographic.