A startup called Symphony has developed an independent system to track streaming video viewing on services like Netflix to supply data that Nielsen can’t and the streaming services themselves won’t provide.
The system relies on a growing sample audience, currently 15,000 people, who agree to activate a smartphone app that identifies video programs they watch by detecting a program id from the TV audio.
Symphony, which was the subject of a recent NPR story, compiled the following ratings summary:
In Original Streaming Shows, All Top 10 Spots Belong To Netflix
Ratings and viewership represent the average audience of 18-to 49-year-olds over the 35 days since a season’s premiere.
| RANKING | SHOW AND SEASON | AVERAGE RATING | AVERAGE VIEWERSHIP (IN MILLIONS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orange Is The New Black, Season 4 | 11.52 | 15.9 |
| 2 | Fuller House, Season 1 | 11.31 | 15.7 |
| 3 | Stranger Things, Season 1 | 10.36 | 14.3 |
| 4 | Making A Murderer, Season 1 | 9.65 | 13.4 |
| 5 | Marvel’s Luke Cage, Season 1 | 8.69 | 12 |
| 6 | Marvel’s Daredevil, Season 2 | 6.03 | 8.3 |
| 7 | Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Season 1 | 4.52 | 6.3 |
| 8 | Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Season 2 | 4.39 | 6.1 |
| 9 | House Of Cards, Season 4 | 4.1 | 5.7 |
| 10 | F Is For Family, Season 1 | 3.47 | 4.8 |
Notes
— Ratings are based on the percent of a platform’s viewers who watched the program over an average minute.
— The ratings and viewership for Luke Cage are not finalized due to the program’s recent release.
Source: Symphony Advanced Media
Credit: Stephan Bisaha/NPR