Netflix has announced its decision to do away with the five-star reviewing system members have long-used to grade content on the streaming service giant.
Todd Yellin, Netflix’s vice president of product, told a group of journalists on Thursday, “Five stars feels very yesterday now.”
“We’re spending many billions of dollars on the titles we’re producing and licensing, and with these big catalogs, that just adds a challenge,” he said during a press conference at Netflix headquarters in Los Gatos, California.
Yellin said the company is “addicted to the methodology of A/B testing” and had begun testing the replacement rating system — a simple thumbs-up, thumbs-down format — and have seen a 200 percentage increase in content ratings.
The shakeup comes on the heels of Amy Schumer’s blaming right-wing Internet trolls for flooding her latest comedy special with negative one-star reviews.
Days after Schumer’s Netflix special The Leather Special debuted, the hour-long program had received hundreds of one-star reviews from Netflix members.
“The alt right organized trolls attack everything I do. Read the @splitsider article,” the Trainwreck star wrote on Instagram. “They organize to get my ratings down. Meeting in sub Reddit rooms. They tried on my book and movies and tv show. And I want to thank them.”
Netflix, Yellin said, will also introduce a new content-matching feature that allows each user to gauge the compatibility of a film or show to their viewing tastes.
“We made ratings less important because the implicit signal of your behavior is more important,” Yellin said.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson.
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