How Data Analytics Is Shaping What You Watch – Netflix Depends on Analytics, Data Science and Engineering

When Netflix decided to go into the entertainment-producing business by commissioning the streaming series "House of Cards," there was a lot of data to be crunched before the first download ever took place, said Dave Hastings, Netflix’s director of product analytics, data science and engineering.

"You do not make a $100 million investment these days without an awful lot of analytics," Hastings said at the recent Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative Conference in Philadelphia. While some may claim that Netflix over-analyzed "House of Cards," Hastings is adamant that it was the way to go. "We have had a whole catalogue of things we did not make. We wanted early on to be careful, and it has worked out."

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