As Netflix gets more streaming competitors, CEO Reed Hastings is finding Nielsen ratings to be useful

Vox

Hastings didn't full endorse Nielsen's measurement of its shows while speaking earlier this week at the New York Times DealBook conference, but he hinted that ratings may not be a terrible idea after all. "Time, that’s the real competition," he said. "The tricky thing in this streaming war, Apple and Disney aren’t going to break out revenue for the service. You’ll hear some subscriber numbers but you can just bundle things in so that’s not going to be that relevant. So the real measurement will be time — how do consumers vote with their evenings? And do they end up watching what mix of all the services? Starting in Q1, you’ll start to see a breakout of that, from Nielsen and others."