Netflix Plans To Remove Adjustment Percentage Features, Switch To Tag System For Recommendations

Netflix is likely to soon remove popular features from its streaming platform (photo: dock. pexels)

JAKARTA - Netflix is likely to soon remove popular features from its streaming platform that can affect how users choose the content they want to watch. The company will remove the percentage of suitability displayed on the titles, which is based on algorithms that refer to previous shows and films that have been watched by viewers.

This feature will be replaced by tags for recommendations because of its ability to more accurately describe the titles. A Netflix spokesperson explained to DailyMail.com that tagging isn't the only feature that contributes to how an audience decides what they want to watch.

Instead, the company relies on combined efforts from box images, synopsis, and video footage - coupled with tags - to attract viewers. Netflix decided to remove the percentage of suitability due to the possibility of confusing viewers who might wonder how the algorithm determines the title is 92 percent fit and won't understand how Netflix got to that conclusion.

Netflix told DailyMail.com that there is currently no timeframe when the fit feature will be removed.

Tags separate content by category, including 'appreciate-winning directors,''medical TV shows,' 'inspirational dramas,' and 'works set in history,' among others.

Netflix also uses the tag as a descriptor, identifying an event as 'with dramatic and emotional nuances,' 'kampi and unique,' or 'full of tension and visually interesting.'

Netflix Product Director Allan Donald told The New York Times that the tag is similar to the 'coverline' in the magazine.

"Imagine a magazine that doesn't have a cover line, and only photos in it," Donald said. "Tag makes a difference as big as the cover line in this quick decision, 'this is for me.'

He also noted that when testing tag deletion, 'people take longer to choose.'

"They will get out of the title because they don't really like it or because they don't know what they got," Donald explained.

Reported by The Times that Netflix has a tagger team of 30 people, who pick two or three tags to help viewers choose events or movies that suit their preferences.

Typically, viewers will only see the title for one minute before switching, according to Netflix, which finds that when they test the temporary deletion of tags, audience engagement drops significantly.

This does not mean the tag is fully responsible for the audience's involvement, but may be a major contributor factor.

If you doubt a title and you think, 'OK, the picture of the box is interesting, and it's popular, so everyone watches it but is this for me? Donald said. And then you think, 'OK, it's full of tension yes, this is for me.' That's what makes you click.

The company's decision adds changes to other features, including the option to remove other users from their accounts without having to change passwords. Netflix also added last year's "My Netflix" feature that allows viewers to access all the movies and TV shows they want to watch in one place.