For the past few months, even as Americans stood witness to several life-changing events, the Charlottesville incident being one of the latest of these, some of them have also been looking forward to one of the greatest atmospheric phenomena to ever take places over the country. What they were excited for is a total solar eclipse crossing the continental US on August 21, also known as the “Great American Eclipse.” When the big day finally arrived, people flocked to small communities along the path of the eclipse and watched the spectacle as it unfolded.
Truth be told, there were a lot who turned out to see the moon block out the sun that Netflix actually felt it in viewers lost.
Eclipse jealousy
Viewership figures in America for the media streaming giant Netflix fell about 10 percent on August 21. Granted it was no major loss, but the fact that 10% of the usual number of US subscribers were binge-watching during the Great American Eclipse of 2017 was enough for the service to take plenty of notice. While it was standard practice for Netflix to keep absolutely mum on the viewer ratings their streaming content manages to pull, this Monday seemed like the appropriate time for them to spill a statistical secret or two.
A few hours after the umbra and penumbra of the moon made its day-long trek across the continental US, Netflix finally made itself heard in a Twitter post that was all humorous jealousy and resentment in tone.
A first tweet had the streaming platform wonder why 10% of their usual viewers have abandoned them just to watch “a giant rock covering up a ball of gas.” This was followed up by an explanation that the ten percent cited were genuinely a 10% of their regular subscribers who have temporarily put their binge sprees on hold to catch the momentous eclipse.
but really, there was a 10% drop in plays during the eclipse today. Well played, Moon
— Netflix US (@netflix) August 22, 2017
Rare celestial event
It is rather understandable for Americans to make such a huge deal over the 2017 Great American Eclipse the way they did. The last time a total solar eclipse traveled across part of the breadth of the contiguous 48 states had been way back in 1918.
And the last time a total eclipse was visible in any part of the US was in 1979. That was such a blue-moon spectacle, in a manner of speaking, that not even Netflix’s latest Marvel offering “The Defenders” could keep people from gawking at the sky for a day.
The Great American Eclipse was such a long time coming, but the next repeat will not take even a decade. It is all set to happen again in 2024, though traversing a smaller area than the one this Monday.
