According to a press conference for the company, Netflix has decided to abandon their five-star Rating System amid controversy over a special starring Amy Schumer. While the announcement appears to be a timely coincidence, the rating system was the focus of the controversy, with Schumer blaming alt-right critics giving her special one-star reviews.
The replacement system is already in the works
Todd Yellin, who serves as the company's vice president of product, explained to a group of journalists during a press conference in Los Gatos, California that he felt the five-Star Rating system was outdated, and that it was not worth it if the company is "spending many billions of dollars on the titles we’re producing and licensing."
He then added that the company is "addicted" to "A/B testing," and is already developing a replacement system, which would be a simple thumps up or thumbs down.
Reportedly, this had caused a near 200-percentage increase in content ratings. In addition, there will be a new content-matching feature that will allow each of their users to use their behavior to find compatibility between films or television shows based on their viewing tastes.
While likely a coincidence, this change comes on the heels of recent ratings controversy
There is speculation that the decision to abandon the five-star system may have at least partially come out after controversy concerning Amy Schumer’s Netflix special, "The Leather Special." Ratings on the Netflix system gave the show a one-star rating, but there is speculation that it may have been a calculated scheme.
According to a post she had written on Instagram, she believed "alt-right organized trolls" had developed one-star reviews en mass in order to humiliate her over political issues, and had even cited a “Splitsider” article backing up this claim.
In addition, she claimed similar attacks were made against her book, television series, and film work. However, she then thanked them, perhaps in jest, for the publicity.
That said, in spite of any speculation, by most accounts, it would appear to merely be a coincidence that the system had been changed around the time of the controversy.
