Can't Decide What to Stream? Netflix's New Feature Will Choose for You

By Katie Deighton 

Netflix Inc. has rolled out a feature designed to alleviate a very modern malady: the so-called choice fatigue experienced when deciding what to watch next on a streaming service. Its solution is a "Play Something" button that, as its name suggests, starts playing a television show or movie without making you pick.

Users' prior viewing dictates what the feature serves up, and viewers can keep skipping to another movie or episode if they don't feel like watching the one being played. The first suggestion will be something they have never watched before, said Cameron Johnson, Netflix's director of product innovation.

The new feature arrives a week after Netflix said during the first quarter of 2021 it added 4 million net new subscribers -- 2 million fewer than it had forecast and 11.8 million below the figure in the same period the year before.

Netflix says Play Something wasn't conceived as a way to keep the stuck-at-home market who claim to have "finished Netflix," or to otherwise cater to pandemic-era audiences in particular.

The company has been testing prototypes of Play Something among some subscribers for the past year, but has been aware of the problem of choice fatigue for quite some time, according to Keela Robison, Netflix's vice president of product innovation. Company research found subscribers couldn't face searching through its library to find something new to watch at certain times, such as when they were sitting down to eat their dinner, she said.

"We always had an idea that you would be able to just turn on Netflix and it would magically play something that is just amazing for you," Ms. Robison said. "What we found through iteration is that if we were able to tell our members a little bit about why we chose a title, and also give them an opportunity to skip to something else, that allowed for them to have a sufficient lean-back, just-be-entertained moment, but also have a little bit of control."

For Ben Barone-Nugent, a content designer and lead user experience writer at Netflix, Play Something acts like a television's power button. "You turn on the TV and something is playing," he said. "Now you open Netflix, press Play Something, and something is playing."

The introduction of Play Something follows Netflix's addition last year of Top 10 charts, which showcase the platform's most popular shows and films on the home page.

In France, Netflix is experimenting with an experience called Direct, which resembles a TV channel.

The company is likely investing in features designed to bring new content to viewers' attention to make sure none of its productions or purchases fail to launch because they never made it onto users' radars, said Ross Benes, a senior analyst covering digital video at eMarketer, a market research firm.

Play Something also demonstrates how Netflix is further embracing its role as a provider of background content: Shows and movies that are unlikely to win Emmys, but require minimal concentration, and can be watched while people are doing other things, Mr. Benes said. "People like that sort of formulaic, low production, predictable show and I think Netflix are definitely leaning more into that." Netflix's Play Something feature further feeds the viewing habit of turning on the TV and immediately doing something else, he said.

Netflix tried a number of names for the feature, including "Watch Now," "Instant Play" and "Shuffle," before user tests determined that Play Something got the most clicks and returns to the tool, said Mr. Barone-Nugent.

Netflix's product team also tested presenting Play Something as the default mode when users clicked into their profiles, meaning content started playing before they hit the home page, said Mr. Johnson, the product innovation director.

In the end they settled on placing the button underneath a user's profile on the initial "Who's watching?" screen, in the navigation menu of the main platform, and on the 10th row of the Netflix home page, said Mr. Johnson.

"That's really the moment in which you start to say, 'Oh, this is getting kind of hard and tiresome. I've gone down 10 rows and I haven't chosen yet?'" he said. "That's when Netflix says, 'Hey, having trouble finding something to watch? Click this button.'"

Write to Katie Deighton at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2021 10:14 ET (14:14 GMT)

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