Since the turn to virtual life, “Netflix and chill” took on a new and literal meaning. According to a Twitter poll of 39 participants conducted by Mustang News, Netflix is the favorite streaming service among Cal Poly students and faculty.
With 76.9% of total votes, Netflix was followed by Hulu at 10.3%, Disney Plus at 7.7% and Prime Video at 5.1% of votes.
So what exactly attracts consumers, specifically Cal Poly students, to one streaming service over another?
Business administration freshman Neta Horesh-Bar said she uses Netflix and Disney Plus the most.
A major fan of Pixar movies, Horesh-Bar said she watches Disney Plus for its exclusive movie collection but she watches more of her TV shows on Netflix.
“With Disney Plus, it’s content and with Netflix, it’s accessibility, but then there’s nothing about Amazon Prime or Hulu or HBO Max that necessarily stands out,” she said. “There’s no pull because they don’t have outstanding content on there.”
Horesh-Bar said she prefers Netflix because so many other people have it, so she can get recommendations and watch with others.
Marketing professor Yaeeun Kim said, from a marketing standpoint, college students are attracted to “easy-to-use” products.
If a streaming service is not meeting the needs of the younger generations that grew up with technology, like being user-oriented, its audience will switch to a different service, Kim said.
The cost of the service and the ability to share plans with multiple people are also important, according to Kim.
On the production side of things, Kim said that streaming producers will look at both the characteristics of different generations, particularly Generation Z, as well as social media to see what is trending and what users want to see.
“The students and young generation is very keen to the word of mouth,” she said. “[Producers] have to pay attention to which content can create some of the viral marketing.”
According to Kim, negative word of mouth can be much more harmful to a provider than positive word could be beneficial.
Music freshman Matthew Borin said that he watches Netflix for the variety of shows and genres it offers.
“I found that when I want to watch something, 90% of the time it’s either on Netflix or it’s not on any of them,” Borin said.
He also said he enjoys some of the features Netflix has, like being able to view actors in each scene and the “convenience in the playback.”
Kinesiology freshman Matthew Soran said his preferred streaming platform is Prime Video, particularly because it conveniently comes with an Amazon Prime membership.
“It’s very inclusive and has a very wide range of shows both new and old, as well as creating their own content and it comes with the nice two-day free shipping,” he said.
Soran’s favorite shows on Prime Video are “Community” and “Jack Ryan.”