2 key takeaways from the TED talk 'How to use data to make a hit TV show' by Sebastian Wernicke

1. Illusive Big Data

2. 2
Based on the TED talk
How to use data to make a hit TV show
By Sebastian Wernicke

3. ““Numbers have an important
story to tell. They rely on you to
give them a voice.”
– Stephen Few
33

4. 2 keytakeaways
4

5. 5
1Data analysis can take
multiple directions, it is
upto the experimenter to
choose the appropriate fit

6. 6
Netflix used
data for
problem
breakdown
Amazon
studios used
data to arrive
at the
solution
directly
Success
Notreallyasuccess
Same problem, but

7. 7
Amazon Studios released free episodes and collected
millions of data points, by recording when somebody
presses play, when somebody presses pause, what
parts they skip, what parts they watch again. So they
collect millions of data points, because they want to
have those data points to then decide which show
they should make and an answer emerges "Amazon
should do a sitcom about four Republican US
Senators." They did that show.

9. 9
On the other hand, Netflix collected millions of data
points by looking at what they already had like the
ratings they give their shows, the viewing histories,
what shows people like, and so on to discover all of
these little bits and pieces about the audience: what
kinds of shows they like, what kind of producers, what
kind of actors. And once they had all of these pieces
together, they took a leap of faith, and they decided to
license not a sitcom about four Senators but a drama
series about a single Senator. You guys know the
show?

11. Netflix was so successful because they used
data to break the problem down but then the
decision to take all these bits and pieces and
put them back together again and make a
show like "House of Cards," that was
nowhere in the data.

12. 12
2
Now that data-driven decision
making culture is on the rise, it
leaves little to no room for
errors

13. Amazon Studios just cost some viewers a
few minutes of their life, but errors could
happen on an even larger scale with even
more grave consequences

14. If someone in a US prison applies for parole,
then it's very likely that data analysis will be
used in determining whether to grant that
parole. Instead of deciding whether a TV
show is going to be good or bad, you're
deciding whether a person is going to be
good or bad.

15. Mediocre TV, 22 minutes, that can be pretty
bad, but more years in prison, even worse.

16. Data and data analysis, no matter how powerful,
can only help you taking a problem apart and
understanding its pieces. It's not suited to put
those pieces back together again and then
to come to a conclusion.

17. There's another tool that can do that, the brain. If
there's one thing a brain is good at, it's taking bits
and pieces back together again, even when
you have incomplete information, and
coming to a good conclusion, especially if
it's the brain of a MANAGER!

18. THANKS!
Created by Raminder Singh, under an internship
by Prof. Mathur, IIM Lucknow