India’s Got Latent is one of the most popular streaming shows in India right now. While the first season of Samay Raina’s show streamed on YouTube before the controversy and forced takedown, Season 2 was streaming on YouTube and Netflix simultaneously until recently. The latest episode of Latent, starring Nishant Tanwar, Varun Dhawan, Medha Shankr and Sharon Verma, became the first-ever episode in two seasons to not stream on YouTube.
India’s Got Latent Season 2 Episode 6 has been released only on Netflix, unlike the earlier episodes, which were also available on YouTube. This move by Samay has garnered eyeballs because YouTube has been crucial for Samay in building India’s Got Latent, and the second season has been gaining immense love on the platform.
The viewership on the streaming platform is much more than that on the OTT giant Netflix.
Why Netflix-Only Move Is A Shocker?
According to the data available, the first episode of the show crossed 45 million YouTube views in four days, while the same episode recorded just 2.2 million views on Netflix. That means Netflix’s figure was less than 5% of YouTube’s, or roughly one Netflix view for every 20 YouTube views.
The numbers show that India’s Got Latent’s core audience remains heavily concentrated on YouTube, despite Netflix being added as a second platform. The show’s existing YouTube audience is already enormous, so moving an episode exclusively to Netflix represents a significant change in its usual distribution strategy.
Samay Raina Upset With YouTube Rule Change?
While the episode released just before the latest one became the season’s top performer, what could be the possible reason for skipping his home ground, YouTube, for the recent episode? Well, while Samay hasn’t clarified anything as yet, it looks like this move was influenced by the change in YouTube’s way of counting views.
Samay Raina has also questioned YouTube’s new way of counting views. YouTube recently changed its system so that a view can be counted as soon as a video starts playing, whereas earlier, viewers were generally expected to watch for some time for it to count as a view. Samay feels this makes view numbers less reliable, as a video can show millions of views even if viewers are not watching it for long. He also compared the new system with his comedy special Still Alive, saying that comparing old and new view numbers has become difficult because YouTube has changed what a “view” means.
Conclusion
For now, the reason behind releasing India’s Got Latent Episode 6 only on Netflix remains unclear. While Samay Raina has not addressed the change in the show’s release strategy, the decision comes at a time when he has been vocal about YouTube’s new view-counting system. Whether the episode eventually makes its way to YouTube or the makers continue with a Netflix-only release remains to be seen.
