[imagesource:netflix]
If you have to ask what the Netflix Preview Club is then you’re not special, sorry.
Only a select few people have received a certain email from Netflix to allow them to join the strictly confidential club.
Vulture is one of the few media outlets to catch on to this underground streaming service, noting it as “a top-secret (a.k.a. highly declassified), invite-only (highly NDA’d), free-to-join (if you don’t count the work it involves) cabal of people who can enjoy some of the streamer’s most popular shows and movies before the rest of its 231 million subscribers can”.
That means there are folks out there who already have all the goss on the latest Love is Blind shinanigans, like whether or not icky Zack managed to hitch sweet Bliss, or whether Micah’s weird friends managed to scare poor Paul away, or whether charming Kwame will end up with current fiance Chelsea or old flame Micah.
Since only a few episodes are released per week for the rest of us, we have to wait like couch-smelling commoners on the sidelines while Netflix Preview Club members get exclusive access to the show’s whole season, perhaps even including the finale.
There are even rumours that they get a say before final edits or decisions are made on how the shows and movies should be presented on Netflix:
The Wall Street Journal reported in December, for example, that the creators of the climate-change disaster farce Don’t Look Up ultimately edited their film to make it more lighthearted after getting feedback from the Preview Club that it was too dour. Netflix hasn’t commented on how Preview Club notes have influenced other specific edits, but the streamer does theatrical test screenings in addition to getting the online feedback.
So yeah, Netflix taps Preview Club users for surveys that help the company understand how their content or platform appears to the average user. This is similar to how the streamer tested its password-sharing crackdown in foreign countries for months before rolling it out everywhere else.
One Redditor claiming to be a member of the Preview Club from a year ago has called the practice an “interesting way to crowdsource the Final Cut” of a film or show:
Comment
by u/hashtagaish1 from discussion Preview Club
in netflix
That’s the thing, you can’t simply sign up to be a Netflix Preview Club member:
The club, which launched in 2021 and has steadily expanded, is invite-only, per Netflix’s help page on the matter, so not just any unwashed Stranger Things–binging pleb will be invited.
Although we don’t exactly know what Netflix’s parameters or qualifications for inclusion are, members are selected “based on things like viewing behaviour and how long” they’ve been subscribers.
The club also doesn’t cost anything extra, but you do have to give a little:
Netflix Preview Club’s stated mission is “to watch and provide feedback on titles before they’re released.” It requires its members to spend some time watching and filling out surveys based on what they liked or didn’t. Netflix doesn’t pay for that time. The incentive is early access and bragging rights.
As of December, around 2 000 special people were allowed access to sign up.
The good news is that Netflix apparently plans to grow this number into the tens of thousands this year.
[source:vulture]
