Data analytics is informative and enlightening for a content provider, especially when it comes to content marketing, but it is not going to help you write great scripts and make hit shows. That is the opinion of Josh Sapan, President & CEO at AMC Networks, the company responsible for shows like ‘Fear of the Walking Dead’. Netflix has been promoting the idea that you can pick or develop ratings winners on the basis of data but Sapan disagrees. “I don’t believe data analytics is terribly helpful, or that you can ‘science’ your way to a great script.
“I think you are more likely to trip up than find the next great thing because it [creating great television] is more art than science. The evaluation of television is less precise. If one tries to make it precise there is a greater likelihood that you will homogenize it, or create something that is not creatively intact if you follow what numbers or surveys say about what is good or great.”
