Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone introduced at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 that the streaming service is branching out into immersive and interactive experiences, beginning with real-time voting. The transfer marks a brand new method for the streamer to spice up engagement, because it permits audiences of stay reveals to work together in actual time.
Viewers will be capable of vote whereas watching stay content material to straight affect the result of what they’re watching on their TV or cell gadget.
The streamer began testing real-time voting on its stay cooking present “Dinner Time Live with David Chang” in August and can roll out the performance to its reboot of “Star Search,” a expertise competitors sequence that has been off the air for 20 years and is being introduced again by Netflix subsequent yr.
“If you’re sitting at home watching ‘Star Search’ on your TV, you’ll be able to either on the TV or your mobile phone actually put in a vote that advances or doesn’t advance some of the contestants on the show,” Stone mentioned on TechCrunch Disrupt’s most important stage on Tuesday. “So it’s just a very early starting example of the ways that we think content can be more interactive over time, across devices, between TV and mobile, where a member who subscribes to Netflix can actually feel like they’re part of the story, influence the storyline, and feel immersed in that.”
Viewers might be prompted on-screen and have a restricted period of time to fee performances. When you rewind or aren’t caught up with the livestream, you could miss the voting window.
On “Dinner Time Live with David Chang,” viewers had been requested to vote on whether or not they desire tuna fish or grilled cheese. In one other occasion, they had been requested in the event that they suppose soups are higher than salads. Viewers can see the outcomes of the voting displayed on-screen.
Netflix says it noticed constant engagement episode to episode in early testing of real-time voting, which it believes alerts robust potential for extra interactive leisure sooner or later.
The streaming service says it’s targeted on constructing towards extra methods for viewers to really feel concerned in what they’re watching, which is why it’s working to permit for real-time responsiveness to content material. At a time when Netflix is dealing with mounting competitors from different streaming providers, the corporate probably hopes that its new interactive performance will create a shared, community-driven viewing expertise for its members.
It’s value noting that this isn’t the primary time Netflix has explored real-time voting with its content material, because the streaming service beforehand examined interactive viewer polls throughout its actuality TV reveals “Too Hot to Handle” and “Love Is Blind.”
Along with Stay, Netflix is targeted on real-time responsiveness for codecs like its new Get together Video games for TV, and, finally, podcasts, so customers can have interaction with what is occurring within the second.
“There’s also a lot that’s exciting happening with cloud games, which introduces another similar kind of interaction pattern,” Stone mentioned. “So we’ve got some fun living room party games launching in Q4 this year, more next year — for example, Boggle. So it’s on your living room TV screen. You’re able to do it with friends and family locally using your mobile phone. It’s another way to think about more immersive, fun, in-the-moment content, in addition to the more traditional film and TV, which, of course, we’ll continue to hit out of the park.”
Additionally on Tuesday, Stone introduced that Netflix is launching immersive experiences on its homepage that the corporate says will convey its content material to life by way of animation and dynamic particular results. To start out, Netflix has launched a brand new Halloween Assortment immersive expertise. Sooner or later, the corporate will debut a Vacation Assortment in December and extra IP-driven ones sooner or later, corresponding to a “Bridgerton” one.
