Kids love rewatching their favorites — but how to get them to watch something new?
Netflix has cooked up a new way to spur tykes to stream more content: It’s tempting them with a “Mystery Box,” which will reveal a recommended TV show or movie they haven’t seen before. The Mystery Box is launching on the streamer’s connected TV platforms globally Thursday for Netflix Kids profiles, situated in the Favorites row.
The title in the Mystery Box will be personalized based on kids’ previous viewing behavior. That could be a show or movie with a familiar character but it will be a title new to them that they haven’t watched (for example, a new season).
“We hope that kids will love the surprise and delight of revealing the next show or film recommended for them,” TJ Marston, Netflix’s director of product innovation for kids and family, wrote in a blog post announcing the feature.
Like many of Netflix’s new features, the Mystery Box is aimed at boosting time spent viewing, because that correlates with customer satisfaction (and hence lower churn). It’s one of several enhancements to Netflix Kids that the company has rolled in the past year, including the Kids Top 10 Row and the Favorites row with five characters from TV shows and movies that a child has watched most frequently.
The overriding goal for Netflix Kids, according to Marston, is to “help parents and caregivers make the best decisions for their families and to make Netflix a safe space for exploration and entertainment for everyone.”
To unbox the secret Mystery Box title, users must be logged in to a Netflix Kids profile. In the Favorites row at the top of the homepage, simply navigate to the sparkly Mystery Box to reveal the title that is “new for you.”
Netflix released an animation showing the Mystery Box reveal in action:
