Explained

Why the business works the way it does, for the times when the practical answer needs the reason behind it.

Every piece in this section starts from a primary document. That means a filing, a contract summary, a published methodology, a court record or an official statement, rather than another outlet's account of one. It is slower and it produces fewer articles, and it is the only way to avoid inheriting somebody else's error and giving it a second life.

Some of the questions here look small until you follow them. Netflix's Top 10 ranks by views rather than by hours watched, which quietly favours short films and short seasons over long ones and changes what the chart is telling you. Studio streaming windows are contract terms, not marketing decisions, which is why a film can be finished, released and still unavailable for reasons nobody will announce. The gap between what a company says and what its own documents say is usually the whole story.

Where the record genuinely does not settle a question, the article says so and shows what the record does establish. An honest gap is more useful than a confident guess.