Netflix Lets Viewers Pick the Plot<br />Next year will bring an interactive episode of “Stretch Armstrong.”<br />In a blog post published on Tuesday, Ms. Fisher said: “The children’s programming space was a natural place for us to start since kids are eager to ‘play’ with their favorite characters<br />and already inclined to tap, touch and swipe at screens.<br />We need you to lean forward a little bit to engage with the choices.”<br />The introduction of such a feature — which Netflix will roll out for another children’s series next month,<br />and a third next year — is, at this point, an experiment.<br />The first interactive episode, called “Puss in Book,” will last 18 to 39 minutes (depending on which<br />path viewers go down), with viewers being asked to make a decision every two to four minutes.<br />Although the streaming service has not made plans to feature this kind of interactive viewing in, say, a future<br />season of “House of Cards,” the potential is there for it to eventually expand beyond children’s programming.<br />The interactive initiative comes as Netflix is locked in a battle with the rival streaming services Amazon<br />and Hulu over creating and acquiring as much children’s programming as possible.<br />PBS, as part of its PBS Kids live stream, is planning digital interactive games<br />that will complement programming that children have just finished watching.
