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Watch Time

Definition

Total time viewers spend watching a video. The main metric algorithms use to decide which videos to recommend.

Watch time and completion rate are the most important signals for recommendation algorithms. High watch time = broader distribution. For short-form, most of the battle is the opening seconds: a strong hook prevents early drop-off, and after that it comes down to pacing that never gives viewers a reason to leave. Orange's script templates are structured around retention, hook first.

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