There's some side of me that's unhappy to see stats (even as benign as this) being considered. It's not really the idea that statistics will influence content as much as it is about who and how it will influence it.
I've been reading "A Song of Ice and Fire" (the source books for "Game of Thrones"), like a lot of people, for years. That is, I've been reading a book enjoyably for a couple of months and then waiting 5 years for the next one. It's an incredibly intricate and big story spanning a lot of character and geography. It's very big. The author, is obviously a special talent with incredible story telling ability and character perspectives. The talent for getting into characters' heads makes me think he must be a very emotionally invested artist.
Anyway, among all the characters, story, best seller pressure, TV show, and such writing the books takes a long time. He's got a Ford Prefect like relationship with deadlines.
Now.. in my (naive) mind, that's as it should be. A chaotic, burdensome process that (at the end, sometimes) produces art.
TV shows and films are the art of our times. This is not a statement about quality, just about the reach, influence and such. The people who make films are famous and admired. Everyone gets the references and allusions. Almost everyone indulges in it, grows up with it. A lot of people here probably got my Douglas Adams reference, but probably fewer than would have gotten a reference to "Morpheus," even in this biased crowd.
But, movies and television shows are made by big groups of people, money, risk-capital, adult supervision. I'm OK with statistical information about pace, plot or whatnot eventually permeating through the arts. That probably makes the arts better. I dislike the idea of it being used as a mallet in the proverbial committee designing the thing.
I like sausage. I prefer sausage to be made in a nice way. If you insist on both making it in a way I don't want to see and constantly reminding me that I should not look into how it is made… I'll have some beef stew instead.