BOSTON, May 23 (Reuters) – Netflix Inc isn’t responsible for a ratings dip at Viacom Inc’s Nickelodeon children’s network, and is unlikely to lure viewers away from its cable TV partners, said the programming chief at the streaming and DVD rental company.

Some analysts have cited Viacom’s decision to license hundreds of hours of some of its popular children’s shows to Netflix as a reason for a surprise dip in its ratings in recent quarters. Viacom has disputed that claim, and Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos backed its partner on Wednesday.

Sarandos said Netflix’s programming strategy was focused on high engagement with its customers by allowing them to personalize their choice of favorite shows. This makes it unlikely that any one show would get watched very broadly, he noted.

“People’s taste are so diverse that no specific program or network has such high viewing concentration that you’d see that cause and effect on ratings,” Sarandos said on a panel at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s annual Cable Show in Boston.

Netflix has been at the heart of much controversy in the cable industry in the last year.

Netflix is pitched as a friend of the business since it spends hundreds of millions of dollars on library content from programmers. But traditional pay-TV providers also see it as a threat, since consumers could drop their $80 a month cable packages in favor of the $8 video package of library content that Netflix offers.

However, industry data show that cable subscriber numbers have been at worst marginally down to flat mainly due to a tough U.S. economic environment over the last year.