{"id":3965,"date":"2023-06-27T09:20:25","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T09:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/?p=3965"},"modified":"2023-07-07T06:24:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T06:24:19","slug":"how-streaming-platforms-make-you-more-likely-to-watch-certain-programmes-new-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/how-streaming-platforms-make-you-more-likely-to-watch-certain-programmes-new-research\/","title":{"rendered":"How streaming platforms make you more likely to watch certain programmes \u2013 new\u00a0research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neil Thurman<\/a>, City, University of London<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

With the vast array of options of what to watch online, have you ever wondered why you picked that new comedy or that old documentary? Would you have chosen to watch them if they were on terrestrial TV? How much were you nudged to choose them by subtle prompts from the online streaming platforms? <\/p>\n

Last year, when a new British streaming TV platform, ITVX<\/a>, launched, it promised<\/a> to be \u201cled\u201d by viewers who could \u201cchoose [from] thousands of hours of content.\u201d Disney+ has made a similar promise<\/a>: \u201cWatch the way you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A lot of video-on-demand platforms have positioned themselves as driven by audiences. And there is no doubt that the amount of televisual and other content has increased and that consumers do now have more control. But just how much do online users actively choose what they consume?<\/p>\n

I wanted to investigate this question, so my colleagues and I conducted a study<\/a> analysing some of the specific predictors of TV programmes\u2019 success, both on streaming platforms and on linear TV. We found several ways that streaming services can make their content more likely to be watched.<\/p>\n

How much are we really in control?<\/h2>\n

We are not alone in starting to ask questions about how much agency video-on-demand users actually have. The media academic Mike van Esler\u2019s study<\/a> showed that streaming platforms like Netflix impose numerous technical and visual limitations on users. For example, Netflix hides functions like the search bar or genre homepages in a sidebar and prioritises certain programmes, often those owned by the platform.<\/p>\n

Such limitations certainly could limit user agency, but to see whether that\u2019s actually the case we need to study not just interfaces but audiences. This is starting to happen. In a Norwegian study<\/a>, audience members talked about how video-on-demand platforms steered their viewing behaviour, including by recommending programmes as \u201ctop picks\u201d or \u201cyou may also like\u201d.<\/p>\n

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