Factors Affecting the Consumers’ Choice of Movies and TV-Shows An Exploratory Study of Subscribers of Video-On-Demand Services

Abstract

Objectives

The main objectives of this study were to explore the factors which influence whether a movie or a TV-show will be purchased by a streaming company; to investigate the features of films/movies and/or TV-shows that make them attract viewers; to compare the reach and coverage of different types of video-content produced and explore reasons behind these results.

Summary

Today film consumption demonstrates a dynamic shift in favour of new players - digital online platforms - and disrupts the usual models of distribution and monetization of film products. This thesis includes a literature review on various theories of consumer behaviour when choosing the type of video content to consume and a web questionnaire exploring the factors that influence the final decision of the user of VOD-service.

Conclusions

The video content being purchased or licensed has to be provocative, modern, and of high quality. Among six factors described in literature review and later used in the survey, the genre was identified as the most important one. Algorithms for which Netflix and others operate do not give the user complete freedom of action, since their solutions are limited by the amount of content, and the users themselves on the platform act on in advance prescribed by algorithms: go to the platform, choose a film from the category's options, in case of failure go to the direct search.