"I Can Watch What I Want"

Abstract

In recent years, on-demand video services, such as Netflix and Amazon Video, have become extremely popular. To understand how people use these services, we recruited 20 people from nine households to keep a viewing diary for 14 days. To better understand these household viewing diaries, in-depth interviews were conducted. We found that people took advantage of the freedom and choice that on-demand services offer, watching on different devices and in different locations, both in the home and outside. People often watched alone so they could watch what they wanted, rather than coming together to watch something of mutual interest. Despite this flexibility, the evening prime time continued to be the most popular time for people to watch on-demand content. Sometimes they watched for extended periods, and during interviews concerns were expressed about how on-demand services make it far too easy to watch too much and that this is often undesirable. With the rise in popularity of on-demand services, what impact is this having on how people consume video content? Largescale surveys, such as those from Ofcom [12] and Nielsen [3],

The binge-watcher’s journey: Investigating motivations, contexts, and affective states surrounding Netflix viewing

“…We acknowledge that the sample size could be larger, but this project was very much intended to be an exploratory study. Furthermore, the sample size is in line with studies of a similar nature that investigate audience behavior, such as Radeta et al (2014), Mikos (2016), and Rigby et al (2018a). This also reflects the difficulty experienced in recruiting participants for this study, perhaps due to the requirement of installing logging software on participants’ computers, but also because the study took place on a small island with a low population.…”

“…The phenomenon of binge-watching must be understood, therefore, within the context of the digital era, during which many technologies have contributed to the emergence of new consumer behaviors with the potential for overuse (Flayelle et al, 2019). Netflix’s auto-play feature is an example of this, since it may make the interruption of a viewing session difficult (Jenner, 2018: 161; Rigby et al, 2018a).…”

Development of a Questionnaire to Measure Immersion in Video Media

“…It also agrees with other studies examining the response to screen size on other measures, such as presence [25,33]. Furthermore, it is consistent with qualitative research on mobile viewing, where people often express a preference for larger screens [38]. Therefore, this result further validates the Film IEQ as an immersion measure -it is sensitive to the interventions that related measures are also sensitive to.…”

“…The variety of screen sizes in everyday computing is also present in the domain of video consumption. Rigby et al [38] found that the rise in popularity of on-demand video services meant that people are now watching Would you like to watch more of this, or similar content, in the future? 1 Table 2: Film IEQ questions, numbered by factor (1: captivation, 2: real-world dissociation, 3: comprehension, 4: transportation).…”

“…The advent of on-demand video services has transformed how people access content, from the devices used, to the contexts in which people watch. For example, many people now routinely watch video on small screens when commuting on public transport or relaxing in bed [38]. In the living room, there has been a trend for consumers to purchase larger TV screens [24].…”