PlayPilot How social media behaviours can tackle the tyranny of choice
Video on-demand services (VOD) are acutely aware of the difficulties that audiences face when choosing shows. The fragmented nature of the streaming TV industry makes discovery challenging. Shows are spread across a myriad of subscription and advertising-funded services that vary in scale and focus. Even once the viewer successfully navigates this crowded market, they are then met by a wall of content spread across multiple genres that demand more choice.
VOD services have turned to artificial intelligence to help prevent the time spent choosing content from eating into the time spent watching content. This centres on algorithms making recommendations on what to watch based on the viewer’s watch history. These services can be effective when the input data gives a true reflection of the user’s platform behaviour. However, this hinges on users staying in their lanes rather than account sharing, a difficult task for Gen Z consumers living in shared housing or families whose husbands, wives or children are using a single profile. The skewing of algorithm data leads to ill-informed recommendations, which breeds distrust between viewers and video services.
What audiences do trust is recommendations from their friends, family, and colleagues: 44% of US consumers discovered new shows through personal recommendations during Q2 2022. A personal recommendation is an expression of fandom that solidifies and builds relationships by inviting an individual into the tribe. It is also a highly efficient approach to cutting through the wall of content because it provides focus. This is a task made even easier with voice-activated search on services such as Sky in the UK, which opens the show on the relevant service when a viewer speaks the name into the microphone on the remote control.
VOD services must take the logical step and incorporate personal recommendations within their ecosystem to reap the benefits of this dominant audience behaviour. Streaming guide services, such as the Swedish-based smartphone app PlayPilot, demonstrate how social tools can be used to create sophisticated recommendation systems.
PlayPilot builds a profile of their users’ consumption habits by encouraging them to rate shows they have watched, and wish-listing shows they want to see. The app then leans on social networking features by allowing users to follow their friends and scroll through their watchlists for inspiration. Those wanting to dive deeper can read reviews by both friends and film critics. PlayPilot has also brought influencers on board to share their watchlists, in a move that leans less on social and more fandom.
Such a service would prove to be a powerful addition to the user experience of a smart-TV operator aggregating a significant number of streaming services. There are also upsides to VOD services that allow viewers to tap into watchlists of family and friends for inspiration. After all, the more trusted recommendations a viewer encounters, the less likely they are to leave the walled garden of a service in search of another show. However, this could be countered by super-aggregators deploying this approach across all streaming services. Sky and Google TV are already only one step away from doing so with their respective playlist and watchlist functions. Only by removing friction to viewing can VOD services and super aggregators better serve audiences. If personal recommendations help audiences begin watching faster, then incorporating the social features to facilitate this behaviour will become a necessity and not merely a luxury.