The Effect of Binge-Watching on the Subscription of Video on Demand: Results from Randomized Experiments

Miguel Godinho de Matos and Pedro Ferreira

Information Systems Research, 2020, vol. 31, issue 4, 1337-1360

Abstract: We analyze the outcomes of two randomized field experiments to study the effect of binge-watching on subscription to video on demand. In both cases, we offered access to subscription VoD (SVoD) to a random set of households for several weeks and used another random set of households as a control group. In both cases, we find that the households that binge-watch TV shows are less likely to pay for SVoD after these free trials. Our results suggest that binge-watchers deplete the content of interest to them very quickly, which reduces their short-term willingness to pay for SVoD. We also show that recommendation reminders aimed at widening the content preferences of households offset the negative effect of binge-watching and lessen the concerns of binge-watchers with lack of content refresh. We discuss that these recommendation reminders may help content providers manage supply costs, which may otherwise become prohibitive with frequent updates to SVoD catalogs.

Keywords: binge-watching; subscription video on demand; recommendation reminders; randomized experiment; content (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2020.0948 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orisre:v:31:y:2020:i:4:p:1337-1360

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Information Systems Research from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().