[Commlist] CFP: Innovative Methods for Video-on-Demand Research

*CFP: Innovative Methods for Video-on-Demand Research*

An international workshop at Utrecht University, 12 September 2024

Video-on-demand services (VODs) are often assumed by researchers to be 
black boxes, impenetrable to academic inquiry. Data on VOD catalogs, 
audiences, and usage can be challenging to source and may be 
commercially protected, leading to concerns about transparency and 
access (Wayne 2022).

Nonetheless, in recent years researchers have found many innovative 
workarounds to investigate VODs, publishing important studies of VOD 
libraries, recommendations, promotion, and use. This scattered but 
vibrant field of empirical VOD research now spans television and screen 
studies, media industry studies, platform studies, law, economics, 
computer science, and policy research. We see for instance advances in 
catalog research (Grece 2018), distant readings of VOD interfaces (Kelly 
2021), reverse engineering of algorithms (Pakovic 2022), logging user 
interactions through browser extensions (Castro et al. 2021), and 
quantitative analysis of proprietary data sets from third-parties (Lotz 
et al. 2022). Such research is valuable for scholarly debate because it 
allows us, in the absence of industry disclosure, to better understand 
trends in production, distribution and consumption of content; and from 
a policy perspective, it is also vital to establish if local content 
quotas and requirements for prominence/visibility are being met.

Topics of interest within VOD research include:

* What makes up the library of a VOD?

* How do libraries differ between services and across space and time?

* How is content circulated? (interfaces, recommendations and promotion)

* What do we know about usage of different VODs?

* How is usage shaped by prominence and discoverability within the 
interface?

* What VOD content is popular/culturally significant?

* How are data used by VODs for producing and distributing content?

* What can VOD research contribute to public policy debates?

We invite papers that propose, modify, elaborate, demonstrate or reflect 
on innovative methods for studying VODs, including empirical methods for 
data collection and/or critical and interpretive methods for data 
analysis. Our focus is on research methods for subscription 
video-on-demand (SVOD) and broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) services, 
rather than on social video platforms such as YouTube and Tiktok.

*Submission details:*

Abstracts of 500 words are due by 1 May 2024 along with a 100 word bio 
and should be sent to Karin van Es ((K.F.vanEs /at/ uu.nl) 
<mailto:(K.F.vanEs /at/ uu.nl)>) and Ramon Lobato ((ramon.lobato /at/ rmit.edu.au) 
<mailto:(ramon.lobato /at/ rmit.edu.au)>).
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 1 June, and accepted authors 
will be invited to submit extended abstracts of 2,000 words by 5 
September. The workshop will be held on 12 September at Utrecht 
University, The Netherlands. A special journal issue is planned 
following the workshop. We also welcome expressions of interest from 
scholars who cannot attend the workshop but would like to be considered 
for the special issue. Please feel free to reach out to the organisers 
by email.



*References*

Castro D, Rigby J, Cabral D and Nisi V (2021) The Binge-watcher’s 
Journey: Investigating Motivations, Contexts, and Affective States 
Surrounding Netflix Viewing. /Convergence/ 27 (1): 3-20.

Grece, Christian (2018) /Films in VOD catalogues – Origin, Circulation 
and Age/. Strasbourg: European Audiovisual Observatory.

Kelly JP (2021). ‘Recommended for you’: A Distant Reading of BBC 
iPlayer. /Critical Studies in Television/, /16/(3), 264-285

Lotz A, Eklund O and Suroka S (2022) Netflix, Library Analysis, and 
Globalization: Rethinking Mass Media Flows. /Journal of Communication 
/72 (4): 511–521.

PajkovicN (2022) Algorithms and Taste-making: Exposing the Netflix 
Recommender System’s Operational Logics. /Convergence/ 28 (1): 214–235

Wayne ML (2022) Netflix Audience Data, Streaming Industry Discourse, and 
the Emerging Realities of ‘Popular’ Television. /Media, Culture & 
Society/ 44 (2): 193–20.

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