User behavior in video content exploration: How people discover, search and find TV content

Abstract

The landscape of video watching is changing rapidly. Users get access to more and more content on several devices. This means that a consumer has to make more options to choose his video content. This research focuses on the choices that a consumer has to make from the moment that the user encounters a description of content until the moment he decides to watch or not to watch. After a literature study a basic model of decision making was established. This model is extended and validated by two empirical studies. The first study concentrated on the accidental encounters with content. During this study twenty participants used a mobile diary. In this diary they reported their everyday life encounters with descriptions of video content. Furthermore they reported their video watching behavior. During the second empirical study people executed thirteen scenarios in front of a TV in which they searched for content based on common use cases. The participants used thinking-aloud and attention was paid to the used search tactics. The results show that there are a lot of different use cases in content exploration. People use TV for a wide variety of purposes. However there are a couple of steps that are typical for content exploration. These steps are gathered in the presented content exploration model. People discover new content mostly by recommendations from friends or family or via TV commercials. When people start searching for content they mostly are looking for recognition of content that corresponds with their mood.