When Less is More: Content Strategies for Subscription Video on Demand

Abstract

In this paper, we devise an analytical consumer choice model in which consumers can visit a subscription video-on-demand platform to watch content from their watchlist and browse the catalog to search for additional content. We also partner with a large multinational telecommunications provider and implement a randomized field experiment that manipulates the timing and quantity of content that is available for consumers to watch. Our model and experiment rationalize why content distributors are returning to drip-style content release schedules that limit how many content items consumers can watch. This recent industry pullback contrasts with the all-at-once content release strategy popularized by Netflix in 2013 for their streaming releases. We show evidence that drip-release content strategies induce more search moments, increasing the probability of matching content in the platform's library and consumer preferences. Ultimately these additional search moments trigger more utilization of the subscription video-on-demand system and continued subscriptions over time.

Keywords: video-on-demand, randomized experiment, NETFLIX, content