TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparative VOD catalogue research
T2 - Circulation, presence and prominence of British content in Europe
AU - Bengesser, Cathrin
AU - Hilborn, Matthew
AU - Steemers, Jeanette
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
PY - 2025/10
Y1 - 2025/10
N2 - Video-on-demand (VoD) platforms have become primary spaces for encounters with transnational film and television, particularly among younger audiences. The expansion of global US-owned VoD services like Netflix has generated questions about the availability, discoverability, and prominence of domestic and European content, making the issue of how to analyse VoD catalogues pressing. Two perspectives are prevalent in VoD catalogue research: ‘back-end’ research emphasising composition and circulation; and ‘front-end’ analysing content presentation and discoverability. Quantitative methods facilitate comparative and longitudinal analyses of what is found on which VoD catalogues. Qualitative methods examine where and how audiences find content. This article, fostering synergy between the two, probes (1) the significance of VoD catalogue research in understanding the dynamics of transnational content flows and audience behaviours, and (2) its methodological possibilities and limitations. Focusing on British content in European VoD catalogues, it draws on two research projects: EUVoD (Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond AUFF, 2021–2024), analysing the developing European VoD market within changing conditions of competition and policy; and Screen Encounters with Britain (AHRC, 2022–2025), investigating young Europeans’ use of British film and TV. The article utilises the European Audiovisual Observatory’s databases of European works and the streaming guide JustWatch.com, combined with systematic tracking of VoD landing pages. It thus maps content availability, popularity, and promotional strategies across different European markets and services, showcasing how patterns of presence, prominence and circulation shape probable audience encounters with non-domestic content. The article probes methodological considerations, complexities and caveats applicable to wider catalogue research into transnational media. In the case of British content availability on VoD, it shows how a vast number of ca. 15,000 individual UK titles available in European catalogues boils down to about 200 titles that can be easily found on Netflix, and 70 titles there of that young audiences (aged 16–34) recall as UK shows they know and remember.
AB - Video-on-demand (VoD) platforms have become primary spaces for encounters with transnational film and television, particularly among younger audiences. The expansion of global US-owned VoD services like Netflix has generated questions about the availability, discoverability, and prominence of domestic and European content, making the issue of how to analyse VoD catalogues pressing. Two perspectives are prevalent in VoD catalogue research: ‘back-end’ research emphasising composition and circulation; and ‘front-end’ analysing content presentation and discoverability. Quantitative methods facilitate comparative and longitudinal analyses of what is found on which VoD catalogues. Qualitative methods examine where and how audiences find content. This article, fostering synergy between the two, probes (1) the significance of VoD catalogue research in understanding the dynamics of transnational content flows and audience behaviours, and (2) its methodological possibilities and limitations. Focusing on British content in European VoD catalogues, it draws on two research projects: EUVoD (Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond AUFF, 2021–2024), analysing the developing European VoD market within changing conditions of competition and policy; and Screen Encounters with Britain (AHRC, 2022–2025), investigating young Europeans’ use of British film and TV. The article utilises the European Audiovisual Observatory’s databases of European works and the streaming guide JustWatch.com, combined with systematic tracking of VoD landing pages. It thus maps content availability, popularity, and promotional strategies across different European markets and services, showcasing how patterns of presence, prominence and circulation shape probable audience encounters with non-domestic content. The article probes methodological considerations, complexities and caveats applicable to wider catalogue research into transnational media. In the case of British content availability on VoD, it shows how a vast number of ca. 15,000 individual UK titles available in European catalogues boils down to about 200 titles that can be easily found on Netflix, and 70 titles there of that young audiences (aged 16–34) recall as UK shows they know and remember.
KW - Audience research
KW - British film
KW - British television
KW - catalogues
KW - interfaces
KW - method
KW - Netflix
KW - streaming
KW - video-on-demand
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85201661410
U2 - 10.1177/13548565241268057
DO - 10.1177/13548565241268057
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85201661410
SN - 1354-8565
VL - 31
SP - 1511
EP - 1531
JO - Convergence
JF - Convergence
IS - 5
ER -