Content Discovery and Recommendation: Technologies Must Overcome Trust Barriers

The average consumer is becoming inundated with choices of video content as the number of cable and satellite channels increases, on-demand is made available on the TV and the DVR remains a regularly used device in many homes. The question is how are consumers finding the content that they want to watch? This report details the user experiences of 12 TV viewers in the USA. Analysis shows that trust is a key issue for viewers regarding recommendations. It also highlights that social acceptance and who you view with influences content selection. The content discovery process differs depending on the device that the content is being watched on. Three personas are presented to assist designers working within the content recommendation space.

1 Executive Summary
2 Introduction and Methodology
3 Forms of Recommendation
3.1 Friends/Family
3.2 TV Ads
3.3 Online
4 Trust Key Issue in Acting on Recommendation
4.1 Time Invested in Trialing a TV Show
4.2 Direct Recommendation for a Movie is not enough
4.3 Consumers Want Recommendation for Favorite Genres
4.4 Acting on Recommendation
5 Who they Watch With Influences Discovery
6 Social Acceptance Influences Content Selection
6.1 Acceptance from Work/School Colleagues
6.2 Acceptance from Family Members
7 Time Available Influences Discovery
7.1 Discovery Process Changes Depending on Available Time
8 Content Discovery Process
8.1 The Technologist
8.2 The TV Enthusiast
8.3 The Alpha State Viewer
9 Content Discovery on Different Devices
10 Optimizing TV Recommendations
11 Analyst Contacts