Big Data comes to Hollywood - audiovisuelle Medienmärkte im digitalen Zeitalter

Die Traumfabrik Hollywood dominiert seit Dekaden die internationale Filmindustrie. Die großen amerikanischen Studios produzieren und vertreiben Filme, wobei sie alle Innovationen des 20ten Jahrhundert, von Fernsehen über VHS bis Blu-ray, überstanden haben. Die Digitalisierung bringt tiefgreifende technische Innovationen und damit auch neuen Wettbewerb in den Markt. Die großen Hollywood Studios stehen nun der Konkurrenz von Streamingdiensten wie Netflix und Amazon Prime Video gegenüber. Die digitale Überlegenheit dieser neuen Giganten und deren Umgang mit Daten stellen einen elementaren Unterschied zu den bisherigen Strategien der Studios dar. Dieser Beitrag zeigt die Änderungen auf und analysiert die neue Wettbewerbssituation in der Filmindustrie

What drives binge-watching?: an economic theory and analysis of impact factors

Behavioral patterns in media consumption are changing. With the upcoming of video-on-demand platforms, so-called ‘binge-watching’ gained broad awareness. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first economic analysis explicitly on binge-watching. We approach the phenomenon by arguing that it follows fundamental patterns of addictive behavior. By applying concepts of rational addiction and behavioral economics, we derive (i) a theoretical understanding of binging-watching behavior and (ii) factors increasing the likelihood of binging, especially with modern technologies and digital media services. The decision to binge depends on individual factors such as the accumulation rate of consumption capital (speed of learning and acquiring knowledge), opportunity costs, and the expected value of consumption. Consumption capital in the form of specific knowledge positively influences marginal utility. Moreover, binge-watching is not specific to online streaming services (video-on-demand), but modern platforms facilitate certain factors which increase the consumers’ engagement. Non-linear, self-organized video scheduling and a single narrative (coherent plot) increase the likelihood for consumers to binge

The economics of influencers and social media stardom

This chapter provides an overview of the economics of influencers and social media stardom. It provides the state-of-research regarding success factors, revenue and payment models, social media platforms and ecosystems, and welfare effects. It describes the role of social media content providers within the media industries and explores the differences and similarities of this new innovative element in media markets compared to its more traditional counterparts (traditional stars and traditional media industries)

Audiovisuelles und interaktives Entertainment im digitalen Zeitalter - eine ökonomische Perspektive

Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit audiovisuellen und interaktiven Medien. Im Verlauf dieses Beitrags, der das Rahmenpapier der kumulativen Dissertation verschiedener Forschungsbeiträge darstellt, werden zwei Teilbereiche betrachtet. Kapitel 2 erarbeitet Inhalte des Marktes für audiovisuelle Medien und Film, während in Kapitel 3 der Fokus auf Social Media und deren Künstlern liegt. Im zweiten Kapitel wird eine Übersicht zu den Besonderheiten audiovisueller Märkte und deren Veränderung im digitalen Zeitalter mit Fokus auf Wettbewerb und Anbieterseite erarbeitet. Dabei werden die Erkenntnisse der Beiträge (Budzinski, Gaenssle & Lindstädt-Dreusicke, 2021b, 2021a; Gaenssle, Budzinski & Astakhova, 2018; Gaenssle, 2021b) eingebunden, verknüpft und weiterentwickelt. Dies stellt nicht nur eine Zusammenfassung der Beiträge, sondern eine Metaebene dar. Folgende Leitfragen führen durch den Abschnitt: Welche Besonderheiten weisen audiovisuelle Medienmärkte auf? Wie hat sich die Marktstruktur und der Wettbewerb im digitalen Zeitalter verändert? In Kapitel 3 wird der Fokus auf interaktive Medien und insbesondere auf Content-Anbieter im Social Media Markt gelegt. Hier fließen Erkenntnisse der Beiträge (Budzinski & Gaenssle, 2020; Gaenssle, 2021a; Gaenssle & Budzinski, 2021), inklusive einer Reflektion zu Forschung über Superstars ein. Es stellt eine Theorie- und Methodenübersicht sowohl der eigenen empirischen Papiere (Budzinski & Gaenssle, 2020; Gaenssle, 2021a), als auch anderer Beiträge zu Superstars aus der ökonomischen Perspektive dar. Die Leitfragen lauten: Wie werden Superstars ökonomisch untersucht? Was hat sich dabei im digitalen Zeitalter v.a. hinsichtlich interaktiver Medien wie Social Media verändert? In Kapitel 4 wird ein Fazit gezogen und die Erkenntnisse zu den Leitfragen zusammengeführt. Es wird ein Forschungsüberblick und Implikationen für zukünftige Forschung gegeben.This dissertation deals with audio-visual and interactive media. In this paper, which is the framework paper of a cumulative dissertation, two fields of research are analysed. Section 2 elaborates contents of the market for audio-visual media and film, while section 3 focuses on social media and its artists. The second section gives an overview of the characteristics of audio-visual markets and changes of digitisation. Following papers are integrated in this section: (Budzinski, Gaenssle & Lindstädt-Dreusicke, 2021b, 2021a; Gaenssle, Budzinski & Astakhova, 2018; Gaenssle, 2021b). It represents not only a summary of the contributions, but a meta-study. The following questions lead through the section: What are the specific features of audio-visual media markets? How has the market structure and competition changed in the digital age? Section 3 focuses on interactive media and especially on content providers in the social media market. It completes insights from the contributions (Budzinski & Gaenssle, 2020; Gaenssle, 2021a; Gaenssle & Budzinski, 2021), including a reflection on research on superstars. It presents a theory and method review of both the author’s own empirical papers (Budzinski & Gaenssle, 2020; Gaenssle, 2021a) and other contributions on superstars from an economic perspective. Two main questions lead through the section: How are superstars studied from an economic perspective? What has changed in the digital age, especially with regard to interactive media such as social media? Section 4 concludes in giving a research overview and implications for future research

Disentangling individual biases in jury voting: an empirical analysis of voting behavior in the Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the worldwide biggest live media events and the world’s leading broadcast of an international music competition. The countries of the European Broadcasting Union participate by sending an artist (or a group of artists) to the contest and both expert juries and the television audience of all participating countries vote in a special ranking and points system to determine the eventual winner. A substantial list of cultural economics papers empirically analyzed the voting behavior of juries (consisting of music industry professionals) and audiences to identify voting biases because of cultural and political influences on the voting bodies. Due to limited data availability, this literature suffered from having to treat the national juries as a black box even though they are composed of individuals with different demographic characteristics (age, gender, etc.) and expert backgrounds (industry managers, musicians, composers, music journalists, etc.). Our analysis benefits from utilizing new data about each individual member of the jury including their role within the jury (e.g., the chairperson) as well as about their individual votes in the ESC. Therefore, for the first time, we can disentangle the voting behavior of the juries and track the voting behavior of individual jury members. Based upon a rich dataset including personal characteristics (gender, age, career/professional background, nationality, cultural heritage, etc.) of both jury members (voters) and performing artists in the contest (voting objects), we analyze whether the increasing similarity between voter (jury member) and voting object (contest performer) correlates with upward biases in terms of awarded points. In doing so, we employ the concept of Mahalanobis distance to measure similarity and employ modern econometric regression methods to derive our results. Inter alia, we identify conditions under which the similarity of jury members with contestants leads to a pro-bias in voting (across different countries). Interestingly, the professional background of jury members also significantly influences the individual voting bias, for instance, experts with classical music backgrounds display significantly less bias than presenters of radio or television programs or music journalists. Altogether, our analysis allows us to look beyond the hitherto dominating “country X is biased for/against country Y” conclusions and track voting biases on an individual level, based on personal characteristics

The draft for the 10th amendment of German competition law: towards a new concept of “Outstanding relevance across markets”?

The ministerial proposal for a 10th amendment of the German competition law particularly addresses abuse control and seeks to tighten this pillar of competition policy against the background of the challenges from the digital economy. Next to extending the classic policy instruments of abuse control, the reform proposal suggests to introduce an additional and novel type of market power: the outstanding relevance across markets (ORAM). From an economic perspective, such an institution is interesting as it emphasizes non-horizontal and less direct anticompetitive abuses of market power. We review what type of cases could be subject to such a concept of systemic market power. Furthermore, we address the question whether merger control could also benefit from an ORAM-style conception

The battle of YouTube, TV and Netflix – an empirical analysis of competition in audiovisual media markets

The world of audiovisual online markets is rapidly changing. Not long ago, it was dominated by linear television, transmitted terrestrially, through cable networks or via satellite. Recently, streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime and others have emerged as new suppliers of audiovisual content. In this quickly changing industry, competition interrelations between such different formats like traditional TV, videos on YouTube, and streaming via Netflix are subject to controversy. In particular, doubt is cast on services like YouTube exerting competitive pressure on services like Netflix and traditional TV. Based upon a survey with almost 3,000 participants, we provide an empirical analysis of consumption behavior of audiovisual contents. Using descriptive and analytical statistics, including multiple equation models, we show that there are specific areas within audiovisual content markets where YouTube exerts considerable competitive pressure on both Netflix and classic TV, for instance, through prime time video entertainment. However, our analysis yields dif-ferentiated results as we also identify areas where competition intensity between different service types appear to be low, for instance, through daytime and regarding the intention to shorten waiting time

Data (r)evolution – the economics of algorithmic search and recommender services

The paper analyses the economics behind algorithmic search and recommender services, based upon personalized user data. Such services play a paramount role for online services such as marketplaces (e.g. Amazon), audio streaming (e.g. Spotify), video streaming (e.g. Netflix, YouTube), app stores, social networks (e.g. Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter) and many more. We start with a systematic analysis of search and recommendation services as a commercial good, highlighting the changes to these services by the systematic use of algorithms. Then we discuss benefits and risk for welfare arising from the widespread employment of algorithmic search and recommendation systems. In doing so, we summarize the existing economics literature and go beyond its insights, including highlighting further research desires. Eventually, we derive regulatory and managerial implications drawing on the current state of academic knowledge

Differences in the voting patterns of experts, peers, and fans - analyzing the NFL’s all-star team selections

Experts’ voting behavior is conjectured to be more objective than peer voting (own group/ peers) and public voters (everyone interested), who are supposedly influenced by all sorts of subjective aspects. We examine differences in voting behavior between these groups by analyzing the voting outcomes for all-star teams in American Football. This paper analyzes the impact of performance as well as non-performance markers and team effects on the voting outcome. It contains a comparative analysis across the mentioned groups to elaborate on differences. The econometric analysis uses unbalanced panel data of All-Pro and Pro Bowl player selections over 78 seasons (1951-2019). It applies panel probit regression to assess the impact of the markers on the outcome probability of winning one of the All-Star awards. We find that expert, peer, and public voting show similarities and are partially driven by the same performance and non-performance markers. However, none of the three analyzed voting systems is free from the influence of non-performance markers. We find exposure effects as well as effects from team affiliation in all of them, including in fact expert voting. Positive effects of team success are found in expert and, to a lesser extent, in peer voting. Team-specific effects are found in public voting, providing evidence for partisanship voting by fans. Our results shed doubt on the suspected objectiveness of expert voting. Furthermore, they fortify the notion of public voting being inefficient at identifying objective quality and extend the literature on voting biases among experts, peers, and the general public

Die Hörspielserie „Die drei ???“ - der wirtschaftliche Erfolg und Gründe dafür

Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt den beeindruckenden wirtschaftlichen Erfolg der Hörspielserie "Die drei ???". Die Serie hat also nicht nur bei Fans Kultstatus inhaltlich erreicht, sondern erreicht mit rund 50 Millionen verkauften Tonträgern bzw. Verkaufseinheiten, einem Umsatz von etwa 260 Millionen Euro und einem Gesamtgewinn von rund 220 Millionen Euro in mehr als 39 Jahren wirtschaftliche Daten von international bekannten Musikstars. Statistisch und im Durchschnitt gesehen lässt sich also in jedem der rund 42 Millionen Haushalte in Deutschland im Jahre 2018 mehr als ein Tonträger der "Die drei ???" finden. Die Erklärung des Erfolges der "Die drei ???" ist mit Sicherheit vielfältig. Die Ergebnisse der Befragungen zeigen, dass ein hoher Anteil der Hörenden "Wiederholungstäter" ist. Diesem Verhalten liegen insbesondere und im weitesten Sinne nostalgische Aspekte und Erinnerungen zugrunde. Ein Einflussfaktor hierfür ist offenbar die seit Beginn an gleichen Stimmen die Hauptcharaktere. Ein weiterer die im Prinzip inhaltlich ähnliche Konstruktion der einzelnen Folgen, die eine Vertrautheit mit den Charakteren bewirkt und auch den Wiedereinstieg in die Reihe wesentlich erleichtert. Die Gründe, warum viele Hörerende den nostalgischen Aspekt suchen und offenbar in ihrem jungen Erwachsenensein benötigen, scheinen die Lebensumstände zu sein. Dies mag auch die zentrale Begründung dafür sein, warum viele der Nutzenden die Hörspiele zum besseren Einschlafen nutzen.This article shows the impressive economic success of the radio play series "The Three Investigators". The series has not only achieved cult status among fans in terms of content, but has also achieved economic data from internationally known music stars with around 50 million records or sales units sold, sales of around 260 million euros and overall profits of around 220 million euros in more than 39 years. Statistically and on average, more than one recording of "The Three Investigators" can be found in each of the approximately 42 million households in Germany in 2018. The explanation for the success of "The Three Investigators" is varied. The results of the surveys show that a high proportion of listeners are "repeat offenders". The reason for this behavior that seems to be in the foreground here are, in particular and in the broadest sense, nostalgic aspects and memories. One reason for this is apparently the voices of the main characters that have been the same since the beginning. Another is the construction of the individual episodes, which is basically similar in terms of content, which creates familiarity with the characters and also makes it much easier to get back into the series. The reasons why many listeners look for the nostalgic aspect and apparently need it in their young adulthood seem to be life circumstances. This may also be the main reason why many users use radio plays to fall asleep better