It is easy to find out what films, TV shows, and blogs are the most popular. You only need to open YouTube trends or look at the box office statistics for various films. But what do users want to discuss while they are watching? Which content is the perfect base for community building? What’s more important—to binge on something or to share emotions with friends? Perhaps the crucial question is: What content connects people?
Watchers is a white-label solution that allows users to create online rooms on your video platform. Users can watch content simultaneously in these online rooms while chatting by text or voice. At first, Watchers was created as a b2c app, and now it is a SaaS used by companies to boost their business using social mechanisms.
What do users want to discuss while watching
Half a year ago, we launched Watchers App. Over these six months, three services were integrated into the platform: a sports channel, VoD service, and YouTube. Even given that the most famous content from Netflix and Disney+ were unavailable, Watchers met all its users’ needs for different genres: fiction films, TV series, blogs, etc.
We didn’t collect personal data on our users, but we did analyze which content they watched. We carefully looked at their watching patterns and made some fascinating conclusions.
It turns out that fiction is the most preferred genre for co-watching. And this is quite understandable. Feature films provide both length and structure, making it possible to interact with the films as art and with other viewers. Any film offers something to discuss. They also generally contain moments and pauses that allow viewers to switch from immersion watching to conversations in which they share emotions and impressions.
Animated series and TV shows can be considered subspecies of fiction films. But animated series have some peculiarities. A study[1] on binge-watching was carried out several years ago. Its results demonstrated that binge-watching is not only for adults who forget about everything and watch their favourite show until the season finishes. Children binge, too — from toddler age through their teen years, in a specific way.
We find that adults watch from one episode to the next, while children may be inclined to watch only one episode repeatedly. Our analytics prove it: many online rooms with animated series were open for 20 hours. In some rooms, members changed. In other rooms, they didn’t, but a single episode was repeated over and over.
Communication doesn’t work when a user creates an online room with a music clip. Music clips are short and unsuitable for a chat during the process of watching because they need to contain the necessary pauses to facilitate that behaviour. It’s easier to share a video by sending it to a friend.
Why melodramas are better for co-watching
Having discovered that films are the most desirable content for online rooms, we then took a closer look at what works with various sorts of films. There are plenty of genres, and viewing patterns for comedies and art films differ.
We decided not to expand genre diversity: thrillers were related to detective films or horror films, depending upon content, and romcoms to either comedy or melodrama, depending on whether the plot was more primarily funny or primarily romantic. We had based on features of every title. In the beginning, we also separated the category of classic films like Nosferatu or Casablanca. Still, we didn’t have a significant number of these, so we merged them with art films into a single category.
People prefer co-watching melodramas (16.7%) and horror films (16.4%). Detective stories were the least popular for co-watching (1.8%), with action films (3.6%) and drama being just slightly more popular (4.1%).
So, what is it with horror films and melodramas? Why are these opposing genres the most suitable for co-watching and discussion?
According to Linda Williams[2], professor of film studies at the University of California, Berkeley, melodramas and horror films, rather than body genres, induce not only the desire to comprehend but also call out both physical and emotional empathy: fright in the case of horror, and tears in the case of melodrama. The viewer experiences reactions and tends to mimic the emotions occurring on-screen. The heroes in horror films are just as scared as we are, while the characters in melodramas are just as sad and emotional as we become when we watch. Comedies are a different case because, as Williams believes, they help us laugh at the character even when the character is sad. For this reason, viewers like to watch this type of film with others rather than alone. They want to share their emotions with someone else — syncing them with the characters in the movie and other viewers.
Also, melodramas, romantic comedies, and horror films are genres that, more than others, call out engagement, implying a desirable version of closure for the viewer. The perfect closure might be:
- A happy ending in a love story.
- Healing for the main characters, and with horror.
- The survival of the final girl.
In that context, these films are comparable with sports competitions: viewers cheer for the main character’s preferred partner in the same way you might support your favourite football team.
There is another simple explanation about horror films: they are simply less scary to watch when you watch them together. As Linda Williams noticed in her article about physical body genres, in which she talked about her preferences and about the experience of discussing films with her son, “These movies both fascinate and scare him; he is more interested in talking about than seeing them».
The cause of a low mark for the detective film co-watching is related to the type of content. When watching a detective story or crime, you need to pay close attention to the plot and avoid interruptions, with which the pleasure of watching may be lost.
The reason is trivial for action movies. Films of this genre are made for the big screen, and the Watchers App is available only for mobile devices. Analysis of co-watching on SmartTV or desktop computers would provide different results.
Content and community types
Communities are formed actively around certain types of content.
In recent decades, anime and comics have been the most popular types of community-creating content. Anime fans and geeks unite based on their affection for the content. But in our diagrams, both of these occupied only an average position. Why should this be? Did we attract this type of user to our app? Or is this content just not so great for co-watching?
We asked representatives of these communities whether they believe this content has the potential for co-watching. Our respondents tried watching in sync with the appropriate audience and made their call on whether this form of viewing is a match with the interests of geeks and anime fans.
Denis Varkov, Editor-in-Chief at 2x2.media, Author of Encyclopedia of comics. Previously worked as a salesman in a comics bookstore
Films made from comics, as a subgenre of blockbuster films, is quite good work for co-watching, and it is possible to connect, in fact, on several levels.
The first level is clear enough. Such films function according to the established “family blockbuster” formula. This sort of film is spectacular for viewers of all ages. On the second level, films made from comics are a sort of entry into cinematography itself. Such films popularize actors and directors who are not yet famous, the audience becomes more loyal to their following projects, viewing and discussing them more actively.
On the third level, films from comics are a significant sociocultural phenomenon. They are being talked about and promoted so massively that it’s hard at this point not to be “in the know” about it.
Many viewers these days join the cinematic universe looking for a feeling of togetherness and with the goal of better understanding trends.
On the final, fourth level, films made from comics are an extensive medium which goes well beyond cinema. The audience follows projects and a new field of information is forming. For many, discussion or the search for gossip and commentary has become much more interesting than film content itself. After all, this genre lends itself to theory building, so there will always be a subject for discussion.
Nikita Uhin, Co-founder, Director at the “Amazing Dubbing” studio.
Anime forms a big part of modern culture and already unites people into groups. A lot of fans want to watch anime together in live meetings, but are ashamed to do so, making online co-watching the best option, and a good way to share impressions and concerns with others who are “in the know”. This format doesn’t cause any difficulties, after all people who want to feel protected just use nicknames or user pics showing characters, rather than themselves, or can choose to stay anonymous.
It turns out that content from these subcultures certainly does have co-watching potential via Watchers. Therefore, we interpret our data as a sign that we didn’t have enough suitable titles to involve geeks and anime fans and/or that our awareness of these audience groups wasn’t enough. More appropriate content and more detailed targets should lead to more users.
Private or public?
Do users wish to share their favourite content and discuss it with people they don’t know? Or watching parties more of a fit with people users already know?
In Watchers, users can create private online rooms with only a link or join public rooms on the home screen, to which any user is invited. Default settings mean that unless a user specifies general settings when creating a room, the newly created room will be private.
Interestingly, almost half of the rooms created by Watchers users are public, meaning that these are the options users have specified by changing the default setting so that their rooms will be publicly available to anyone. And what content do they most wish to share with the rest of the world? And what content is generally kept private?
We looked closely at the differences between titles in private and public rooms. Films win in both categories, but series and blogs are more prevalent in private rooms, and animated series are watched three times more often in public rooms.
Audience shares of videogame streaming, anime, and comic video are the same for both public and private. Apparently, for audiences for this type of content, who they watch with isn’t so important. So long as they aren’t all alone, it’s okay.
Finally, what’s more important—content or communication?
The article «Watching Video Programs Together at a Distance»[3] mentions a 2013 study that examined co-watching at a distance. The authors conclude: “When synchronized, the video program can act as a shared space and create common ground for conversation.”
Any content forms a basis for communication, which means an invitation to create a new community. Co-watching becomes the basis for conversation, even if content evokes different emotions in different participants.
After the onset of the pandemic, a Guardian journalist described[4] co-watching as a “life-saver,” explaining that it is not so in the case of streaming video or opportunities to communicate but precisely with a mix of these functions.
In general, live communication is as threatening as online communication. Opportunities to socialize carry their risks, but when communication is built around a positive basis, like a favourite film, TV show, or anime, users are ready to join different communities or create new ones.
If you want to learn more or to integrate our solution into your platform, contact us at watchers.io
Text by Alina Kuzio
[1] Sidneyeve Matrix. The Netflix Effect: Teens, Binge Watching, and On-Demand Digital Media Trends
[2] Linda Williams. Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess.
[3] Anna Macaranas, Gina Venolia, Kori Inkpen, John Tang. Watching Video Programs Together at a Distance
[4] Stuart Heritage. Сould this group watching tech gimmick be a lifesaver?
