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MUBI and the Curation Model of Video on Demand

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Mattias Frey

    1. Department of Film and Media Studies, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

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  • Provides the hitherto most comprehensive analysis of MUBI, the world’s most subscribed independent SVOD service
  • Defines and anatomizes a broader spectrum of curation-style VOD services that seek to eschew algorithmic recommendation provide content diversity and expand users’ tastes in a digital age frequently seen to suffer from filter bubbles
  • Provides a new, holistic methodology that uniquely mitigates digital media companies’ lack of candour, especially regarding their user base, by triangulating a whole host of data sources

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Mattias Frey
    Pages 1-13

  3. Curation as Discourse, Trend and Cultural Salve

    • Mattias Frey
    Pages 15-31

  4. The Curation Business Model

    • Mattias Frey
    Pages 33-51

  5. MUBI History: Connections, Community and Curation

    • Mattias Frey
    Pages 53-76

  6. Recommendation Credibility in the MUBI Interface

    • Mattias Frey
    Pages 77-105

  7. The MUBI Audience

    • Mattias Frey
    Pages 107-124

  8. At the End of the Long Tail

    • Mattias Frey
    Pages 125-144

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 145-168
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Keywords

About this book

Subscription video on demand (SVOD) represents the fastest-growing means to consume films and series. Although market leaders Netflix and Amazon Prime have received much scholarly attention for the way that they use algorithms and big data to connect users to content, there is another significant, relatively unexamined model: curation-style services such as BFI Player, IFC Unlimited, the Criterion Channel or MUBI — the latter, which forms the focus of this book, claims to be the world's most subscribed independent video on demand service. These platforms take advantage of common anxieties about algorithms, cultural surplus and filter bubbles to promote discovery, human-generated recommendations and quality over quantity of content. Deploying an original, holistic methodology that includes analysis of technological affordances, marketing rhetoric, business models, interviews with company executives and a qualiquantitative audience study, this book critically analyses MUBI as a way to understand this particular mode of content aggregation, cultural recommendation, choice architecture and community building. Curation services address a real, but decidedly circumscribed gap in the market. Ultimately, MUBI offers film, media and business scholars an instructive example of the fate of art cinema and media diversity in a digital culture increasingly dominated by a few giant tech companies.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Film and Media Studies, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Mattias Frey

About the author

Mattias Frey is Professor of Film, Media and Culture at the University of Kent, UK. He is the author or editor of eight books, including The Permanent Crisis of Film Criticism (2015); Film Criticism in the Digital Age (co-edited with Cecilia Sayad, 2015); and Netflix Recommends: Algorithms, Film Choice, and the History of Taste (2021).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: MUBI and the Curation Model of Video on Demand

  • Authors: Mattias Frey

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80076-5

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-80075-8Published: 13 August 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-80076-5Published: 12 August 2021

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 168

  • Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations, 3 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Film/TV Industry, Digital/New Media

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