How users approach novel media products: brand perception of Netflix and Amazon Prime video as signposts within the German subscription-based video-on-demand market

ABSTRACT

Today, subscription-based video-on-demand (S-VoD) streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are relevant players within the video content value chain by number of consumers and sales volume. These services represent a rich research context to examine users’ brand perception of novel media products. This study investigates Germany’s most popular S-VoD services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video from a perspective of the Function-oriented Media Brand Model. The model is applied to both services in a quantitative online survey (N = 1267). Overall, the results indicate a more favourably media brand perception of Netflix compared to Amazon Prime Video. Findings are discussed with regard to media brand theory and implications for media companies and potentials for future media brand research are outlined.

KEYWORDS:

• Streaming services
• brand perception
• media brands
• Netflix
• Amazon Prime
• survey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We understand binge watching as a positively connotated term that designates a viewing practice of watching consecutive episodes of the same show for at least 2–4 h in succession (Steiner, 2017; Steiner & Xu, 2018).

2. Quality TV is defined as “complex in terms of storytelling, cast, narrative ambiguity, and intertextuality. Due to realistic execution, controversial subjects, and ambiguous characters quality series appear authentic. Moreover, they stand out because of a signature style composed of high production values, distinctive visual style, and techniques fostering reflexivity. Quality TV addresses a special, highly autonomous audience segment. As a meta-genre it supports selection, frames comprehension, and channels interpretation. Quality serial television offers a cognitively and affectively challenging entertainment experience with added symbolic value” (Schlütz, 2015, p. 101).

3. To keep the questionnaire as short as possible, participants only reported on their most frequently used streaming service, i.e. either on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. Due to the fact that Amazon was the leading S-VoD service at the time of the study, this rather large group differences were surprising. However, it sheds a first light on the particularities of the two brands.

4. Following the Berkler’s (2008) model, we compiled the items of both dimensions into a mean index. This approach was warranted as the two dimensions are both theoretically and empirically strongly related, as shown in Section 2. Before we turned to the research questions, we empirically examined the interrelations between the media brand functions postulated by the FoMBM. Our empirical analysis shows that the correlations between media brand functions postulated by Berkler (2008) are confirmed in both subsamples.

5. Although ANOVAs are robust in this respect, the interpretation of the following results should take into account that significant Levene’s test indicate a heterogeneity of variance. This violation of the assumption of homogeneity of variance in combination with the fact of unequal sample sizes, however, might lead to misinterpretations. When the groups with larger sample sizes have smaller variances than the groups with smaller samples sizes (as in this case), the resulting F-ratio tends to be liberal (Field, 2009, p. 360). Significant effects then need to be treated with caution.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vanessa Rahe

Vanessa Rahe studied the Media Management program at Department of Journalism and Communication Research, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (Germany). Her research interests are media economics and innovations, media brands and media marketing, audience research and methods of empirical social research.

Christopher Buschow

Christopher Buschow is Assistant Professor of Organization and Network Media in the Media Management Department at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany). His research and teaching focuses on start-ups, entrepreneurship and innovation in the media industry.

Daniela Schlütz

Daniela Schlütz (PhD, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media) is Professor of Theory and Empiricism of Digital Media at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF (Germany). Her research and teaching interests are digital media culture, entertainment research, strategic communication, empirical research methods and research ethics.