What is the impact of audience sentiment on content viewership?

1. Data Analytics Whitepaper What is the impact of audience sentiment on content viewership?

2. How does audience sentiment impact viewership? Is audience sentiment an early indicator of viewership? Viewing and engagement of digital content are significantly influenced by audience attitude. The audience's sentiment can be defined as their feelings or viewpoints toward a specific piece of media such as a book, television program, article, or social media post. Positive viewer feedback can significantly increase viewership and engagement. People are more likely to share, suggest, and keep consuming comparable information from the same source when they appreciate and connect with it. Positive feelings can result in more viewers, higher ratings, and positive word- of-mouth, all of which help the content succeed and gain popularity, while negative sentiments to the content can do the opposite to the ratings. The audience's sentiment can easily be expressed in the modern digital era through a variety of outlets, such as social media sites, online reviews, and comment sections. Producers and content makers pay close attention to audience feedback to understand how well their work is received and make suitable judgments going forward. To alter their plans, handle issues, and provide material that resonates favorably with their target audience, they may employ sentiment analysis tools and methodologies to analyze and understand the feelings expressed by their audience. In the end, audience feedback is a crucial technique for influencing content viewership and engagement. Content producers can raise the quality, relevance, and appeal of their work and increase viewership and engagement by considering and acting upon the opinions of their audience. 2

3. What is the impact of audience sentiment on content viewership? What are some of the real examples of sentiment leading to bad box office performance, and bad viewership of the content across OTT, TV, etc.? It has been observed that the influence of films or shows on people’s beliefs and opinions, stereotypes, and attitudes is quite prevalent. Movies can significantly alter gender and racial stereotypes, alter attitudes toward specific groups of people, and result in the formation of new viewpoints on a variety of topics. For instance, the portrayal of mental diseases in films has an impact on people's awareness of and attitudes toward those who are suffering from it. TV shows with transgender characters also contribute to good sentiments toward the third gender. Additionally, a movie that encourages empathy for immigrants results in more positive sentiments toward them, and a movie with a positive portrayal of homosexuality decreases a viewer’s inclination for homophobia. Some films affect viewers' attitudes about smoking and their plans to stop, while a television show with a pro-donation theme assists viewers to make decisions regarding their personal donations. The effectiveness of influence has been shown to increase by the emotional participation of the viewer, as measured by surveys that draw on theories of social learning and social representations. On the contrary, there have been incidences where poor audience reception has also resulted in bad box office performance or low viewership across OTT, TV, and movie theatres. Viewership is highly influenced by controversial content, poor word-of-mouth, social media backlash, performers’ overall reputation, vulgarity & indecency, failed franchises, and religious insensitivity, to name a few. 1 Performer’s Reputation: One of the prime examples in recent years is Will Smith’s comeback in the movie “Emancipation” in December 2022, especially after Chris Rock’s infamous slap incident at the Oscars’ ceremony in March 2022. The incident left the public shocked and angry at the renowned actor’s behavior, resulting in a poor public image. Consequently, it was reported by The Blast that the movie became a flop and was also snubbed at the Golden Globe Awards in 2023. 2 Not Kids Friendly Content: Hype House, which is a reality series on Netflix about the lifestyle of TikTok (social media app for short-form videos) influencers, received a lot of criticism even before its release in 2022. Eagle Eye (the student-run newspaper of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida) posted that the content seemed to be unworkable for the younger generation and that they had little to no interest in watching the lifestyle of TikTokers. This resulted in the series being a flop and being rated only one star in IMDb (an online database platform having information about films, television shows/series, podcasts, streaming shows and others). Post its release, it was also stated in IMDb that the cast is off-putting and incredibly shallow. 3 Judiciary Issues: Globally renowned actors, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard had undergone a defamation trial in April 2022, which continued till June 2022. Their court case was popularly streamed across the world on various social media channels and the news. Tubi (an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation) released its original film by the name “Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial” in September 2022, after the final verdict in June 2022. According to the Economic Times, the film didn’t do as well as expected and audience reaction to the trailer was so unforgiving that it ended up earning only 1.5 stars on IMDb. 3

4. What is the impact of audience sentiment on content viewership? 4 Cultural Insensitivity: Furthermore, unfavorable attitudes may be directed toward content that is culturally inappropriate or inaccurately portrays some cultures. Such content may face boycotts or criticism from viewers, which would reduce its visibility and interaction. As reported by CNN, the 2015 movie "Aloha" (an American romantic comedy film where he reconnects with a long-ago love) served as an illustration of this, which received criticism for its casting decisions and cultural depiction. 5 Social Media Backlash: One of the very famous Netflix series, “Insatiable”, received a massive social media backlash before its release in 2018. The trailer was viewed as promoting “body-shaming” and viewers accused the makers of reinforcing beliefs on women and girls, that they must be thin and pretty to succeed in life. This was globally printed by Firstpost and was a clear indicator of how low viewership can result in lower ratings and audience engagement. As it happened, the series received only an 11% rating by Rotten Tomatoes (an American review-aggregation website for film and television) The creators canceled the web series after showcasing two seasons. 6 Controversial Subject: As broadcasted by The New York Times Company, "The Interview" in 2014 had a limited theatrical run before being released on digital channels after receiving major criticism for its depiction of North Korea. 7 Failed Franchises: A successful franchise's subsequent entry that hasn’t been well regarded occasionally causes viewership to drop. For instance, "Terminator: Genisys" in 2015 underperformed at the box office compared to former movies in the franchise due to poor reviews and fan unhappiness, as published by Looper (publisher offering in-depth coverage and up-to-the-minute news on the television and film industry) 4

5. What is the impact of audience sentiment on content viewership? What are the most useful ways to attract more viewership on OTT or other platforms? Word-of-mouth is one of the most useful ways to get consumers to watch new TV shows and movies. As surveyed by YouGov (a British international Internet- based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK) in 2023, 59% and 60% of respondents, respectively, said that word-of-mouth influences their decision. Recommendations from friends, family, or word-of-mouth are the most important factors in Europe and North America. In Europe, 23% of the respondents said they were influenced by social media and online buzz while deciding what to watch, compared to 36% who said they were influenced by reviews, and 27% said that they were influenced by TV advertising. In North America, TV advertising has a greater impact; 33% of the respondents said they relied greatly on them. While 21% claimed that web commercials aided them, only 7% of the respondents said the same about print advertisements, which was a substantial difference. Figure No.1: Recommendations/factors impacting viewers to decide content on OTT or other platforms Note: All the numeric values mentioned in the chart above are depicted in % Recommendations Europe Nort America UAE APAC Recommendations from friends/family/word-of-mouth 59 60 48 57 Reviews online and eIsewhere 36 37 40 43 Social media/online buzz 23 32 44 44 Recommendations from streaming service 22 27 27 29 Online advertising 15 21 38 26 Metareview sites such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic 8 11 15 13 Source: YouGov March 2023 5

6. What is the impact of audience sentiment on content viewership? Value of the ML-based Fan Sentiment Model: Finding out the sentiments early in order to make any amendments possible Web series have gained popularity as the new type of digital content as they can be viewed on mobile devices conveniently at any time. These web series are available on OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney Plus, and many more. A crucial indicator of a video's popularity or user involvement has traditionally been its number of views. As a result, numerous research has been focused on forecasting the popularity of the content (as indicated by video views) on video streaming platforms like YouTube, Flowplayer, etc. Some academics have used categorization techniques to forecast the popularity of video content. Predicting the number of views on a web series presents some difficulties. In order to measure and evaluate the sentiment analysis, there is a dedicated approach that the analyst follows. Firstly, there is no decided value for the number of video views, which has changed dynamically throughout the entire broadcasting process. For producers and investors to make periodic adjustments based on video views, it is important to make predictions in phases. Secondly, some unique characteristics, like episodes and star power, also influence the number of views. Therefore, it is essential to predict video views via sentiment analysis and ML methods and ascertain the important factors that affect video views. Consumer sentiments are determined by a dedicated process, collection, pre-processing of data, feature extraction, ML model, process includes data processing of data, machine learning model, and output. ML tools – modern and increasingly proving to be game changers in predicting video views. Ensemble learning models, such as Random Forest, XGBoost, and AdaBoost are some of the modern ML techniques that have always outperformed traditional ML methods, Bayes, SVM, Deep Neutral Network, and KNN. These tools use input variables such as phased factors, word-of-mouth drama related factors, explicitly employed with the objective of predicting box office, market risk, and traffic flow. including data such as Naive output.. collection, feature and The pre- extraction, factors, been and have traditional – are 6

7. What is the impact of audience sentiment on content viewership? About the Author SMRITI LOOMBA• Senior Analyst - Corporate Research Smriti Loomba, an MBA graduate, has a rich experience of nearly 7 years in secondary research, primary research, and report writing. She has worked on multiple technology projects, covering Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Machine Learning (ML), and Big Data, among others. She helps clients grow their businesses by providing them with industry insights, growth opportunities, Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies, and marketing techniques. Disclaimer This document makes descriptive reference to trademarks that may be owned by others. The use of such trademarks herein is not an assertion of ownership of such trademarks by SG Analytics (SGA) and is not intended to represent or get commercially benefited from it or imply the existence of an association between SGA and the lawful owners of such trademarks. Information regarding third-party products, services, and organizations was obtained from publicly available sources, and SGA cannot confirm the accuracy or reliability of such sources or information. Its inclusion does not imply an endorsement by or of any third party. Copyright © 2023 SG Analytics Pvt. Ltd. www.sganalytics.com GET IN TOUCH Pune | Hyderabad | Bengaluru | London | Zurich | New York | San Francisco | Toronto | Amsterdam 5 7