The content offered by media platforms: toward a necessary conceptualization of streaming programming

Abstract

The core programming activity of the traditional television business has been strongly impacted by the disruptive alteration of the media ecosystem caused by over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Despite the new programmatic challenges that this suggests, such as conquering global audiences or defining engagement strategies appropriate to new consumer habits, OTTs share the needs of linear television that justified the development of television programming. The main objective of this work is to verify the validity of programming in the new context of nonlinear consumption and to determine the importance of the different factors that determine it. The premise is that programming is an enduring activity, regardless of the structural changes in the ecosystem. The factors that condition the activity linked to the development of the offering and, therefore, the function of the platforms as content providers continue in force. However, the impact of these factors varies depending on the different needs of the platforms in comparison with linear television. A hypothetical-deductive methodology is applied based on a literature review of factors related to television programming, followed by an exploratory and descriptive analysis of the main platforms operating in Spain. The results contribute to the generation of a conceptualization of programming as a fundamental activity in the streaming platform system.