Watching the PSB VoDs: Longitudinal patterns in cross-comparisons of 20 European public service Video on Demand services

Video on Demand services are increasingly important for public service broadcasters in their encounter with audiences and in fulfilling public service obligations. Yet, the approaches to presenting the video content in a VoD interface vary considerably among public service broadcasters in Europe. Reasons for this can be many, but this paper attempts to present a typology of European public service broadcasting VoDs (PSB-VoDs) services based on longitudinal data collected from 22 different PSB VoD services from six European countries. The paper extends previous research that characterise PSB VoD service via quantitative methods (Kelly & Sørensen, 2021), not only by scale but also by scope. We apply data mining techniques to see latent patterns in the datasets. The paper aims to present a typology that not only reflects most visible aspects of the VoDs such as the number of videos available, but also more less visible aspects such as the frequency with which the video content appears and disappears at different parts of the page, the naming and movements among of rows and larger changes over time; in short, the means used as part of publishing strategies and -tactics in the VoD space. Hopefully this quantitatively based typology can facilitate and supplement qualitatively-oriented analysis, such as publishing strategies, organisational and policy- analyses of PSB / PSM organisations and their media political environment. The aim is also to expand the methodological toolbox used for describing and characterising Video on Demand services.