Binge-watching the Algorithmic Catalog: Making Sense of Netflix in the Aftermath of the Italian Launch

Following the end of September announcement, the on-demand streaming service Netflix was officially launched in Italy on 22 October 2015. Longly awaited by local fans and enthusiasts of TV series, the launch of the platform in the Italian market provided an opportunity to study the ways viewers expected, reacted, consumed and made sense of the innovative features provided by platform. Framed in the existing literature on TV consumption, binge-watching and algorithms, the study presents the results of a multimethod and multi-staged research effort that combines a quanti-qualitative content analysis of Twitter’s conversations sparked by the launch, and a qualitative analysis of 15 in-depth interviews with younger and older Italian users. Results point out the way Netflix has been incorporated in a set of pre-existing but evolving practices and routines with specific reference to time, space and the process of selecting contents.