| Course Description |
How many people watched that TV show recently? How much “buzz” is that indie film getting compared to the big blockbuster movie? What was movie theater box office performance last weekend? Are people watching on televisions or on mobile phones? Are they using their own Netflix account or someone else’s to watch?
In an increasingly fragmented and complex media landscape, how Hollywood uses data to count and “monetize” viewers helps define “what’s hot” and how film and TV programs can get “greenlit” in the future.
Taught by a former HBO media research executive with long industry experience, this course is designed to provide students with an introduction and understanding of how the media industry is using data to make decisions that shape the art landscape of our times. Data around consumer behavior – what, how and why people are watching – has exploded recently and is extensively used in making decisions about what TV shows and movies to produce, how to promote them and how to distribute them.
The course will explore how the media industry quantifies different kinds of content, the ways in which people watch and pay for that content, and how value is attributed across the media landscape. Students will be introduced to essential "media metrics" (e.g. viewership, box office, engagement, subscriber acquisition and retention) and learn to evaluate different datasets for their integrity and representative insights.
Visiting media executives will discuss how data informs their jobs ("evidence-based decision making"). Assignments will include analytic projects informed by different datasets and a final project presentation highlighting skills in analyzing and presenting insights extracted from media research data. By the end of this course, students will be familiar with key decision-making tools in the media industry and be able to analyze and understand the impact on media output.
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