Have you ever thought about why you pick television shows and movies to watch? What draws you to that specific genre?

Discussed in Understanding Media Markets and Users class, we realized that sometimes people pick what to watch based on what they know they don’t want to see. Let me explain. If you are scrolling through looking for a date night movie to watch, you may not know if you want a Romantic Comedy or a Drama movie, but you know for sure that you don’t want a scary movie because you dislike scary movies.

Netflix is known for giving a person suggestions for what to watch next, based on what they have previously watched. Watch one Rom-Com and the suggestions are full of love stories for you to watch. They have a filter that adjusts to the specific users account.

TV networks have the same plan in a way. They base what shows go on which channel by looking at the audience. Lifetime has girly shows and movies, because majority of the audience is female. If a network had the option of putting Dance Moms or American Pickers on Lifetime, which do you think they would choose? Dance Moms. Why? Because the audience that tunes in to Lifetime would be more likely to watch it.

There is always a method used when big TV networks make decisions, along with Netflix and Hulu, even if we don’t realize it.