Which is better at driving content engagement in streaming apps: a row of content selected by editors or a row selected by algorithms? It’s a trick question. In our experience, the answer to driving engagement is not picking one or the other–it’s using both! You need editorial and data science working in harmony to select and arrange the content in a given row in the way that is most likely to appeal to an individual consumer.
Successful though this approach may be, you may face a battle to make it happen. The data science team at 24i has worked with a lot of streaming services on personalization and all of them seem to go on a version of the same journey. Editorial and data science teams start off hating each other. The editorial teams think there’s no way a recommendation engine can understand the nuances of how humans categorize content. Data teams believe humans can’t possibly choose a single selection of content that will appeal equally to all users of a streaming service. And they’re both right.
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