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This article investigates how Videoland employs viewer data to support script improvement for its streaming platform.

July 6, 2026Open Access

Beyond Global Streamers: Data-Driven Feedback at a Dutch Streaming Service

HSHanna SurmaUtrecht University JKJudith KeilbachVrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Key Points

This article investigates how Videoland employs viewer data to support script improvement for its streaming platform.
Interviews and observations conducted in 2018-2019 and 2024
Analysis of data-sharing practices between Videoland and creatives
Comparison of Videoland's practices to global streaming services
Videoland shares viewing metrics with screenwriters and producers, unlike global streamers.
Creatives use data to validate and refine their instincts, akin to traditional film industry practices.
The findings challenge the view of streaming as a complete departure from conventional television methods.

Abstract

This article explores how the Dutch streaming service Videoland utilizes viewing data to assist screenwriters and producers in improving scripts to meet the demands of a streaming service. Interviews and observations in 2018–19 and 2024 uncovered practices that differ from the data secrecy associated with global streamers. The article examines how Videoland shares metrics with creatives and how these professionals make sense of the data. Their use of this shared information to validate and refine their “gut feelings” mirrors practices observed in the film industry. Furthermore, the article discusses Videoland’s data-driven feedback as an audience research method familiar from broadcast television and challenges the narrative of the streaming industry as a radical break from traditional television.

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