Field Notice on Watchlist Accumulation
A user with subscriptions to four streaming platforms reports a watchlist total of 312 titles, a completion rate of 8%, and no memory of adding 74% of the entries.
Field Notice on Watchlist Accumulation Terms and Conditions: Use of the Watch Later Feature
Section 1: Understanding the Watchlist
The watchlist is a feature provided by streaming platforms to allow users to save titles for future viewing. The user adds a title. The title is stored. The title waits.
By accepting the watchlist feature, the user acknowledges the following terms.
Section 2: The Intention Gap
Adding a title to a watchlist constitutes an expression of intent, not a commitment. The expression is recorded. The commitment is not enforceable.
The watchlist is not a to-do list. It is a record of intentions that were sincere at the moment of addition and have since been superseded by a different, equally sincere intention. Both intentions are valid. They cannot both be fulfilled in a time window where the user has approximately ninety minutes of available viewing per day, a watchlist of 312 entries, and four platforms each maintaining a separate, non-consolidated list.
Section 3: The Recommendation Loop
The platform interprets the add-to-list action as a preference signal and uses it to recommend additional titles, which are then added to the list. The list grows. The user's available time does not.
The platform is not responsible for the arithmetic consequences of this arrangement.
Section 4: The Guilt Provision
Titles added to the watchlist more than sixty days prior and not yet viewed acquire an ambient obligation status. The user is aware that the title is there. The title is aware of nothing. The awareness is one-directional but its effects are felt by only one party.
A film that has been on the watchlist for four months and has not been started is experienced differently than a film that was never added. The difference is that the first film has been declined multiple times, which is a more active form of avoidance than the second.
Section 5: The Categorization Problem
In the second year of OTT stacking, the average user's watchlist contains titles across the following categories: things they genuinely want to watch, things they added because a friend mentioned them, things they added because of a tweet that is no longer locatable, documentaries they will watch when they are in the right mood, and foreign language films they intend to watch with subtitles when they have the concentration for subtitles.
The last category is the largest. Concentration-dependent viewing has been deferred continuously since March 2020.
Section 6: Governing Condition
The user retains the right to remove titles from the watchlist at any time. This right is rarely exercised because removing a title implies a decision has been made, and the purpose of the watchlist is to defer decisions indefinitely.
These terms are in effect. The watchlist continues to grow.