Consumer demand and audience behavior

This chapter focuses on how technology and content developments have changed and will continue to change the concept of audience and the relationship between media and their audiences. These developments and their impact on new ways of understanding audiences will constitute central issues in media economics and media management research. More specifically, the aim of this chapter is to analyze three key issues that deserve to be researched more thoroughly to improve understanding of audience behavior and consumer demand in complex times: competition for audiences, audience engagement and audience measurement. The main conclusion of the chapter is that a better understanding of media users—their interests and preferences, their perception of value, the reasons for their media choices and their satisfaction with their “media diet†—will be the basis of the best audience research in the years to come.