Analyzing the Emotional Bondage of Serial Fans and Business Decisions on Series Extension in the Context of Impact on the Stock Price of the Providers

The desire of audiences to consume content in a series format, independent of time and place has increased in recent years. Technological advancement has helped this trend progress. In this paper, series are considered as goods whose sales are linked to the degree of viewers’ attention. Thus, the good series operate on two interconnected levels, an economic and an emotional. The decision to invest in the production of another season of a series is intended to increase the number of subscriptions and the associated revenues. Capital market participants are influenced by various emotional biases when making investment decisions under uncertainty. In the context of an event study, it is examined whether announcements of season extensions have a significant influence on the share price of the respective provider. The results show that investors react with a changed investment behavior. Furthermore, findings from the film industry are transferred to series production.