Social uses and economic logics of audiovisual on smartphones

Abstract
Watching and delivering video contents on smartphone is a complex phenomenon because it is forming as we investigate it. Both dimensions of mobility and hybridization characterize this new media territory and this thesis explains how their contribution leads to the construction of the social uses and the economic logics. Through several qualitative surveys based on interviews with users and professionals and a long term observation of the TV offers on this new screen, this research analyzes how the users on one hand and the broadcasting industry (TV networks) on the other hand, seize this new screen. This new audiovisual field is put into perspective by drawing up its offers overview and the first observed uses. An original reading of the audiovisual field evolution with the prism of technological, economical and use disruptions is then presented, and the construction of our scientific position is described, by explaining the interdisciplinary approach. Therefore, this research highlights that the mobility contributes to the appropriation of the smartphone as an audiovisual screen, essentially through the dimensions of context, as well as technological, commercial and social constraints. It also analyzes how the techno-economic environment, generated by the mobile platforms (Apple and Google), constrains the deployment of French TVnetworks' business models on this new screen.
With the dimension of hybridization, this thesis explains that the uses are expanding through the interlacing of communication, connection and audiovisual uses. Therefore, Television Networks try to conquer the attention of smartphone users by providing enhanced applications, by spreading in Social Networking Sites and by developing interactive systems between the smartphone and the TV set. But, these new aggregations often come with adverse economic implications.