< Back Catalina Iordache Guest Professor catalina.iordache@vub.be Coming from an Eastern European background, my life completely changed in the early 1990’s when the colours and fast-moving images of cable TV reached our living room, and I experienced an instant fascination with film, television programmes and music videos. Through my studies, I became interested in the market forces behind audiovisual media and the cross-border flow of content. At SMIT, I have the opportunity to apply qualitative methods in investigating the production and distribution of content, as well as its consumption by diverse audiences. I have been working at imec-SMIT-VUB since 2014, where I obtained my PhD on the transnational flow of media content in the online environment in 2022. I am currently conducting postdoctoral research on the platformisation of Public Service Media (PSM) and am also a Guest Professor and co-titular of the course Media, Culture and Globalisation Theories, for the Digital Media in Europe Master’s programme at the VUB. During my time at SMIT, I have also conducted research on the topics of media literacy, digital literacy and e-inclusion, and acted as Teaching Assistant for the Bachelor in Social Sciences programme. Before joining academia, I worked as a project manager in the cultural field with a community arts organisation based in Edinburgh. I then moved to Brussels and followed the international MSc in Communication Studies at the VUB. I also hold a BA in International Relations, European Studies. Visit my research profile

< Back Serendipity Engine SBO We increasingly rely on algorithmically generated recommendations to navigate in both online and offline contexts: listening to music on streaming platforms, reading news online, or following recommendations about activities and events in your favorite city. These recommender systems help us dealing with the abundance of available information, but at the same time raise questions about their impact on individual citizens and society. Many advocate for designs for serendipity in recommenders, but what does this mean in practice? While serendipity is generally understood as a beneficial design principle ought to deliver societal value, putting it into practice still presents major challenges. The Serendipity Engine project sets out to address these challenges and support societal stakeholders in designing recommender systems to foster serendipity in public contexts. Beyond rational choice: A typology of urban discovery 2026 Read Let Me Introduce You: Stimulating Taste-Broadening Serendipity through Song Introductions 2026 Read Researchers on this project Lien Michiels Postdoctoral Researcher Brett Binst PhD Researcher Annelien Smets Research Professor Consortium partners SBO_ IDLAB.png SBO_ ADREM.png SBO_ IMEC.png SBO_ IDLAB.png 1/3 Tags Recommenders, Artificial Intelligence, Smart City, Diversity and Serendipity Previous Next

Latest updates 1 Jul 2026 Serendipity Cards Want to design for serendipity? Get this practical card set! Read More 16 May 2026 NEW BOOK: Streaming Europe This book presents a comprehensive empirical examination of how global services like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video transform European media streaming Read More 20 Jan 2026 Out now: Handbook of Platform Urbanism Online Book Launch for the Handbook of Platform Urbanism Read More 9 Dec 2025 12 PhD positions available The RePim Doctoral Network is looking for 12 PhD positions Read More 15 Sept 2025 Impressions of IBC 2025 Ulysse’s Impressions of the International Broadcasting Convention 2025: Shaping The Future. Read More 21 Jul 2025 AI Summer School 2025 Aina's recap of the AI Summer School at KU Leuven Read More 15 Jul 2025 Report Published: How to Ensure Visibility and Prominence for Media Services of General Interest in Flanders Commissioned by the Flemish Minister of Media, this research report investigates findability, discoverability, and due prominence for audiovisual and auditive media services. Read More 5 Jun 2025 Ciao from EMMA in Rome! Our presentations at the emma Conference 2025 Read More 22 May 2025 Talking about Stakeholder Perspectives at WMEMC Hanne presented her research on stakeholder alignment for news recommender system development Read More 19 May 2025 Second Annual ALGEPI Workshop Insights on AI, Innovation and Media Regulation Read More 31 Mar 2025 Looking back at IUI 2025 Ulysse attended the conference and presented at the AXAI workshop Read More 27 Mar 2025 Policy Brief on Public Service Media in Belgium Findings and recommendations on the organisational and cultural challenges facing PSM in Belgium Read More 4 Feb 2025 #Etmaal2025 Hanne looking back on her presentation on Stakeholder Alignment for News Recommender System (NRS) Implementation Read More 3 Feb 2025 Call for Papers Special Issue Special Issue on Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms Read More 27 Jan 2025 New Policy Brief: Streaming Public Service Television in the Age of Platforms Evaluating Public Service Media (PSM) in-house video-on-demand (VoD) services Read More 4 Nov 2024 New policy brief: International versus local VOD In a new policy brief and webinar, we present the findings of research on motivations of Flemish viewers Read More 1 Nov 2024 New report of the Fair MusE project New report "From Value Networks for Recorded Music to Music Ecosystem" Read More 28 Oct 2024 Diversity in VOD services: Seminar highlights from Madrid Throwback on the international seminar on diversity and VOD services Read More 23 Oct 2024 Looking back at RecSys 2024 Sharing our reflections on the ACM RecSys Conference 2024 Read More 16 Oct 2024 New research network for VOD research methods A new website with all there is to know about Video-on-Demand (VoD) research methods Read More

Publications Filter by Tags Select Tags Let Me Introduce You: Stimulating Taste-Broadening Serendipity through Song Introductions Brett Binst, Ulysse Maes, Martijn Willemsen, and Annelien Smets. 2026. Let Me Introduce You: Stimulating Taste-Broadening Serendipity through Song Introductions. In 34th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP ’26), June 08–11, 2026, Gothenburg, Sweden. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 10 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3774935.3806164 Read More FIRE: A Modular Framework for Prototyping and Evaluating Interactive Recommender Explanations Ulysse Maes, Cedric Waterschoot, Francesco Barile, and Nava Tintarev. 2026. FIRE: A Modular Framework for Prototyping and Evaluating Interactive Recommender Explanations. In Proceedings of the 34th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 484–486. Read More You Might Also (Not) Like … : Newsroom Wariness to News Personalisation? Errando, A., Afilipoaie, A., & Ranaivoson, H. (2026). You Might Also (Not) Like … : Newsroom Wariness to News Personalisation? Journalism Practice , 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2026.2682271 Read More Frustrations with Access to Preferred Content: User Experiences with Bilibili’s Recommender Systems Reflected on Weibo Li, D., Ranaivoson, H., & Ballon, P. (2026). Frustrations with Access to Preferred Content: User Experiences with Bilibili’s Recommender Systems Reflected on Weibo. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction , 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2026.2669039 Read More Multistakeholder challenges and opportunities of news recommender systems in newsrooms: a comparative systematic literature review Errando, A., Vandenbroucke, H., & Kulig, M. (2026). Multistakeholder challenges and opportunities of news recommender systems in newsrooms: a comparative systematic literature review. Annals of the International Communication Association Read More Beyond rational choice: A typology of urban discovery Binst, B., Michiels, L., & Smets, A. (2026). Beyond rational choice: A typology of urban discovery. Tourism Management , 113 , 105327. Read More Towards Adaptive Mixed-Initiative Media Recommender Systems with LLMs Ulysse Maes. 2026. Towards Adaptive Mixed-Initiative Media Recommender Systems with LLMs. In Companion Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI '26 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 231–233. Read More Not that personal: A qualitative study of personalization practices on six European public streaming service Münter Lassen, J., Iordache, C., Martin, D., Bruun, H., Świtkowski, F., Nucci, A., & Johnson, C. (2026). Not that personal: A qualitative study of personalization practices on six European public streaming service. Television & New Media , 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/15274764251415356 Read More Understanding user preferences in recommender systems: A systematic review with a user-centric perspective in the audiovisual domain Li, D., Smets, A., & Ranaivoson, H. (2026). Understanding user preferences in recommender systems: A systematic review with a user-centric perspective in the audiovisual domain. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies , 103741. Read More Dubbing wars: localisation strategies of transnational streaming services for Spanish ‘original’ works Gallo, P., & Iordache, C. (2026). Dubbing wars: localisation strategies of transnational streaming services for Spanish ‘original’ works. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies , 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856526141627 Read More Welcome to the Metrics Jungle: Organizational Stakeholder Perspectives on Evaluation of News Recommender Systems in Industry Vandenbroucke, H., Michiels, L., & Smets, A. (2025). Welcome to the Metrics Jungle: Organizational Stakeholder Perspectives on evaluation of news recommender systems in industry. ACM Transactions on Recommender Systems, Highlights of RecSys ’24. https://doi.org/10.1145/3778173 Read More From Experimentation to Strategy: The Ambidextrous Balancing Act of Developing News Recommender Systems Vandenbroucke, H., & Smets, A. (2025). From experimentation to strategy: the ambidextrous balancing act of developing news recommender systems. Journal of Media Business Studies , 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2025.2590880 Read More

Main Research Tracks News Recommenders in Small Media Markets Recommenders Read More LLMs and Recommenders Recommenders Read More Public Service Media and Platformization Platforms Read More Affiliated projects Advancing Media Recommendations through a User-Centric Understanding of Preferences, Experiences, and Agency Recommenders, User studies Read More Revisioning Public Interest Media Platforms, Public Service Broadcasting Read More Serendipity Engine Recommenders, Artificial Intelligence, Smart City, Diversity and Serendipity Read More Streaming Affordances for small media markets Platforms, Public Service Broadcasting, Streaming Read More Understanding Algorithmic gatekeepers to promote Epistemic welfare Artificial Intelligence, Platforms, Regulation, Media Policy Read More All our affiliated projects are part of the Media Economics & Policy unit at imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel . Researchers in this unit work on fundamental and applied research tracks seeking to advance knowledge on how digitalization, internationalization, and platformisation are impacting the business models of traditional media players, how these media players innovate and interact with new players, and how governments contribute to sustaining or strengthening local media ecosystems. The Media Economics & Policy unit is headed by prof. dr. Tim Raats . Click here to learn more about other projects in the Media Economics & Policy unit

Research Team Tim Raats Associate Professor Annelien Smets Research Professor Jeroen Peeters Senior Researcher Manager Pieter Van der Elst PhD Researcher Brett Binst PhD Researcher Pieter Ballon Full Professor Heritiana Ranaivoson Research Professor Adelaida Afilipoaie Postdoctoral Researcher Hanne Vandenbroucke PhD Researcher Dongxiao Li PhD Researcher Wendy Van den Broeck Associate professor Catalina Iordache Guest Professor Lien Michiels Postdoctoral Researcher Ulysse Maes PhD Researcher Aina Errando PhD Researcher

< Back News Recommenders in Small Media Markets Hanne Vandenbroucke PhD Researcher In a four-year doctoral journey, my research delves into the implementation of recommender systems within news organizations through the lens of media strategies. This comprehensive exploration is divided into two key phases, addressing distinct facets of this transformative technological landscape. 1. Strategic Decision-Making Processes The initial phase of my research centers on unraveling the strategic decision-making processes in the development and implementation of recommender systems within news organizations. Drawing on a multi-stakeholder and multi-objectives framework, scrutinizing the complexities surrounding the strategies in commercial news organizations. From a multi-stakeholder perspective, this research identifies diverse entities such as newsrooms, technology departments, and marketing teams, each holding unique objectives and values. This framework allows to dissect conflicts, trade-offs, and (mis)conceptions that shape the strategic landscape, offering insights into how recommender systems align with overarching organizational goals. 2. User Journeys and Experiences In a second phase the focus shifts towards a user-centric perspective. This stage of the research aims to map user journeys and experiences and examine the added value brought about by recommender systems in the realm of news consumption. By closely examining interaction touchpoints, user preferences, and experiences, I seek to uncover the nuanced ways in which recommender systems influence and enhance the user journey. This comprehensive, dual-phased approach reflects the goal of this PhD to comprehensively understand the role of recommender systems in news organizations. By blending strategic decision-making perspectives with an in-depth exploration of user experiences, my research aims to not only contribute to the academic discourse surrounding media strategies but also offer actionable insights for news organizations navigating the dynamic landscape of digital news consumption. Publications Multistakeholder challenges and opportunities of news recommender systems in newsrooms: a comparative systematic literature review 15/05/2026 Welcome to the Metrics Jungle: Organizational Stakeholder Perspectives on Evaluation of News Recommender Systems in Industry 28/11/2025 From Experimentation to Strategy: The Ambidextrous Balancing Act of Developing News Recommender Systems 22/11/2025 Not One News Recommender To Fit Them All: How Different Recommender Strategies Serve Various User Segments 22/09/2025 It’s (Not) All About That CTR: a Multi-Stakeholder Perspective on News Recommender Metrics 01/09/2024 Towards a Pragmatic Approach for studying Normative Recommender Systems 18/09/2023 Supervisors Pieter Ballon Full Professor Annelien Smets Research Professor Related news 2 Ciao from EMMA in Rome! Our presentations at the emma Conference 2025 2 Talking about Stakeholder Perspectives at WMEMC Hanne presented her research on stakeholder alignment for news recommender system development 2 Second Annual ALGEPI Workshop Insights on AI, Innovation and Media Regulation Previous Next

< Back 12 Feb 2024 Reflections on the research presented at Etmaal On Thursday 8th and Friday 9th February 2024, Hanne Vandenbroucke and Ulysse Maes attended the 26th edition of Etmaal van Communicatiewetenschap in Rotterdam. At this two-day conference, researchers from Communication Sciences in Belgium and The Netherlands unite to present their projects, get feedback from peers, and be inspired by the work of others. They were invited to present their work-in-progress during the Research Escalator. In this blogpost we highlight the key take-aways from their presentations. Multi-stakeholder approach to news personalization - Hanne Vandenbroucke What lies behind the "For you", "Read more" or "See also" sections on the website or mobile app of your favorite news brand? By conducting stakeholder interviews with professionals working in commercial news organizations operating in Flanders: DPG Media, Mediahuis and Mediafin; We aim to map the development and implementation of recommender systems. The key internal stakeholder groups involved in and impacted by news recommender systems are: (1) the newsroom, (2) the technical development, and (3) the commercial business unit. Based on the stakeholder interviews, we are able to build upon the multi-stakeholder framework of Smets et al. (2022) . The preliminary results give insights in the actual decision-making process for recommender development. News organisations started experimenting with a news recommender system on average 3 years ago. The initial process of trial and error had transformed into an ongoing cycle of adjusting the RS design. In practice both the newsroom and the business unit express their objectives, preconditions and concerns to the product owner who aligns the different perspectives and formulates a concrete set of goals. Next, the technology development team will operationalize these objectives into computational metrics and adjust the recommender system design. Performance data is continuously being collected and monitored. A feedback loop set up to communicate the results of the adjusted recommender to the product owner who – together with the data analytics team – derives insights from the data and report back to the business unit and newsrooms. Exploring the influence of misleading explanations on the perceived quality of recommender systems – Ulysse Maes Nowadays, recommender systems are everywhere: you find them on Amazon, on Netflix and Spotify, for example. These algorithmic curation systems help internet users to efficiently navigate through vast amounts of content. While holding clear advantages in terms of user experience, there are some limitations and normative concerns. One of these concerns stems from the limited transparency they provide. This may lead to distrust and frustration. Adding explanations may yield different results, which depend on your objectives. (Tintarev & Masthoff, 2007) suggest seven goals of explainable recommendations: effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, scrutability, transparency, trust, and persuasiveness. Note that maximizing for one goal might be beneficial for another (e.g. improving for scrutability- giving users the ability to change the outcomes to their liking- might improve satisfaction). However, optimizing for one goal might also harm other goals. This research specificially dives into the possible conflict between optimizing for persuasiveness and its effects on transparency and trust. By “optimizing for persuasiveness”, we mean creating compelling narratives to persuade users to consume recommended content. For example, when you buy a pair of jeans online, the shop can try to upsell by recommending some white t-shirts and explain the recommendations as “Style advice for the perfect shirt to wear on your new jeans.” A more neutral explanation could be: “Customers also bought.” Persuasion in itself is not problematic, but it might become problematic once it becomes misleading: hiding important information or even lying about the working of the system, or the drivers behind a decision. As explanations are often linked to a conception of transparency, both with end-users and academia, the mere presence of explanations can already lead to increased trust in the system. By crafting compelling but incorrect explanations, it might be possible to manipulate users into consuming certain content, while still giving them a feeling of agency. There are clearly some incentives to create misleading explanations. But do they work? Theory is still inconclusive. While some research mentions the effectiveness of personalized persuasion (Burtell & Woodside, 2023), others highlight the detrimental effects on long-term trust: would platforms really jeopardize this? Another argument against the effectiveness of misleading explanations is that the costs don’t outweigh the benefits – a critique sometimes formulated on explanations in general as well. The field of explainable AI recognizes the immense potential of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, to generate personalized, dynamic explanations at scale. It has already been shown that these explanations can be more persuasive than human-generated texts. One of the reasons why we do not see LLM-generated explanations popping up everywhere, is because of their tendency to “hallucinate” - to make up plausible, but incorrect narratives. Previous Next A glimpse into our work-in-progress

< Back Pieter Ballon Full Professor pieter.ballon@vub.be Professor Pieter Ballon is Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences, director of imec-SMIT and Vice-Rector of Research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is also co-founder of the European Network of Living Labs and of the Hannah Arendt Institute. Prof. Ballon holds a PhD in Communication Sciences and an MA in Modern History. He is the co-founder of the European Network of Living Labs, the Open Agile Smart Cities network and the Hannah Arendt Institute. From 2017 to 2021, he was the VUB Academic Chair on Smart Cities. His expertise lies in Digital Platforms, Business Model Innovation and Smart Cities, on the subject of which he has a.o. published the popular book “Smart Cities : hoe technologie onze steden leefbaar houdt en slimmer maakt” . Visit my research profile

< Back Streaming Europe: How Transnational Streaming is Reshaping European Film and Television Markets Iordache, C., & Raats, T. (2026). Streaming Europe: How Transnational Streaming is Reshaping European Film and Television Markets. For media industry scholars, the European market is more than just another territory. It is a unique experiment in cultural governance across a density of languages, institutions, and market structures. ‘Europe’, in this sense, is a problem of knowledge for anyone interested in media, technology, and regulation— no matter where you live. By the same token, Streaming Europe is more than a geographic market study. It is a powerful work of cultural and economic analysis— a book that equips our field with the concepts needed to make sense of the streaming transition as it unfurls across a continent, and around the globe. The US-based global subscription video-on-demand services (Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video) play a starring role in Streaming Europe. Much of the book explores how these SVODs— especially Netflix, the service that ‘set the template, for researchers, but also for other streamers and legacy media’ (Raats and Iordache, Conclusion)— have reconfigured production and distribution across European markets. But this is not the end of the story. Streaming Europe also pays careful attention to the private broadcasters, pay- TV operators, and public service media providers that previously dominated those markets. How these incumbents react to over- the- top competition is a vital piece of the puzzle, too often overlooked in breathless commentary on digital disruption. Other stakeholders considered in this book are the regulators that shape media markets and the politicians— from progressive to populist— to whom they answer. Bringing all these perspectives together, Streaming Europe provides a genuinely holistic account of the streaming industries. Unlike other studies that focus on fragments of a larger whole, Streaming Europe is not content with a micro view. This book has larger ambitions: it wants to tell us how the micro and the macro work together, revealing glimpses of a whole cultural system— from financing and commissioning to translation and user interface design. Edited by Tim Raats and Catalina Iordache, Streaming Europe is the product of years of collaboration by researchers at SMIT (Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. SMIT has long been the world’s leading media economics research centre and is particularly known for its studies of video markets, attracting a respected group of outstanding scholars whose work is influential in the field. Combining the work of the SMIT team with invited essays from distinguished experts, Streaming Europe weaves these years of knowledge and debate into a concise field guide to the economics of streaming. What I love most about SMIT’s approach to media economics is its holistic understanding of markets. This is not the neoclassical economics that strips its objects of culture and history. On the contrary, SMIT research uses institutional, policy, and production-focused perspectives to understand culture. It is historical and humane in its approach. It understands the importance of language and the power of genre. It respects the ways audiences behave, think, and feel. This is a contextual way of thinking about markets, in the best tradition of economic thought. Streaming Europe showcases how this approach can be put to work across the streaming ecology. In sharing this knowledge, the contributors and editors of Streaming Europe have done a great service to streaming scholars worldwide. I can think of no better guide to the turbulence of today’s video landscape than this excellent volume. (Foreword by Ramon Lobato) Platforms Previous Read the article Next

< Back 1 Feb 2024 New report from the PSM-AP project Towards a Future-Proof Public Service Media? Lessons from a comparative analysis in seven media markets Tim Raats, Catalina Iordache imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel Catherine Johnson University of Leeds www.psm-ap.com Public service media (PSM) all over the world have consistently been subject to different forms of societal and technological transition. However, recent years have brought a number of new challenges. These include radical changes in media use, the advent of streaming services and the dominance of big tech. Moreover, the increasing diversity and polarisation of societies have led to the erosion of trust in traditional media. These have challenged the legitimacy of public service media as an institution and project, but have also affected the broadcasters themselves, requiring them to transform into fully digital, online-first organisations. In this context, we present results from the research conducted during the first year of PSM-AP, a large-scale comparative research project analysing ‘Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms’. In this brief, we provide an overview of the dimensions of platformisation, and a series of core findings and discussions on PSM and platformisation, based on the analysis of media laws, broadcast contracts and licences, annual reports, and current policy debates in the following markets: Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Canada, Denmark, Italy, Poland, and the UK. Read the full policy brief here: https://smit.vub.ac.be/policy-brief-72-towards-a-future-proof-public-service-media-lessons-from-a-comparative-analysis-in-seven-media-markets Previous Next Towards a Future-Proof Public Service Media?

< Back 16 Jun 2023 Our key takeaways from the Recommender Systems Summer School in Copenhagen From 12 to 16 June, several researchers from the Media Economics & Policy Unit took part in the Recommender Systems Summer School in Copenhagen. During this Summer School, academics and industry leaders lectured on the practice, research, and state of the art in recommender systems. The lectures covered a broad range of topics from an algorithmic as well as a methodological perspective, including hands-on sessions. This week brought many interesting insights for our strategic research program on recommender systems and this short report highlights some of the key takeaways. Not an algorithm, but a system Recommender systems encompass more than just the algorithm itself. They require the thoughtful implementation of (a combination of several) algorithms that align with specific domain objectives, account for optimal user experience in different contexts, and seek to create mutual value for various stakeholders It is crucial to recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to recommender systems. The strategy employed must be tailored to the specific domain in which the system operates, considering the unique objectives, economic factors, values and challenges inherent to that domain. For instance, in the realm of news, evaluating the system's quality necessitates considerations such as diversity and serendipity, speed and coverage. The recommender system design must consider the overall user experience. This involves understanding the various features and styles influencing users’ interaction with the platform, as well as analyzing the user journey and recognizing the impact of contextual dependencies on their preferences and needs. In both academic literature and practical applications, the primary goal of recommendation systems is to create value. This entails a reciprocal relationship between user values and business values. By addressing user needs and providing quality personalized recommendations that go beyond mere accuracy the system increases short-term engagement. Furthermore, these systems aim to cultivate long-term loyalty and build strong relationships with the target audience. In summary, well-designed recommendation systems enhance user engagement by offering personalized recommendations, optimizing the user experience, reducing information overload, fostering serendipitous discovery, continuously learning and improving, integrating social features, and thereby generate added value for business through increased user satisfaction, retention, and potential revenue growth. End of the artificial clean cut between content? Media mergers are changing the industry. One of the many examples is how RTL XL will become a part of Videoland. The question rises how the video-on demand platforms can blend different content types such as movies, series, TV programs, short clips and livestreams in an appealing way. An answer to that question could be answered by formulating the optimal user experience through recommender systems. Currently, the company is analyzing user behaviour in order to develop models that can be used in online user experiments. A next step will be to start A-B testing to create the optimal recommendation model. The goal of VOD platforms is to have loyal visitors, but it is a metric that moves very slowly. Currently, the recommendation system of the RTL is built up on three different types of recommendations: content-based, popular within the genre and collaborative filtering. Interesting fact: Personalized swimming lanes compared to editorials swimming lanes generate 30 min more viewing time per active user per month. The main goal of “this recommender optimizing project” is to work towards continuous loops. Sequential recommender systems are different in that sense that they convert user’s behavior trajectory into recommended items or services. It takes into account the current and recent preferences of a user for a more accurate recommendations. Implementing this new form of recommender system will be one of the key factors to generate a user interface with “blended content” that answers the customer’s needs. A critical stance in the evaluation of recommenders Being grounded in dominantly quantitative forms of assessment, recommender system evaluation needs to pay sufficient attention to real-world significance of numerical results and to whether outcomes actually make sense in applied cases. For instance, is an overall increase in prediction accuracy of a recommendation an accomplishment when large parts of the user base still receive bad recommendations and their preferences remain ill-defined? A call for qualitative sense-making of quantitative evaluation outcomes was certainly made at the Summer School. Also, research papers that seek to evaluate recommender systems often focus more on (incremental) increases in performance percentages than on a solid basis for their actual evaluation. In terms of relevance for the academic field, consequently, little contributions are made. Papers that are characterised by vagueness and technical complexity thus prevent real progress and cannot form the basis for further research. The lack of valuable longitudinal research in the domain of recommender systems can also be related to this. Lastly, by acknowledging that recommender systems impact not only the intended end-user and that their complex nature implies influences also on those not directly involved, we argue that multiple-stakeholder considerations should be the norm. We realize that the inherent complexity of recommender systems makes this a difficult endeavour. But in our attempts to evade the McNamara fallacy and to research in the most holistic way possible, the aim should always be to keep a multi-stakeholder involvement top-of-mind. Not solely in phases of design or evaluation, but as a constant reflective thought from the outset and throughout. Previous Next Wrap-up of the RecSys Summer School