Translating the Public Service Media Remit into Metrics and Algorithms

After multiple years of providing automated video recommendations in the ZDFmediathek, ZDF has established a solid ground for the usage of recommender systems. Being a Public Service Media (PSM) provider, our most important driver on this journey is our Public Service Media Remit (PSMR). We are committed to cultivate PSM values such as diversity, fairness, and transparency while providing fresh and relevant content. Therefore, it is important for us to not only measure the success of our recommender systems in terms of basic business Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as clicks and viewing minutes but also to ensure and to measure the achievement of PSM values. While speaking about PSM values, however, it is important to keep in mind that there is no easy way to directly measure values as such. In order to be able to measure their extent in a recommender system, we need to translate these values into public value metrics. However, not only the final results are essential for the PSMR. Additionally, it is highly important to establish transparency while working towards these results, that is, while defining the data, the algorithms, and the pipelines used in recommender systems. In our talk we will provide a deeper insight into how we approach this task with Model Cards and give an overview of some models, their Model Cards, and metrics that we are currently using for ZDFmediathek.