Live video interviewing emerged as a method for collectng survey data during the COVID-19 pandemic, having rarely been used for survey data collecton prior to this. There is now a need to assess experiences and outcomes from studies that utlised video interviewing, partly with a view to informing the future feasibility of the method in different contexts. This paper reports on the experience of the European Social Survey (ESS) with video interviewing, having used this approach as a complementary method to in-person interviewing at its 10th round (2020-2022). The ESS can provide a unique perspectve, being the first cross-natonal survey to use video interviews. In total, 17 countries offered video interviewing alongside in-person interviewing at ESS Round 10. In this paper, we present a range of results based on ESS Round 10 in two main categories. We first look at the effectveness of the implementaton of video interviewing and then compare quality between video interviews and in-person interviews across various indicators, including interviewer effects. The results show that the prevalence of video interviews varied widely between countries, likely relatng to natonal contextual factors. However, in countries where a large share of video interviews was carried out, we found that the interview experience was rated positvely, and quality indicators were closely comparable with in-person interviews. These results suggest that future use of video interviewing may be more feasible in some countries that others, but in certain contexts it has the potental to offer an effectve complementary opton to in-person interviewing.
