Streaming Platforms and the Frontiers of Digital Distribution

‘Unique Content Regions’ on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney

Bibliographic Data

ID20085629
AuthorsOliver Eklund (0000-0001-9431-1309, corresponding author)
Year2023
Pages197-222
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueThe Sage Handbook of the Digital Media Economy (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherSAGE Publications Ltd (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4135/9781529757170.n12
OpenAlexW4309883020
ISBN9781529757170
LanguageEN
Citations received6

Oliver Eklund provides an overview of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services and the manner in which they each slice up audiences and geography in “Streaming Platforms and the Frontiers of Digital Distribution: ‘Unique Content Regions’ on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+.” Eklund does so using library and catalogue analysis of the streaming platforms Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Netflix in order to reveal the corporate strategies behind the construction of “unique content regions” across these services. These are “the regions on platforms, ranging from a single-country to a raft of countries, where content is exclusively available.” Eklund examines content availability across these three predominant SVOD services and the processes of content licensing and library composition in part as matters of cultural policy. He does so as he is also analyzing the various corporate strategies of conceptualizing and targeting local, regional, and global markets and audiences. In the process, Eklund links the underexplored issue (and economic power lever) of licensing to the broader arcs of streaming services as they have reinvented themselves over the last 15 years, arguing that as players in the digital media economy, they have assumed the role of cultural intermediaries and “facilitators of frictionless trade.” He further examines the recent trend of commissioning, or original content production that has been a part of the streamers’ menu since Lillehammer first appeared on Netflix in 2012. The impact on IP valuation has been profound, as the dynamics of branding, exclusivity, control, and of course insights from data collection on digital audiences have also become part of corporate licensing and library development strategies. The focus on library/catalogue analysis and the divergent approaches to selling content to the uniquely isolated Japanese market provides an empirical case study for readers to better understand how the major streaming platforms are distinct from one another, despite their similar role in the digital media economy

Amazon rainforest · Art · Biology · Combinatorics · Digital video · Multimedia · Prime time · Real-time computing · Telecommunications · Video Streaming · Computer Science · Mathematics · Media Studies and Communication · Ecology

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