Film Studies

In the film and television industry, many social movements as #MeToo, #BuryYourGay or #BlackLivesMatter have highlighted the necessity of better representations of marginalised communities on and off screen. As diversity and inclusion have become major issues in contemporary societies, video-on-demand (VOD) platforms have publicly committed to diversify representation in the films and series they produce and distribute. This article investigates how streaming platforms with different commercial or public interests and in different national contexts understand and promote diversity and inclusion through the analysis of paratext. ...

This article proposes a modified reading of Thomas Elsaesser’s theories of cinephilia, taking into account the new viewing practices established by the rise of online media streaming. Elsaesser characterised early film culture (labelled as ‘take one’) as rooted in celluloid and marked by a longing to view films that were not always easily available. ...

Using Netflix as a lens, this article identifies and unpacks three central interrelated myths – binge-watching, on-demand, and big data – surrounding global video-on-demand services. These myths are problematic because they make certain ideas about these services seem natural and self-evident, restricting our understanding of their role in culture and society. ...

This text examines the phenomenon of the wide-ranging acquisition of archive films into the Netflix library and tries to understand it in terms of the current situation in the VOD market and the perspective of redefining the importance of film heritage in the streaming era. ...

This article examines Netflix’s recycling content strategies in the era of streaming cinema. It starts from the assumption that because of the different institutional logic at work in the land of SVODs, the affordances that recycled content brings may not be as effective (and necessary) as it has been in Hollywood. Using a database-centered approach, we analyze 658 Netflix Original films. ...

The In Focus section of this issue from 2020 looks at the global impact of Netflix.

As video-on-demand services have taken a central position in audiovisual distribution in European markets, over-the-top viewing has become increasingly popular. This shift has heavily impacted consumption patterns and exposure diversity, as they are reshaped by non-linear distribution and technological affordances. This article aims to integrate debates on discoverability and prominence within wider research on video-on-demand consumption. ...

Kanopy, a streaming service that had long catered quietly to the educational market, began to appear in late 2017 and early 2018 in stories in prominent news outlets with headlines that emphasized its role as a free streaming service: “How to Stream Thousands of Free Movies Using Your Library Card,” ...

... This article intends to bridge the gap between these two worlds and reframe the discourse of research into modern library analysis, turning away from the “how” media gatekeeping is being experienced by academic librarians and towards “what” media is being withheld. ...

With the renewed popularity of teen television, SVOD services such as Netflix are increasingly investing in the production and distribution of teen series. Netflix is one of the first SVOD service to have adapted the genre outside of the western world. This transnationalisation of teen television is, we argue, infused with the streamer increasing emphasis on diversity. ...

Netflix has commissioned and released an increasing number of high-end international series that tap into the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror. These follow one of two strategies: (1) local productions that engage with local folklore and myths, or (2) productions centred in the ‘West’, where international talent is brought in to create cosmopolitan ‘global’ TV events such as 1899 (2022). ...

The unprecedented growth of video-on-demand (VOD) streaming platforms has brought both new optimism and new complications to concerns around screen ‘diversity’. To what extent have major global and smaller regional VOD platforms invested in screen diversity, at the level of genres, languages, country-of-origin, social representation or creative labour? Just how ‘diverse’ are the catalogues of VOD services? How is this content represented to audiences and made discoverable through platform interfaces and recommendation systems? ...

As television is embracing a new set of internet-related technologies, the medium is transitioning from broadcasting to streaming. With it, a new mode of distribution has emerged: the streaming platform. This research makes a three-pronged effort to assess their impact on the TV industry: it analyses the way platforms monetize content; it distinguishes types of streaming platforms based on a set of criteria that includes supply-chain arrangements and the way they structure commercial transactions among different sets of participants, and it considers the ownership of streaming services. This article contributes to media and communication studies by combining the platform literature with global value chain (GVC) theory in order to foster our understanding of streaming platforms. It contextualizes streaming platforms in the history of television and analyses how they are transforming the medium. ...

Viewers are overloaded with content. And as Netflix and other major services are now learning, blind excess comes at a cost. ...

This group of articles, which arose from a panel planned for the 2020 annual meeting of members of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, draws attention to an unpopular but inescapable issue: the adverse environmental effects of streaming media. ...

Streaming Media is a diversified news media company serving and educating the streaming media industry and community.

... Streaming Video maps this international production boom and what it means for producers, audiences, and storytellers. Through eighteen richly textured case studies, ranging from original Korean dramas on Netflix to BluTV’s experimental Turkish series, the book investigates how streaming services both disrupt and maintain storytelling traditions in specific national contexts. ...