Research Catalog

Title

Netflix nations : the geography of digital distribution / Ramon Lobato.

Author

Lobato, Ramon

Publication

New York : New York University Press, [2019]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 235 pages : illustrations; 21 cm.

Summary

"Television, once a broadcast medium, now also travels through our telephone lines, fiber optic cables, and wireless networks. It is delivered to viewers via apps, screens large and small, and media players of all kinds. In this unfamiliar environment, new global giants of television distribution are emerging--including Netflix, the world's largest subscription video-on-demand service. Combining media industry analysis with cultural theory, Ramon Lobato explores the political and policy tensions at the heart of the digital distribution revolution, tracing their longer history through our evolving understanding of media globalization. Netflix Nations considers the ways that subscription video-on-demand services, but most of all Netflix, have irrevocably changed the circulation of media content. It tells the story of how a global video portal interacts with national audiences, markets, and institutions, and what this means for how we understand global media in the internet age. Netflix Nations addresses a fundamental tension in the digital media landscape - the clash between the internet's capacity for global distribution and the territorial nature of media trade, taste, and regulation. The book also explores the failures and frictions of video-on-demand as experienced by audiences. The actual experience of using video platforms is full of subtle reminders of market boundaries and exclusions: platforms are geo-blocked for out-of-region users ("this video is not available in your region"); catalogs shrink and expand from country to country; prices appear in different currencies; and subtitles and captions are not available in local languages. These conditions offer rich insight for understanding the actual geographies of digital media distribution. Contrary to popular belief, the story of Netflix is not just an American one. From Argentina to Australia, Netflix's ascension from a Silicon Valley start-up to an international television service has transformed media consumption on a global scale. Netflix Nations will help readers make sense of a complex, ever-shifting streaming media environment."--

Series Statement

Critical cultural communication

Uniform Title

Critical cultural communication.

Subjects

• Television broadcasting
• Video-on-demand
• Streaming video
• International broadcasting
• Netflix (Firm)

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction -- What is Netflix? -- Transnational television: from broadcast to broadband -- The infrastructures of streaming -- Making global markets -- Content, catalogs, and cultural imperialism -- The proxy wards -- Conclusions.

Call Number

JFD 20-3136

ISBN

• 9781479841516
• 147984151X
• 9781479804948
• 1479804940

LCCN

• 2018021508
• 40028872179

OCLC

1038039483

Author

Lobato, Ramon, author.

Title

Netflix nations : the geography of digital distribution / Ramon Lobato.

Publisher

New York : New York University Press, [2019]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Critical cultural communication

Critical cultural communication.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Standard Identifier

40028872179

Research Call Number

JFD 20-3136