City Research Online

Abstract

This article analyses the global dominance of three US-based platforms (Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Netflix) on the streaming market. It investigates their reconfiguring of the TV industry around a global value chain (GVC), akin to other highly globalized industries, and characterized by the presence of a few lead firms operating in multiple markets and leveraging hundreds of suppliers worldwide. These streaming platforms benefit from transnational network effects and the coordination of supply chains on a global scale. By building large content libraries and accumulating foreign assets, they are transforming international trade flows in the process. Since 2020, the USA imports more audiovisual services, including movies and television programming, than it exports. This research demonstrates how the impact of these platforms is positive on local creative ecosystems, despite power asymmetries at play, and negative on local broadcasters.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Communication Association. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher Keywords:	digital platforms; global media flows; global value chain (GVC) analysis; media globalization; streaming industry; streaming platforms; TV industry
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Sociology & Criminology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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