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  5. Volume 14, Issue 3, 2023

Journal of Digital Media & Policy - US-Based SVoD Providers in Europe: Impacts and Challenges, Sept 2023

US-Based SVoD Providers in Europe: Impacts and Challenges

US-Based SVoD Providers in Europe: Impacts and Challenges, Sept 2023

Language: English
  • Editorial

      • Editorial

        https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp_00129_2

        This articles serves as editorial introduction to the ’s Special Issue on ‘US-Based SVoD Providers in Europe: Impacts and Challenges’. It starts by a reminder of the importance taken by US-based SVOD in Europe, and their ambiguous impact. On the one hand, they play a key role in terms of audio-visual creativity and innovation. On the other hand, they have been at the centre of many policy debates regarding notably their impact on the production and consumption of European content. The objective of the Special Issue is to analyse such impact using various empirical approaches and comparative analyses. This is done via five articles, two short commentaries and three book reviews, which are briefly presented in the end of this editorial introduction.

  • Articles

      • SVoDs, new norms and the challenge for public service media

        https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp_00130_1

        The growing popularity of subscription video-on-demand services (SVoDs) has transformed the European media landscape, re-shaped consumption habits, fragmented audiences and made it more difficult for public service media (PSM) organizations to engage especially younger audiences. This article analyses challenges, such as competing against the immense commissioning power of SVoDs, faced by PSM. Focusing particularly on the UK experience, it highlights how, despite the growing prevalence and popularity of SVoDs and their role in promoting wider circulation for material drawn from a variety of international sources, PSM organizations are still recognized by audiences and by television programme-makers as being pivotal to provision of certain sorts of quintessentially local content. As this article argues, the rise of global streamers has both accentuated and altered the ways in which PSM deliver public value, effectively re-positioning PSM as elements of what might be seen as critical media infrastructure.

    • Screen agencies as policy intermediates between small nations and transnational SVoDs

      https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp_00131_1

      This article presents original empirical research on the interaction between national screen agencies and transnational subscription video-on-demand services (SVoDs). Using interviews with agency executives in several small nations, it examines the dynamics of power that condition this relationship, framing the interactions as being instrumental and political for both actors. The commodified exchange between agency and SVoD builds mutual narratives of significance at a time of policy change in which both parties are likely to interact more due to the implementation of the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive. This research provides further insight into ways non-regulatory interventions by policy actors attempt to secure more return from SVoDs.

    • More local, more risky, more studio-like: How Norwegian film distributors adapted their strategies to the streaming age

      https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp_00133_1

      Foreign movies, especially on DVD, were a large part of the revenue stream for Norwegian film distribution companies before 2013. This revenue was also relatively predictable compared to the high risk of investing in Norwegian movies. However, the rise of Netflix and other global subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) services not only brought a sudden loss of DVD income, it also reduced access to foreign movies and increased the relative value of the high-risk local movies. This article uses quantitative data on films in Norwegian cinemas from 2008 to 2019 and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders performed in 2019 and 2020 to examine how Norwegian distributors responded to this change. It finds that Norwegian distributors shifted towards a strategy where they are increasingly first-run distributors for local movies at the expense of being sub-distributors for foreign movies. The major local distributors have also become increasingly vertically integrated.

    • Piecing the puzzle of VoD offerings: A comparison of eight US and local services in Flanders

      https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp_00134_1

      The study conducts a catalogue analysis that zooms in on the small market of Flanders (Belgium), and the content strategies of the eight most popular local and US-based players in the market. Through the comparative analysis, we investigate three main directions. First, we analyse the similarities and differences in the catalogue offerings of US and local video-on-demand (VoD) services. Second, we delve into the strategies of local players as they compete with US streamers and other legacy players. Third, we analyse the share and the characteristics of the Flemish titles on offer. The data was collected in the spring of 2022 and consists of 13,500 title entries. The findings point to a set of complex market dynamics. Local services and US-based players are competing and collaborating to create a jigsaw puzzle of on-demand offerings, through various strategies of complacency, resistance, differentiation and diversification/mimicry.

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