Dependence in the online screen industry

Abstract

The development of an online screen industry, dominated by a few American and Chinese streaming TV services and video-based platforms, triggers critical questions about the commercial and technological dependence of cultural producers within this industry. Drawing on research in media industries and platform studies, this paper develops a conceptual framework to systematically examine this dependence. Pursuing this aim, we propose to shift the focus from specific video platforms or streaming TV services as the starting point of the analysis to the perspective of cultural producers. Through a discussion of current research, we identify four major sources of dependence encountered by cultural producers in the online screen industry: (1) access to data, (2) algorithmic curation, (3) contractual relations, and (4) monetization. While we recognize that there are vital differences between platforms and streaming TV services, we argue that producers throughout the online screen industry face similar challenges in trying to navigate the four sources of dependence. In short, limited access to data and lack of control over content visibility put cultural producers in a fundamentally weak position vis-à-vis tech companies when negotiating contractual relations and terms of monetization.

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