Streaming Factories

This edited collection examines the creative labor impact of the evolving media globalization strategies used by several of the major US subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and Peacock. Using the highly integrated fields of critical media industry studies, production studies, platform studies, and cultural studies, this collection explores the interplay between 21st century tech and media corporations, and domestic and international production cultures. The first half of the collection examines US SVODs’ varied efforts to manage transcultural production frictions in overseas markets by encouraging production side cultural hybridity, implementing physical enclosures, and filming overseas. The second half of the collection focuses on a major shift underway as several of the leading SVODs introduce surveillance-driven advertising technologies to disrupt the digital advertising space by monetizing consumer engagement with story-driven, metaverse-like, direct-to-consumer (DTC) digital enclosures. Featuring contributions from top scholars worldwide, the chapters cover a range of global markets, including Hungary, Poland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, South Africa, and Kenya. This book is key reading for students, scholars, and researchers of media and screen industries, as well as practitioners interested in learning more about the strategies used by US SVODs to infiltrate the global marketplace.