Articles by Alexa Scarlata
Streaming services like Netflix are revamping TV classics in a bid to attract – and keep – new au... more Streaming services like Netflix are revamping TV classics in a bid to attract – and keep – new audiences
The recent introduction of video streaming services into the Australian television industry has a... more The recent introduction of video streaming services into the Australian television industry has already had a significant impact on the local broadcast and subscription ecology. Undoubtedly, the sudden influx of foreign content and choice, paired with increased content deregulation, will have considerable ramifications for the Australian production industry in the long term. While many have predicted widespread devastation, this paper suggests that access to ‘big data’ and increased audience ‘addressivity’ (Hallinan and Striphas 2014, 13) could in fact serve to protect and promote the continued production and consumption of local drama content via this ‘new screen’ option.
What’s the point of watching TV when you have to wait an age to talk about it?
Conference Presentations by Alexa Scarlata
This case study will compare the two national streaming services of Australia and Mexico, Stan an... more This case study will compare the two national streaming services of Australia and Mexico, Stan and Blim. Stan launched in February 2015, in anticipation of Netflix’s arrival a month later. Netflix’s expansion into Mexico in 2011 preceded that of Blim, which arrived in February 2016. While it might seem incongruous to compare the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms of these two disparate countries, they have an eerily similar relationship and approach to competing with Netflix. Both have embraced the futility of trying to compete with the much-heralded “quality” content coming out of the United States, which was popular in Australia and Mexico long before the advent of Netflix. Stan and Blim have instead experienced relative success by focusing on the production and distribution of content that is uniquely reflective of their national audience. This comparative study will propose that despite Netflix’s best efforts to establish itself as a “truly global” service, these national SVOD platforms are able to capitalise on the fact that it will never become “truly local”.
Papers by Alexa Scarlata
Palgrave global media policy and business, 2022
Journal of Digital Media & Policy
Review of: The Politics of Public Broadcasting in Britain and Japan: The BBC and NHK Compared, He... more Review of: The Politics of Public Broadcasting in Britain and Japan: The BBC and NHK Compared, Henry Laurence (2023) London and New York: Routledge, 236 pp., ISBN 978-1-03231-038-1, h/bk, USD 170.00
International Journal of Cultural Policy
Journal of Digital Media & Policy
Review of: Digital Media Distribution: Portals, Platforms, Pipelines, Paul McDonald, Courtney Bra... more Review of: Digital Media Distribution: Portals, Platforms, Pipelines, Paul McDonald, Courtney Brannon Donoghue and Timothy Havens (eds) (2021) New York: New York University Press, 392 pp., ISBN 978-1-47980-678-2, p/bk, USD 35.00
Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business
There are rapidly growing concerns worldwide about the impact of content aggregation and distribu... more There are rapidly growing concerns worldwide about the impact of content aggregation and distribution through digital platforms on traditional media industries and society in general. These have given rise to policy and regulation across the social pillar, including issues of privacy, moderation, and cyberbullying; the public interest/infosphere pillar, with issues such as fake news, the democratic deficit, and the crisis in journalism; and the competition pillar, involving issues based on platform dominance in advertising markets. The cultural pillar, involving the impact of SVODs on the ability of content regulation to support local production capacity, is often bracketed out of these debates. We argue this divide is increasingly untenable due to the convergent complexities of contemporary media and communications policy and regulation. We pursue this argument by offering three issues that bring policy and regulation together across the platform-SVOD divide: digital and global pla...
Media International Australia
Over the last decade Australia's free-to-air commercial networks Seven, Nine and Ten have und... more Over the last decade Australia's free-to-air commercial networks Seven, Nine and Ten have undergone a protracted digital transformation with the development of their online, ad-supported broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) platforms 7Plus, 9Now, and 10Play. The present article considers some of the questions these commercial BVODs raise for television policy in Australia, with specific reference to local content regulation. Through content audits of 7Plus, 9Now and 10Play, we assess the localism of the BVODs’ catalogues in terms of the availability and discoverability of Australian titles. We find that these BVOD services – which are not presently regulated for local content – are less local in their programming than the networks’ free-to-air linear channels, but are more local than competing subscription video-on-demand services such as Netflix and Prime Video. We also reflect on how the networks position themselves in the newly expanded Australian television market, and how the...
Media International Australia
Over the last decade Australia's free-to-air commercial networks Seven, Nine and Ten have und... more Over the last decade Australia's free-to-air commercial networks Seven, Nine and Ten have undergone a protracted digital transformation with the development of their online, ad-supported broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) platforms 7Plus, 9Now, and 10Play. The present article considers some of the questions these commercial BVODs raise for television policy in Australia, with specific reference to local content regulation. Through content audits of 7Plus, 9Now and 10Play, we assess the localism of the BVODs’ catalogues in terms of the availability and discoverability of Australian titles. We find that these BVOD services – which are not presently regulated for local content – are less local in their programming than the networks’ free-to-air linear channels, but are more local than competing subscription video-on-demand services such as Netflix and Prime Video. We also reflect on how the networks position themselves in the newly expanded Australian television market, and how the...
Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies
Netflix’s status as a personalised service has been central to its business proposition and brand... more Netflix’s status as a personalised service has been central to its business proposition and brand. However, recent changes to include community-based metrics within the user interface – such as the 2020 addition of a national top 10 feature – denote a shift in corporate strategy from personalisation to communal discovery. This article uses a critical communications and media industry studies approach to consider both the data being produced by the top 10 ranking and the broader industrial function of the list, especially within a longer history of audience measurement.
RMIT University, Sep 15, 2017
Journal of Digital Media & Policy, 2019
This report examines the availability and discoverability of Australian film and television conte... more This report examines the availability and discoverability of Australian film and television content on Netflix and Stan. It builds on findings from a 2017 pilot study, produced for the Department of Communications' Australian Screen and Children's Content Review.The report also offers suggestions for interpreting this data in relation to larger changes in Australian and global media markets.Key findings include:Local content makes up 1.6% of the Netflix Australia catalog and 11.1% of the Stan catalogMuch of the Australian television content available on both services has been licensed from the ABC. Almost 60% of Netflix Australia's local television content offering is ABC content.Netflix is increasingly important for the international distribution of Australian content. As was the case last year, there is still more Australian content in the Netflix US catalog than there is in the Netflix Australia catalog.Netflix and Stan are both investing in Australian production.
International Journal of Digital Television, 2018
Journal of Digital Media & Policy, 2021
Review of: Producing Children’s Television in the On-Demand Age, Anna Potter (2020)Bristol: Intel... more Review of: Producing Children’s Television in the On-Demand Age, Anna Potter (2020)Bristol: Intellect Ltd, 188 pp.,ISBN 978-1-78938-291-4, p/bk, USD 37.00
Media International Australia, 2020
This article examines the impact of multinational subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services in... more This article examines the impact of multinational subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services in Australia, noting the degree to which a stalled policy response to the challenge of unregulated SVOD services has been shaken up by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We look at the phenomenon from a screen-ecological perspective – where dynamics of consumption, reviewing, production and regulation are interdependently and often contradictorily in play. We examine how these diverse, sometimes conflicted, perspectives can be approached as responding to new forms of internationalisation presented principally by the operations of Netflix in Australia (Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+ are also mentioned when relevant). This article is part of a larger project (ARC Discovery DP190100978 Internet-Distributed Television: Cultural, Industrial and Policy Dynamics, chief investigators Ramon Lobato, Amanda Lotz, Stuart Cunningham) studying the cultural, industrial and policy dynamics of...
International Journal of Digital Television, 2018
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Articles by Alexa Scarlata
Conference Presentations by Alexa Scarlata
Papers by Alexa Scarlata