From Networks to Netflix

A Guide to Changing Channels

Derek Johnson, Derek Johnson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000613643
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Now in a second edition, this textbook surveys the channels, platforms, and programming through which television distribution operates, with a diverse selection of contributors providing thorough explorations of global media industries in flux.

Even as legacy media industries experience significant disruption in the face of streaming and online delivery, the power of the television channel persists. Far from disappearing, television channels have multiplied and adapted to meet the needs of old and new industry players alike. Television viewers now navigate complex choices among broadcast, cable, and streaming services across a host of different devices. From Networks to Netflix guides students, instructors, and scholars through that complex and transformed channel landscape to reveal how these industry changes unfold and why they matter. This second edition features new players like Disney+, HBO Max, Crunchyroll, Hotstar, and more, increasing attention to TV services across the world.

An ideal resource for students and scholars of media criticism, media theory, and media industries, this book continues to offer a concrete, tangible way to grasp the foundations of television—and television studies—even as they continue to be rewritten.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Pluto TV: Channels, Portals, and the Changing Television Cosmos
• Broadcast Legacies
• 2 ABC: Crisis, Risk, and the Logics of Change
• 3 The CW: Media Conglomerates in Partnership
• 4 PBS: Crowdsourcing Culture Since 1969
• 5 Telemundo: Telenovelas for the Twenty-First Century
• 6 TV Globo: Global Expansions and Cross-media Convergence from Broadcast to Streaming
• 7 MeTV: Old-Time TV’s Last Stand?
• Cable and Satellite Survivors
• 8 NewsNation: Local Broadcasting, National Cable Channels, and the Evolution of WGN
• 9 Cartoon Network: Adult Swim and the Evolving Use of “Edge”
• 10 Nick Jr.: Shifting Conglomerate Strategies from Scheduling to Intellectual Property
• 11 Freeform: Shaking off the Family Brand within a Conglomerate Family
• 12 Comedy Central: Trying to Grow Up by Getting Younger
• 13 Bravo: Branding, Fandom, and the Lifestyle Network
• 14 AMC: Story Sync and Frictionless Fandom
• 15 Starz: Distinction, Value, and Fandom in Premium TV
• 16 Playboy TV: Contradictions, Confusion, and Post-network Pornography
• 17 El Rey: Latino Indie Auteur as Channel Identity
• Streaming Ventures
• 18 Netflix: Streaming Channel Brands as Global Meaning Systems
• 19 YouTube: The Interface between Television and Social Media Entertainment
• 20 iQIYI: China’s Internet Tigers Take Television
• 21 Amazon Prime Video: Scale, Complexity, and Television as Widget
• 22 The Roku Channel: Vertically Integrated Connected TV
• 23 OTV | Open Television: The Development Process
• 24 Revry: Making the Case for LGBTQ Channels
• 25 iROKOtv: Drama for the “Small-Small” Screen
• 26 Crunchyroll: Contested Authenticity in the Creation of Niche Brand Communities
• 27 Viki: Governing Transnational Fandom via Platforms
• 28 Twitch.tv: Tele-visualizing the Arcade
• Television Plus
• 29 Hulu: Negotiating National and International Streaming
• 30 Hotstar: Reimagining Television Audiences in Digital India
• 31 AbemaTV: Where Broadcasting and Streaming Collide
• 32 Mango TV: The Rise of a State-Controlled Entertainer
• 33 Disney+: Imagining Industrial Intertextuality
• 34 ESPN+: Subscribing to Diversity, Marginalizing Women’s Sports
• 35 Peacock: Network Heritage, Olympic Dreams, and the Transformation of NBC Sports
• 36 HBO Max: Media Conglomerates and the Organizational Logic of Streaming
• 37 Paramount+: “Peaking” Subscriber Interest in Legacy Television Franchises
• Contributors
• Index