Media in Asia

Global, Digital, Gendered and Mobile

Youna Kim, Youna Kim

• Verlag: Routledge
• Jahr: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000584356
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Sozialwissenschaften
• Thema: Ethnische Studien

This book is an upper-level student source book for contemporary approaches to media studies in Asia, which will appeal across a wide range of social sciences and humanities subjects including media and communication studies, Asian studies, cultural studies, sociology and anthropology. Drawing on a wide range of perspectives from media and communications, sociology, cultural studies, anthropology and Asian studies, it provides an empirically rich and stimulating tour of key areas of study. The book combines theoretical perspectives with grounded case studies in one up-to-date and accessible volume, going beyond the standard Euro-American view of the evolving and complex dynamics of the media today.

PART I
Global Asia

1 Netflix, the Digital West in AsiaNew Models, Challenges and Collaborations

Anthony Fung and Georgia Chik

DOI: 10.4324/9781003130628-3

Asia has always been prone to the influences of Western and Anglo-Saxon entertainment and popular culture. Cultural globalization, if not cultural imperialism, and deglobalization continue to be issues in both academic and industrial debates (Fung 2013). Global popular culture, including Hollywood movies, American TV series and Western pop music, has become a part of Asian popular culture in different degrees of localization. In the present era of digitalization, online entertainment is no exception. From video platforms such as YouTube to music platforms such as Spotify, platformized digital entertainment has been predominant in Asia.

This chapter focuses on the growing number of digital media streaming platforms in Asia, particularly East Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) services have become increasingly popular in the consumption of television content (Lobato 2018). Conglomerate platforms, such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, have secured a significant market share in Western nations. In 2019, Netflix became the world’s eighth-largest Internet market leader, recording a staggering 266% increase from the previous year (Applify 2020). In 2020, Netflix expanded its paid subscriptions in the Asia-Pacific region by 9.3 million, an increase of 65%, which outperformed Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In an interview, the company’s chief operating officer and chief product officer, Greg Peters, acknowledged the potential of the Asian market (Iyengar 2021).

An intriguing question is whether Netflix, as a Western digital platform for the dissemination of popular culture and entertainment, could become another dominant form of cultural globalization. Would the presence of Western digital media streaming platforms in Asia become another form of global popular culture that competes with, challenges and overshadows local platforms? Could some forms of localization in which Western streaming platforms would collaborate with Asian media productions create and advance the global media landscape? Are there variations in terms of willingness for collaboration among Asian cities and nations? As explained below, the presence of Netflix as the globalizing Western media has encountered strong obstacles. This implies that the argument about a simple, Western form of cultural globalization is not likely to happen in Asia. Rather, this chapter argues that a more viable model of cultural globalization/localization would involve collaboration between Western streaming platforms and Asian counterparts in terms of coproduction of content that is conducive to distributing Asian content globally while Western platforms can smoothly integrate their business in Asia.

Western Digital Media: Their Rise and Venture into the East

Streaming digital platforms such as Netflix are generally referred to as over-the-top (OTT) video, video-on-demand (VOD) or online television services that are considered the major competitors of traditional terrestrial (and mainly free) television services. Such platforms are also seen as a creative industry or communication technology that threatens traditional television. However, digital video platforms have also been viewed as bringing new hope to an unequal market because they are expected to operate more “democratically” and hence provide equal distributions of control to producers and distributors (Christian 2012). A theoretical argument concerns whether Netflix or other streaming video platforms can transform the present media ecology, such as in the USA, in which television networks are dominated by a few media giants. This argument could be particularly relevant in Asia, where the media ecology is controlled by either the state or an oligopoly.

OTT platforms provide users with the unique service of easy, fast and affordable access to a massive library of audiovisual content in a single platform. Instead of being bound by a fixed broadcasting schedule, the audience can freely explore the platform’s rich library of audiovisual content. In theory, audiences are provided with a greater variety of programs, including those produced in foreign countries. However, “binge-watching,” in which several episodes of audiovisual content are consumed in a single session, may be an emerging viewing pattern (Limov 2020). While some scholars have regarded the new viewing pattern as an “insulated flow” that pays tribute to broadcasting schedules (Perks 2015), others have found it to be a reflection of the viewer’s autonomy and a fundamental attribute of VOD platforms (Merikivi et al. 2020).

On streaming television platforms, the audience’s experience is enhanced by the ability to personally custom content based on recommendation systems that are driven by viewership data in conjunction with the use of algorithms and machine learning (Gomez-Uribe and Hunt 2015). Big data technology enables analyzing and predicting users’ preferences based on their previous behavior patterns and peer data on audience taste (Thorson and Wells 2016). Based on viewers’ behavior patterns, the production of Netflix’s famous series House of Cards created a winning combination of actors, producers and themes. Furthermore, these platforms can be viewed on multi-screens so that viewers can access content using different devices, including personal computers, tablets and smartphones. Hence, the audience is not bound by the household television screen. This flexibility also means that streaming television platforms are able to explore a wide range of audience profiles to attract viewers who are not accustomed to watching traditional television at home. Such new consumption patterns also challenge traditional television, the ratings of which have declined in both the East and the West (Phonetic House 2020; Adgate 2021).

Nonetheless, the growth and development of Internet platforms are restrained by external factors, particularly the digital infrastructure that delivers the content through the Internet. An increasing number of reports have documented conflicts among Internet service providers (ISPs), carriers that distribute the content, and content providers in the USA (Friden 2015). Among all digital platforms, streaming platforms that require high volumes of data transmission pay huge fees to ISPs. Despite several lawsuits, Google, which is a dominant digital company, laid its own fiber optic cable for data transmission (CBInsights 2018). However, when transmissions reach local audiences such as in Asia, the accessibility of telecommunication infrastructures is still controlled by local companies or governments. The most obvious case is in China, where the Great Firewall and its proxy servers forbid the entry of all foreign streaming videos.

Unlike traditional media content, the import of which depends on content copyright, broadcast right, distribution or minimal localization of content to meet local legal regulations, if not censorship, streaming platforms that seek to enter the Asian market are challenged by the lack of accessibility. Moreover, because local audiences have access to a wider diversity of choices beyond their cultural and national geographical regions, OTT video could be perceived as a competitor by local media stakeholders. Thus, it is likely that Netflix’s entry has not been without obstacles. Netflix first entered the Asian market in 2015 in Japan, and then in South Korea in 2016. In September 2020, there were 3.3 million paid household subscriptions in South Korea (Choudhury 2020), and in 2021, there were 5 million household subscriptions in Japan (Levy 2021).

Since 2016, Netflix has almost doubled its content catalog annually in South Korea (Choudhury 2020). It has also gained a strong foothold in the anime market in Japan, and it has collaborated with Japanese production companies to produce 40 new animes per year for a global audience (Levy 2021). In the first quarter of 2021, Asia accounted for approximately 10% of Netflix’s total revenue (Statista 2021). Moreover, Asia has been perceived as the fastest-growing region in the world (Choudhury 2020). In addition to Netflix, HBO GO also has a presence in Asia, either through a direct business to consumer (B2C) subscription model or as a channel for local pay-TV subscriptions.

Competitions and Barriers in Japan, South Korea and China

The initial entry of Netflix into Asia was challenging as it was an external competitor for internal players. The main competition for Western streaming platforms comprises two types of local platforms. The first type was established by traditional television broadcasters as online extensions of their television services, which is prominent in regions. The second type was established by third-party, independent platforms that provide video-on-demand services. Currently, the business model of most Asian streaming video platforms derives income directly from subscriptions and indirectly from advertisements, both of which depend on the size of the viewership. Thus, Western OTT video platforms were perceived as potential competitors that would erode the local market share if the latter were perceived as a zero-sum game.

However, competition is regulated. Because of the lobbying of local incumbent broadcasters, local regulators have remained skeptical of the penetration of Western platforms. In free markets such as South Korea and Japan, the local operators complained that they were not on a level playing field because Asian broadcast regulators in general had stringent regulations on terrestrial TV broadcasting. Hence, programs on the digital platforms of local broadcasters were more restricted than those on Western digital platforms.

Regarding the comparative advantages of streaming video platforms in Western nations, it is likely that the library of television and film content appeals to audiences there. However, the appeal of a global library to audiences with cross-cultural appetites in the Asian market was largely discounted because prior to the emergence of digital platforms, Asian local television channels could have owned the broadcast rights of movies or arranged exclusive licensing agreements with local broadcasters for broadcast rights within a region. Because of existing content and the influence of local broadcasters, the entry of foreign platforms such as Netflix into Asia was not easy. In this research, Japan, South Korea and China, which are the biggest markets in East Asia, have been selected as case studies to facilitate an understanding of the digital media market in this region.

Japan’s media scene is dominated by an oligopoly of five major media conglomerates that include both traditional and digital media. These market leaders include Asahi, Fuji, Nikkei, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) and Yomiuri. In recent decades, they have expanded their business from newspaper publishing to television broadcasting. In addition to being the major distributor of media content, these giants are also the major producers and owners of media copyright content. Hence, these major conglomerates occupy a dominant and powerful position in the market. As communication technology advanced, they ventured into digital broadcasting and online delivery before the entry of Western platforms into the Asian market.

In Japan, the digital media trend is mostly a response to changing audience behaviors and preferences (Zhu 2019). The five major conglomerates have developed their respective online presence, providing the audience with access to current and archival audiovisual content. While current content could be viewed for free, a premium structure is adopted for access to older and exclusive material. The market leader of the digital media platform is a digital site called TVer, which was established jointly by the five major media conglomerate groups in Japan, together with the top advertising agencies. Holding the copyright of all local audiovisual content, the platform provides easy and extensive access to the broadcasters’ wealth of quality entertainment content. The latter has been a strong battlefront against foreign digital streaming platforms since they came in 2015. Netflix and Amazon Prime both entered Japan in 2015. Disney Plus is the newest addition to the market, entering the country in 2020 at the spike of the COVID-19 lockdown. In general, Western streaming platforms were selling their bulk of English-speaking content to a niche segment of the audience sector. For Western platforms without local content, the strategy is seen as an avoidance of head-on competition.

Similarly, in the case of South Korea, the traditional media industries are dominated by three incumbent broadcasters, namely MBC, SBS and KBS. South Korea is known for a mature and competitive audiovisual market, being home to reportedly some of the earliest OTT platforms, such as Pandora TV and Gom TV (Dwyer et al. 2018). The local digital media landscape was vibrant for a multitude of reasons. South Korea is among the countries with high Internet connectivity that greatly facilitates Internet viewing everywhere. The audience’s familiarity with viewing video content on devices has resulted in favorable user habits (Park 2017). In light of their own strong competitiveness of Internet platforms (Hsu et al. 2016), South Korea is less stringent in regulations of OTT business. This has resulted in fierce competition in the OTT service market because of a high number of competitors, none of which has secured a predominant position (KCC 2019). Legacy broadcasters in South Korea have also established their online presence, with the three major terrestrial groups collaborating to establish and operate the video-on-demand platform POOQ in 2012.

As a latecomer, Netflix has had to fight a tough battle in entering the market. On one hand, the company’s initial entry into South Korea was met with strong resistance by local filmmakers who feared the competition. In fact, Netflix had approached other major telecommunication carriers, such as SK Telecom and KT Corporation (Song 2019), which were also major providers of Internet Protocol ...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: Media in Asia: Global, Digital, Gendered, Mobile Asia
• PART I Global Asia
• PART II Digital Asia
• PART III Gendered Asia
• PART IV Mobile Asia
• Index