Articles by Alexa Scarlata
In my end is my beginning: why TV streaming services love exploiting your nostalgia
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.
Spoiler-alert culture is taking all of the fun out of television
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
SVOD: A Place for (Outer) Space?
Springer eBooks, 2023
The Politics of Public Broadcasting in Britain and Japan: The BBC and NHK Compared, Henry Laurence (2023)
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
Cultural policy between television and digital platforms: the case of SVOD regulation in Australia
International Journal of Cultural Policy
Digital Media Distribution: Portals, Platforms, Pipelines, Paul McDonald, Courtney Brannon Donoghue and Timothy Havens (eds) (2021)
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...
Broadcaster video-on-demand in Australia: Platforms, policy and local content
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...
Broadcaster video-on-demand in Australia: Platforms, policy and local content
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...
‘What are people watching in your area?’: Interrogating the role and reliability of the Netflix top 10 feature
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.
Online TV, Catherine Johnson (2019)
Journal of Digital Media & Policy, 2019
PORTALS: A TREATISE ON INTERNET-DISTRIBUTED TELEVISION, AMANDA LOTZ (2017) Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 108 pp., ISBN: 9781607854005, p/bk, $9.99
International Journal of Digital Television, 2018
Producing Children’s Television in the On-Demand Age, Anna Potter (2020)
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
Reflections on TRANS-TV, London, 13–15 September 2017
International Journal of Digital Television, 2018
Evens, T., Donders, K. (2018). Platform power and policy in transforming television markets. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 304 pp
Communications, 2019
Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) original production in Australia: Evolution or revolution?
Media International Australia
Original production by subscription-video-on-demand services (SVOD) is often associated with a U.... more Original production by subscription-video-on-demand services (SVOD) is often associated with a U.S. model of premium drama, characterized by high production values, edgy storytelling, and narrative complexity. Yet the internationalization of SVOD production in recent years has complicated this assumption, revealing diverse national experiences. In this article, we test the notion of ‘SVOD exceptionalism’ through a content and production analysis of Australian SVOD originals released by Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, and Binge (2015–2021). Identifying the characteristic formats, genres, features, and production dynamics of Australian SVOD originals, we explore how these texts connect with the existing patterns of the national production culture. Our findings suggest that SVOD production in Australia has largely extended rather than challenged established storytelling norms, reflecting a production ecology still shaped around broadcast logics. Consequently, we identify...
Continuum, 2021
Netflix’s supernatural crime series Tidelands (2019) was the subscription video service’s first c... more Netflix’s supernatural crime series Tidelands (2019) was the subscription video service’s first commissioned original series to be produced in Australia. Shot in tropical Queensland with a diverse cast of local and international stars, Tidelands exemplifies the complex challenges involved in Netflix’s attempts to be a global producer creating content for national markets. This article builds on a tradition of research into international television production to locate Tidelands within its industrial and cultural contexts. Combining textual and industry analysis, and drawing on an interview with executive producer Nathan Mayfield, we show how Tidelands negotiates a strategic dual orientationin its use of locations, casting and genre, addressing both Australian and international audiences simultaneously. We conclude that internationally oriented Australian subscription video-on-demand originals such as Tidelands rehearse but also reformulate longstanding tensions regarding the interac...
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Articles by Alexa Scarlata
Conference Presentations by Alexa Scarlata
Papers by Alexa Scarlata