Introduction: Netflix and the Re-invention of Television

Researching Binge-Watching

“…As the technologies of television proliferate it is useful to look to the past of the technologies of binge-watching. If binge-watching is not only the viewing of more than one episode in one sitting, but also about viewers executing autonomy over the schedule, it is technology which enables this to happen (Jenner, 2018, 2019). An important part of that history are practices of time-shifting and the re-visiting of content, more than the kind of binge-watching on first run platforms like Netflix encourage.…”

“…Binge-watching and how it is enabled by Netflix is often framed as ‘give the people what they want’, as Kevin Spacey, one of Netflix’ mouthpieces, put it in an interview with David Letterman on 1 February 2013 to promote the first season of House of Cards (2013–2018). Yet, the popularity of binge-watching may be more the result of a concerted marketing effort or the result of specific textual structures than a ‘natural’ way to watch serialised programming or ‘natural’ progression of television technologies (see Jenner, 2018: 161–182). Further, from a global perspective, the vast difference in media policies and political histories that can promote or limit the reach of technologies (such as the Cold War) significantly complicate these narratives.…”

“…Until recently, the relative difficulty and financial expense of binge-watching would qualify it as explicit (fan) participation. Yet, the interfaces of streaming platforms serve to make binge-watching easy, in some cases even desired (see Jenner, 2018: 119–137; Johnson, 2019: 106–130), positioning it as implicit (online) participation. Secondly, binge-watching’s roots in fan studies also help explain how binge-watching is often theorised as a viewing practice that involves a particularly close viewer–text relationship.…”

“…As Netflix expands into different genres in its self-produced originals, it becomes obvious that ‘bingeability’ means different things for genres like reality TV than it does for drama. Another issue arises in relation to opening credits and their function within streaming interfaces that are designed to encourage binge-watching (Jenner, 2018, 153–157).…”

Book Review: Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution

“…Across six chapters and a conclusion, Lobato works through a number of distinct arguments. Like Mareike Jenner, in her recent book, Netflix & the Re-Invention of Television (2018), he establishes how the discourse of effortless global market entry promoted by Netflix in trade and popular press fails to take into account the specific reception of the streaming giant in various localities. Indeed, Lobato argues, ‘the idea of digital markets as borderless, “flat” spaces of exchange and consumption is misguided’ (p. 181).…”