List of Acronyms
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
2.4. ASEAN Netflix and Catalog Analysis
Today, Netflix has become an important space for cultures to travel where
subscribers from various parts of the world can access a huge catalog of audiovisual content from various parts of the world. The rise of SVOD platforms demands new approaches on how to study global media flows particularly because previous studies on television flows, including satellite and cable, focused more on the programming of content which has been restricted by channel scheduling and geographical territories (Lobato, 2019). With the advent of the internet, media
content now flows multidirectional, multilinear, and simultaneously bypassing several nation-state territories. Viewers do not need to wait for the screening of scheduled programs, instead through the internet, they can access the catalogs of the platform to watch transnational media content instantly. A deeper look into the intraregional flows of ASEAN media, and questioning whether ASEAN content reaches the ASEAN people, would help determine the possible gaps to address in realizing the dream of full regional integration.
are well-represented by analyzing its state through each of the ASEAN Member States’ Netflix catalog.
Similar studies have been conducted by various scholars to uncover the hidden power imbalances emanating from the cataloging of the audiovisual content in Netflix. Several scholars have employed catalog analysis to study the
characteristics of local Netflix catalogs within a specific territory. Lobato (2018) patterned his method from the ones used by Nordenstreng & Varis (1974) —
gathering of data by checking the programming of television channels in 50 countries
— to explore the nature and characteristics of Netflix Australia’s catalog and to measure the ratio between domestic titles versus foreign ones. However, instead of analyzing the “programming” or scheduling of contents, Lobato & Scarlata (2017) analyzed the “catalog” because Netflix doesn’t have a fixed screening “program.”
Through catalog analysis, his study revealed that the Australian Netflix catalog only features 2.0% - 2.5% Australian content. And, upon checking the catalog of US Netflix, there is more Australian content available than in the local Netflix Australia catalog. Additionally, the Australian films available in the Australian Netflix catalog seem to be lower-value, lesser-known content (Lobato, 2017). At the time of writing, there was only one well known title in the catalog Mad Max: Fury Road.” Further, Lobato & Scarlata (2017) argued that “Netflix is increasingly important for the
international distribution of Australian content and is unquestionably a central player in Australia’s audiovisual future.”
Similarly, Kim (2021) studied Netflix’s rise in Canada and argued that the emergence of Netflix’s SVOD service in the country “caused upheaval in Canada’s media industries.” US’ cultural invasion has been a longstanding issue within the territory, however, Canadian companies find opportunities for local content to
penetrate the global market through the platform. The study found that there were only 29 Canadian television series and 73 films available on Netflix’s global catalogs.
Locally, Canadian content is in a “marginalized position” especially when considering how Netflix Canada’s catalog has 6,100 titles and there are only 29 Canadian films and 15 Canadian television series available (Kim, 2021). This imbalance in
representation has been underscored by the Canadian Broadcasting Commission since the country views television as the main medium for developing the nation’s cultural identity through production of Canadian content: “the penetration of US SVOD services into Canadian households and the following decline of viewers of Canadian television is a matter of importance in the nation’s entire mediascape”
(CBC, 2017 as cited in Kim, 2021).
In Europe, the European Audiovisual Observatory found that across Netflix’s 28 European catalogs, “EU-originated movies make up between 12 percent and 21 percent of the catalog (depending on the market)” (Lobato, 2018). The proportion of local movies range from 0 percent to 10 percent with no local films available in most EU28 countries including Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Romania, Slovenia, and the Slovak Republic. An important finding in the study suggests that “Hollywood movies typically account for over two-thirds of the titles on offer in Netflix’s European catalogs'' (Lobato, 2018). While British, German, and French content have presence in the platform, American content amounts to two-thirds of the catalog. In response to the findings that Hollywood content are dominating the SVOD services, especially on Netflix, policymakers revised the 2016 European Audiovisual Media Services Directive and proposed a “20 percent minimum European content quota on all
streaming services—including U.S.-based services like Netflix and Amazon'' (Lobato,
2019). Such measures open possibilities for research on media flows to have an impact and affect policy making.
Following a similar approach done by Lobato (2019), a quantitative catalog analysis of the ASEAN Netflix catalogs is a plausible starting ground to understand the state of ASEAN mediascape in the age of Netflix. Getting a clear grasp of the intraregional mobility of locally-produced ASEAN content is also crucial to bridge the literature gap concerning ASEAN media studies. Additionally, an analysis of which content enter the list of Netflix’ Top 10 films and TV shows could provide a glimpse of how locally-produced ASEAN content fare in the Southeast Asian region.
Chapter 3