Mapping the core actors and flows in streaming video services: what Netflix can tell us about these new media networks

ABSTRACT

The popular video streaming services are complex technological and economic systems, comprising parts that have not received much scholarly attention. We provide an overview of the main technologies used when streaming television from production to the viewers, the main players that are involved, and the revenue flows between them. Our case is Netflix, which we studied through company reports, industry reports, and press accounts. It is mapped as five sets of actors: content providers, Netflix itself, primary distribution, secondary distribution, and device makers. Between these we observe four flows: video, intellectual property rights, revenue, and data. We find that streaming services are “new beasts”, very reliant on external partners, and with a strong focus on technology. They may not be just media companies or technology companies but somewhere in between. Scholarly or juridical comparisons with legacy players may hide these aspects.

KEYWORDS:

• Netflix
• technology
• streaming
• platform
• content delivery network

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Terje Colbjørnsen for the helpful conversations about different possible ways of drawing maps of complex streaming services. This research was funded by the Norwegian Research Council, project number 263076/F10.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For the sake of clarity, we will treat Netflix as a television company and part of the television industry. That is a huge simplification, as a large part of its catalogue is films, and as such, Netflix is also an important player in the film industry. However, as the focus of this paper is the technology, we have simplified these industry descriptions.

2. Details on the project are found on https://bit.ly/streamproject.

3. This depiction builds on a representation by Scalescale (https://www.scalescale.com/the-stack-behind-netflix-scaling/), also incorporating elements from Popescu et al. (2018) and authors’ own research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anders Fagerjord

Anders Fagerjord is head of the Department of Linguistics, Literature, and Aesthetic Studies at the University of Bergen. His research interests include streaming media, convergence and multimodality, mobile media design, design theory, and digital humanities. His latest book, written with David M. Berry, is Digital Humanities: Knowledge and Critique in a Digital Age (Polity, 2017).Anders holds a ph.d. in Media Studies from the University of Oslo, Norway. He was an associate professor at the University of Oslo from 2005-2018, serving as director of the university’s Centre for Media Innovation (CRMI) since 2016. He also has several years of experience as a radio host with the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

Lucy Kueng

Lucy Kueng is a professor and internationally-acknowledged expert on strategy, innovation and leadership, with a strong focus on the impact of digitalization. She both advises organizations and researches best practice worldwide.Her recent report,Going Digital. A Roadmap for Organizational Transformation, published by the Reuters Institute, Oxford University and the Google Digital News Initiative, explains how leading companies are increasing agility, merging the cultures of journalism and tech and mastering innovation. Earlier publications include Going Digital. A Roadmap for Organisational Transformation (2017), Innovators in Digital News(2015), and the prize-winningStrategy in the Media Industry(second edition 2016). In addition to her advisory work, Lucy is currently non-Executive Board Member of the NZZ Media Group. In May 2016 she was appointed the first Google Digital News Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute. Oxford University. She holds a PhD and Habilitation from the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, an MBA from Ashridge/City University, UK and from 2008-2010 she was President of the European Media Management Association.