How do global audiences of TV shows take shape?: Evidence from Netflix

ABSTRACT

With the rapid growth of OTT platforms, consumption of TV shows is transcending national boundaries. In the vein, this study investigates the similarities between countries in TV show consumption and the role of cultural factors in determining the similarities. We collected data of daily Top 10 TV shows from 80 countries between January 1 and 20 June 2021, on Netflix, provided by Flixpatrol. We applied a two-step approach: First, social network analysis was conducted for estimating similarities between countries in TV show consumption. Second, a regression model was employed using ordinary least squares to investigate the impact of cultural factors that shape TV show audiences. We found that linguistic proximity, geographical distance, and cultural difference are important factors in determining the global audiences of TV shows.

KEYWORDS:

• Netflix
• TV show consumption
• linguistic proximity
• geographical distance
• cultural difference

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF- 2019S1A3A2099973), and the MSIT (Ministry of Science and ICT) Korea, under the ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) support program (IITP-2020-0-01749) supervised by the IITP (Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF- 2019S1A3A2099973), and the MSIT (Ministry of Science and ICT) Korea, under the ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) support program (IITP-2020-0-01749) supervised by the IITP (Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation).