Islands in the Stream: Netflix's New Global Sensibility

Netflix announced its plans to enter virtually every global market (excluding China) by the end of 2016. Besides the fact that viewers from Azerbaijan to Zambia will finally be able to catch up on House of Cards, the expansion confirms Netflix's ambition to speak to audiences on a global scale.
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By Rajiv Menon, Cultural Analyst, TruthCo.

In early January, Netflix announced its plans to enter virtually every global market (excluding China) by the end of 2016. Besides the fact that viewers from Azerbaijan to Zambia will finally be able to catch up on House of Cards, the expansion confirms Netflix's ambition to speak to audiences on a global scale. While global distribution is nothing new in the world of film, for television content, this move encourages programmers to think of audiences beyond national boundaries, thus providing major storytelling and innovation opportunities.

Considering that Netflix is now in nearly 200 countries, making original programming catered to each individual market feels particularly daunting. Instead, this global expansion suggests a need for television content that resonates culturally on a transnational scale. As other streaming brands begin to follow in Netflix's wake, understanding the types of themes, cues, and codes that resonate among far-flung, scattered audiences increasingly will become a priority for programmers. In particular, successful attempts to engage globally dispersed audiences illustrate a valuable example of how to locate a truly worldwide viewer sensibility.

Diasporas -- communities defined by a common origin, but globally scattered -- provide a significant model for programmers and content creators when thinking about audiences whose taste is defined not by their market, but their globality. Entertainment consumption patterns among groups like the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia or Indian communities in North America and Europe illustrate the significance of audiences united across national borders. Because these audiences are scattered worldwide, content-makers who have sought diasporic resonance have honed in on themes that can travel across markets and transcend geography.

For example, as Bollywood began to court Indian audiences living overseas, filmmakers had to develop specific strategies for speaking to diasporic audiences without alienating their local base. In addition to setting more films abroad, successful filmmakers began to speak to broad themes -- urban alienation, anxieties over westernization, changing family dynamics -- that resonated with global audiences bound by an appetite for Bollywood film. While Netflix's new global audience doesn't share a common site of origin, the shared cultural concerns of dispersed communities provide an important model for thinking about transnational viewership.

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In the last year, Netflix's television content has demonstrated a pronounced interest in this type of transnational resonance, speaking to the same types of themes and cultural concerns that have historically clicked with diasporic audiences. While last year's Sense8 and Marco Polo initially arrived to mixed success, these shows signal Netflix's emergent interest in global identity. Much like content that targets diasporic communities, the components of these shows -- multiple settings, characters of various national origins, stories about migration and travel -- illustrate an interest in audiences defined by their global-mindedness.

These two hugely different shows were able to both hit on common, internationally-minded themes that engaged with transnational concerns in a prolonged, meaningful way. Unlike programs like Narcos and the forthcoming Marseilles that are set in very specific national contexts, this particular emphasis on stories of global movement and cross-cultural encounter illustrates how diasporic thinking is necessary for a global streaming brand.

While this is already a major concern for Netflix's competitors like Hulu or India's Eros International, the global expansion of streaming and its audience implications is of growing importance to TV makers in general. As television makers increasingly seek global audiences, it will be necessary to differentiate more superficial forms of global collaboration with meaningful cultural connections. For example, while casting a major international star like Priyanka Chopra on ABC's Quantico is a major step in attracting viewership beyond American borders, it's important for plots to similarly take on a global scope of storytelling.

Netflix's massive growth signals the potential for television to become a truly global medium, but for this to happen, it is essential that television makers understand the cultural codes of their emerging transnational audiences.

Photos: lculig - Shutterstock, Paul Prescott - Shutterstock

About the Author

Rajiv Menon is a Cultural Analyst at TruthCo., an omnicultural branding and insights company that analyzes the current cultural landscape to deliver actionable recommendations that keep entertainment brands and their offerings relevant. Connect with TruthCo. at www.truthco.net or on Twitter @TeamTruthCo.

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