Who’s watching anyway?
If I asked you what the one service was that could be found in almost every country across the world, what would you guess? Would you say somewhere to find food or a place to stay? You could guess that in every country you could find a cup of coffee or at least something to eat. What if I told you the one service that every country has in common is Netflix. Netflix is available in over 190 countries, and is only restricted by government regulations and is currently working on making an agreement with China. No matter where you go, you can access Netflix. So, with such a large audience, how does Netflix curate which shows are going to be available for streaming with such a diverse audience? While content does vary from country to country, there are unifying factors that make the content comparable across the board.
One of these is the demographic of viewers. Netflix hosted a grand total of 137.1 million subscribers last year, 57% of which come from outside the United States. According to statistics found in Business of Apps, more and more viewers are moving to streaming services, as 36% of people surveyed had a combination of streaming and satellite and 20% of people had only streaming services and no cable, a new trend as previously almost every household in the United States was considered to have a television. In fact, in the U.K. the 15.4 million subscribers surpassed the number of people who used cable television.
However, the most important thing to consider is that Netflix is the television source of the youth of the world. Over 50% of Netflix users are under the age of 35. In the article Rethinking International TV Flows Research in the Age of Netflix by Ramon Lobato, Netflix has changed the way that the demographic watches television. You no longer have to wait for your favorite show to come on once a week, you just have to wait for the release of a season and you can binge watch the 10+ hours of content in a day if you would like. This catalog-style of viewing pairs up with the iGen generation, as everything is about instant gratification, we want content and we want it now. we don’t want to wait or watch commercials. We want the content we are looking for immediately with no delays or distractions. The younger age demographic has called for a change in the way we stream, which has now spread to an international idea.
If you want to see the research I consulted, click here
If you want to see the article I referenced, click here
Media and Globalization 