This article examines the impact of multinational subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services in Australia, noting the degree to which a stalled policy response to the challenge of unregulated SVOD services has been shaken up by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We look at the phenomenon from a screen-ecological perspective – where dynamics of consumption, reviewing, production and regulation are interdependently and often contradictorily in play. We examine how these diverse, sometimes conflicted, perspectives can be approached as responding to new forms of internationalisation presented principally by the operations of Netflix in Australia (Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+ are also mentioned when relevant). This article is part of a larger project (ARC Discovery DP190100978 Internet-Distributed Television: Cultural, Industrial and Policy Dynamics, chief investigators Ramon Lobato, Amanda Lotz, Stuart Cunningham) studying the cultural, industrial and policy dynamics of multinational SVOD globally and in situ locally.

This study employs a comparative analysis of industrial practices and marketing campaigns utilised by subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms, Stan and Blim. It evaluates Stan’s creation and launch prior to the advent of Netflix in Australia, and the introduction of Blim well after Netflix had already established itself as the preferred SVOD in Mexico. Despite the substantial differences between the histories and impacts of these respective national television markets, this study identifies that both platforms have experienced relative success by capitalising on Netflix’s problematic ‘global’ status, by focusing on the production and distribution of content that is uniquely reflective of their geographic audiences. The aim of this research is to encourage scholarly inquiry into internet-distributed television to look beyond multinational portals like Netflix, to localise studies of transnational media and SVOD platforms and to consider the many ways that competing with Netflix has impacted the future of national television production.

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