Netflix Nations

Netflix Nations is an important and timely addition to the existing scholarly literature on the digital distribution of television and how it is changing the digital landscape. It is one of the first studies of the global geography of online television distribution that explores the digital media landscape and how the internet’s capacity for world distribution of television clashes with national media trade, and taste and moral values. Ramon Lobato explores how the digital distribution of the television reshaping modern civilization. This well-researched, nuanced and brilliantly-written will [change] the way you think of media, globalization, and power. (The Washington Book Review) In exploring how internet-distributed television services are reshaping the national boundaries of the industry, Lobato offers a cutting-edge study that advances our understanding of Netflix and cultural globalization and reconceptualizes the relationship between ‘old’ and ‘new’ media. Netflix Nations will change the way we think about infrastructure, globalization, power, and the television we know and love. - Amanda D. Lotz, author of The Television Will Be Revolutionized In this most valuable book, Lobato gives us a highly nuanced account of the global spread of Netflix that emphasizes how extraordinarily diverse are the infrastructural, policy, and consumption conditions within which it finds is place. The breadth of the research is impressive, and its insistence on a comparative approach across (at least) four continents brings a much-needed dimension to our understanding of the Netflix phenomenon. - Graeme Turner, author of Re-Inventing the Media Lobato’s ability to synthesize complex and wide-ranging discussions within the field and offer fruitful definitional attempts makes Netflix Nations a very valuable contribution to rethinking the current state of (Internet) television affairs, specifically as it pertains to Netflix as a case study. (Journal of Digital Media & Policy) Netflix Nations is theoretically rich and comprehensive. Displaying a deep knowledge of history and scholarship, Lobato skillfully brings to light underlying philosophies of platforms and expands upon intricate studies in television and media from around the world. (International Journal of Communication) Netflix Nations is a scholarly yet highly readable guide to understanding the transformations brought about by the increasingly global availability of Internet-distributed television. (Film Quarterly)

Ramon Lobato is Associate Professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Melbourne. He is the author of Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution and Shadow Economies of Cinema: Mapping Informal Film Distribution.