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Critical Cultural Communication
Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution
How streaming services and internet distribution have transformed global television culture.
Television, once a broadcast medium, now also travels through our telephone lines, fiber optic cables, and wireless networks. It is delivered to viewers via apps, screens large and small, and media players of all kinds. In this unfamiliar environment, new global giants of television distribution are emerging—including Netflix, the world’s largest subscription video-on-demand service.
Combining media industry analysis with cultural theory, Ramon Lobato explores the political and policy tensions at the heart of the digital distribution revolution, tracing their longer history through our evolving understanding of media globalization. Netflix Nations considers the ways that subscription video-on-demand services, but most of all Netflix, have irrevocably changed the circulation of media content. It tells the story of how a global video portal interacts with national audiences, markets, and institutions, and what this means for how we understand global media in the internet age.
Netflix Nations addresses a fundamental tension in the digital media landscape – the clash between the internet’s capacity for global distribution and the territorial nature of media trade, taste, and regulation. The book also explores the failures and frictions of video-on-demand as experienced by audiences. The actual experience of using video platforms is full of subtle reminders of market boundaries and platforms are geo-blocked for out-of-region users (“this video is not available in your region”); catalogs shrink and expand from country to country; prices appear in different currencies; and subtitles and captions are not available in local languages. These conditions offer rich insight for understanding the actual geographies of digital media distribution.
Contrary to popular belief, the story of Netflix is not just an American one. From Argentina to Australia, Netflix’s ascension from a Silicon Valley start-up to an international television service has transformed media consumption on a global scale. Netflix Nations will help readers make sense of a complex, ever-shifting streaming media environment.
216 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 8, 2019
27 people are currently reading
208 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 16, 2019
Excellent book on Netflix aimed at an academic audience. If you're a media studies scholar, this is a terrific read. Chapters are short and compact, the writing is clear and touches on key themes such as imperialism, globalization, technology etc. all that without being simplistic or boring. Big plus, it's just a very easy & fun read, especially for Netflix users.
December 13, 2020
Leído y releído. Una interesante reflexión desde el punto de vista geopolítico.
May 20, 2019
Very relevant and solid study of Netflix as an ecosystem and business model. I appreciate how deep the author zooms into the materiality of Netflix and positions the business not only in television studies, but also within platform, distribution and interface studies. If you teach in this area, do order the book for yourself or your library. Overall an absolute must-read for any student or scholar studying streaming, platforms and modern television formats!
July 20, 2025
Coming Attractions? - Having read books on media streaming (see my reviews of Smith & Telang’s “Stream, Steal, Share” as well as Iansiti and Lakhani’s “Competing in the Age of AI”), I wanted to learn more about ways Netflix operates and continues to shape the industry and media access, so this title seemed apropos. Author Lobato conveys much helpful background, but as this whole field of endeavor continues to develop so quickly, it is a bit dated and has one questioning what will be coming around the bend.
More specifically, the book’s contents include a Preface, Introduction (Understanding Internet-Distributed Television, Internet-Distributed Television as an Ecology, Why Netflix?) and six chapters. Namely, there is (1) What Is Netflix? (2) Transnational Television: From Broadcast to Broadband, (3) The Infrastructures of Streaming, (4) Making Global Markets, (5) Content, Catalogs, and Cultural Imperialism, and (6) The Proxy Wars. At the end come Conclusions (Old and New Lessons, Streaming Beyond Netflix) as well as Acknowledgments, Notes, Bibliography, Index, and information About the Author.
Aspects that stood out for me are those that explain Netflix’s core business model and its international aspirations. Lobato captures how Netflix’s digital architecture—grounded in algorithms, bandwidth, and global internet penetration—drives its ability to scale, personalize, and culturally adapt. For instance, the analysis of infrastructural challenges shows how technical constraints and regulatory requirements vary by country, requiring Netflix to remain agile while lobbying for improved global internet infrastructure. Also compelling is Lobato’s discussion of the vast troves of consumer data used to tailor content across markets, often more cost-effective than opening foreign offices (pp. 115–116). This emphasis on infrastructure and algorithmic personalization aligns with his framing of Netflix not merely as a television provider but as a software-based system producing customized entertainment experiences (p. 35). Such insights resonate with the shift from mass-media broadcasting to fragmented, niche consumption—as Lobato puts it, television is no longer one size fits all but is recalibrated through “a series of personalized choices” (p. 23).
Among the book’s drawbacks are that it is a little behind, given that it appeared in 2019 and much has happened since then. For instance, streaming has become more extensive, and after there were “content” wars where providers like Netflix and Amazon put considerable resources into new programming, there have been cutbacks in this arena. Nonetheless, these and other outlets have continued to try to extend their reach, such as Netflix contracting with Sesame Workshop and other popular offerings to increase its presence with the parents/young children market. One wonders what such “moves” mean and where they will lead. Such matters had me thinking about Bryant’s “The Children’s Community” and Davis’s “Street Gang” (see my reviews).
Even with its limitations, Netflix Nations provides solid foundational insight into this streaming TV industry leader and some thoughtful projections about the future—even if the direction is not entirely clear. As the author writes (pg. 187), “parallel lines between [Streaming Video On Demand], social media, and live streaming may eventually converge, but [are] likely to keep diverging,” suggesting an evolutionary trajectory that is increasingly layered and multidirectional.”
More specifically, the book’s contents include a Preface, Introduction (Understanding Internet-Distributed Television, Internet-Distributed Television as an Ecology, Why Netflix?) and six chapters. Namely, there is (1) What Is Netflix? (2) Transnational Television: From Broadcast to Broadband, (3) The Infrastructures of Streaming, (4) Making Global Markets, (5) Content, Catalogs, and Cultural Imperialism, and (6) The Proxy Wars. At the end come Conclusions (Old and New Lessons, Streaming Beyond Netflix) as well as Acknowledgments, Notes, Bibliography, Index, and information About the Author.
Aspects that stood out for me are those that explain Netflix’s core business model and its international aspirations. Lobato captures how Netflix’s digital architecture—grounded in algorithms, bandwidth, and global internet penetration—drives its ability to scale, personalize, and culturally adapt. For instance, the analysis of infrastructural challenges shows how technical constraints and regulatory requirements vary by country, requiring Netflix to remain agile while lobbying for improved global internet infrastructure. Also compelling is Lobato’s discussion of the vast troves of consumer data used to tailor content across markets, often more cost-effective than opening foreign offices (pp. 115–116). This emphasis on infrastructure and algorithmic personalization aligns with his framing of Netflix not merely as a television provider but as a software-based system producing customized entertainment experiences (p. 35). Such insights resonate with the shift from mass-media broadcasting to fragmented, niche consumption—as Lobato puts it, television is no longer one size fits all but is recalibrated through “a series of personalized choices” (p. 23).
Among the book’s drawbacks are that it is a little behind, given that it appeared in 2019 and much has happened since then. For instance, streaming has become more extensive, and after there were “content” wars where providers like Netflix and Amazon put considerable resources into new programming, there have been cutbacks in this arena. Nonetheless, these and other outlets have continued to try to extend their reach, such as Netflix contracting with Sesame Workshop and other popular offerings to increase its presence with the parents/young children market. One wonders what such “moves” mean and where they will lead. Such matters had me thinking about Bryant’s “The Children’s Community” and Davis’s “Street Gang” (see my reviews).
Even with its limitations, Netflix Nations provides solid foundational insight into this streaming TV industry leader and some thoughtful projections about the future—even if the direction is not entirely clear. As the author writes (pg. 187), “parallel lines between [Streaming Video On Demand], social media, and live streaming may eventually converge, but [are] likely to keep diverging,” suggesting an evolutionary trajectory that is increasingly layered and multidirectional.”
October 31, 2020
This book is written for audience whose interest is for research or any academic study. Ramon clearly laid out all the fundamental topics in building a movie streaming platform business like netflix. Netflix is one of the first companies to archive movies or a tv series and allow a consumer to watch all of them in one day.
Before, my mom used to watch soap operas or telenovelas. If she misses one day, she won't be able to watch that episode anymore. This is where netflix tried to step up. Netflix also have a very strategic way of streaming videos to countries whose internet speed are less than their minimum requirement.
Very great book.
Before, my mom used to watch soap operas or telenovelas. If she misses one day, she won't be able to watch that episode anymore. This is where netflix tried to step up. Netflix also have a very strategic way of streaming videos to countries whose internet speed are less than their minimum requirement.
Very great book.
June 2, 2020
Interessantissimo saggio che usa Netflix come case study per porsi delle domande sulla geografia della distribuzione digitale, sia a livello di infrastrutture usate per portare un servizio in molti Paesi del mondo sia in termini di percezione locale del servizio, che differisce da Paese a Paese.
Non è un libro che dà risposte, ma che pone domande cui gli studiosi di television e media studies dovranno cercare di dare delle risposte.
Da appassionata di questa collana di Minimum Fax non potevo non leggerlo.
Non è un libro che dà risposte, ma che pone domande cui gli studiosi di television e media studies dovranno cercare di dare delle risposte.
Da appassionata di questa collana di Minimum Fax non potevo non leggerlo.
February 8, 2025
"Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution" explores the spread of Netflix through the prism of media, technology, international relations and politics. A theory-based and technical, read, it is bound to intrigue media scholars and bore casual readers. As someone who considers himself somewhere in between those two categories, I found the book stimulating at times and grating at others.
December 14, 2020
I read this for research as apart of a report I’m doing for University about Netflix, and their technology and it’s actually a really great read. I didn’t plan on reading the whole book but it was very interesting!
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June 4, 2025não vo escrever um review de livro acadêmico tô só colocando aqui pq conta como leitura no ano e leitura de não ficção
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews