Defining TV in the Post-Network Era

Violette Simard

Thursday, November 17^th 2022

            With the rise of Netflix, the way television is produced, distributed, and consumed has drastically changed. In the post-network era that we are in, television seemed to have morphed into something else, and the lines between TV and film are blurring. However, thinking of Netflix as TV IV, as Jenner argues, helps reconceptualise these changes in television, and resituate the rise of Netflix into the general evolution of television as part of an on-going process (p.19).

            The changes in production and consumption of television have largely been attributed to Netflix. Although Netflix isn’t the sole game changer, it is indeed a major contributor to the shifts we are experiencing in TV (Jenner, p.3). Seitz’s Vulture article problematizes this perfectly. With internet streaming replacing live TV broadcasting, the main characteristics we used to define television don’t seem to fit. We are no longer dependent on regularly scheduled programming or multi-channel viewing; the internet grants us wide access to any show we want thanks to huge libraries of content. If we have all of this televisual content available to watch at all times through any of our mobile devices, then what makes television, television?

            Referring back to Jenner’s concept of TV IV, it is important to resituate these changes as part of a continuum instead of them taking place in a vacuum (p.13). Netflix and other streaming platforms are part of a lineage of technological advances; first it was VCR, DVR, DVD, then VOD. Even in the network-era, there were ways for alternative distribution and viewing that coincided with technological developments (Jenner, p.6). Now with streaming platforms, we are simply witnessing/experiencing a continuation of those changes that match the changes in our society, namely, the rise of the internet. Additionally, as Jenner notes, this been in progress since HBO, which simply served as a springboard for Netflix (p.5). Beyond the change of format distribution and viewing-wise, the writing format of television remained “the same”; TV is still written into episodes, which is its foundational characteristic. Trying to redefine what television is tricky at the moment because we are still in it and with a bit more retrospection, we will be able to do some (re)definitional work, and maybe find a new way to define this current era in TV.

Bibliography

Jenner, Mareike. “Introduction: Binge-Watching Netflix.” Netflix and the Re-invention of Television. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. 109-118.