The development in television media shows significant changes from past to present. Television transformed from one simple cable television with scheduled shows run to internet-distributed television. The internet-distributed television was first started from video on computers where it enabled audiences to watch videos from any location and devices. Like the name, it uses the internet to link their media and content with audiences. It offers a variety of films, videos, and series. However, not all videos are considered as television as they are internet distributed (Lotz, 2017).

The internet distributed television is considered as the “new media”. In the first few years of the twenty-first century, the revolution of the “new media” was first assumed that it will erase the “old media” like television and its pre-arranged programs (Lotz, 2017). However, the media cannot be killed; it is the matter of evolution that fits changes in technology and audiences’ needs. The “new media” does not just mean television, but also includes different types of platforms, data gathering, communication systems, and other recent technologies. Internet-distributed television includes streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO max, Hulu, Apple TV, and Amazon prime video.

Netflix is by far the most popular streaming service with over 247,150,000 subscribers (Moskowitz & Brown, 2023). The company was founded in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail service by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. It started as a web based movie rental system before they converted it into a subscribed based online videos streaming platform (Jain, 2023). Everything became as easy as just one click on a platform due to the development in technology and the internet. Netflix understands that situation as they quickly improve their system along with such changes. Not only they provide movies and series from past and previous television, but they also produce their own shows and series. This factor allows Netflix to expand not just nationwide audiences, but globally. They keep adjusting their content to meet audiences needs and watching behavior. 

As there are revolutions in such “new media”, video-on-demand (VOD) or subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) has become a new form of television consumption. The two technologies bring change in people’s behaviors, leading them to what is called “binge-viewing” or also known as “binge watching” (McDonald & Smith-Rowsey, 2016). People now tend to consume or “binge” their favorite tv shows or series by watching more than three episodes in one row and tend to finish it in a short period of time. The Internet-distributed television industry keeps expanding as they understand audiences’ behavior and demand based on the “dynamics of social media” as well as each community drill (Lotz, 2017). Furthermore, the emerging of internet-distributed television also led cable television to go through changes in adaptation in terms of shows content and time adjustment with their linear schedules run programmes.

By Chawanrut Boonrapongcharoen (33813021)

References:

Jain, S. (2023). The history of netflix- founding, model, timeline, milestones (2023 updated). VdoCipher Blog. https://www.vdocipher.com/blog/2017/06/netflix-revolution-part-1-history/#:~:text=Netflix%20was%20founded%20in%201997,now%20has%20millions%20of%20subscribers

Lotz, A. (2017). Theorizing the Nonlinear Distinction of Internet-Distributed Television. Portals: A Treatise on Internet Distributed Television. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/maize/mpub9699689/

McDonald, K., & Smith-Rowsey, D. (2016). The netflix effect: Technology and entertainment in the 21st Century. Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc.

Moskowitz, R., & Brown, K. A. (2023). Celebrate national streaming day with the most popular streaming services out there. USA Today. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/tech/reviewed/2023/05/19/national-streaming-day-most-popular-streaming-services-ranked-netflix-disney/70235316007/