Streaming giants and the global shift: building value chains and remapping trade flows

Abstract

This article analyses the global dominance of three U.S.-based platforms (Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Netflix) on the streaming market. It investigates their reconfiguring of the TV industry around a global value chain, akin to other highly globalized industries, and characterized by the presence of a few lead firms operating in multiple markets and leveraging hundreds of suppliers worldwide. These streaming platforms benefit from transnational network effects and the coordination of supply chains on a global scale. By building large content libraries and accumulating foreign assets, they are transforming international trade flows in the process. Since 2020, the United States imports more audiovisual services, including movies and television programming, than it exports. This research demonstrates how the impact of these platforms is positive on local creative ecosystems, despite power asymmetries at play, and negative on local broadcasters.