Cultural politics of Netflix in local contexts: A case of the Korean media industries

Abstract

This paper analyzes how stakeholders in the Korean media industries understand the penetration of Netflix and other foreign streaming video-on-demand (SVoD) platforms and how they respond to global SVoD players. Based on interviews with cultural workers and bureaucrats, the findings of this paper explore how stakeholders in the media industries interpret Netflix as both an investor who would enable them to produce a variety of content and introduce their products worldwide and as a competitor that has the potential to threaten domestic media production. Considering structural asymmetries caused by disparities in technologies and financial strength between local and global players in the market, as well as the distribution power which streaming moguls have enjoyed for years, the growing presence of Netflix in the domestic market may reduce the position of Korean media production as mere subcontractors of the platform. The paper’s findings shed light on analyzing the relationship between global streaming platforms and local cultural producers.