STREAMING PLATFORMS: A GATEWAY FOR FOREIGN PRODUCTIONS OR ANOTHER SHOWCASE FOR HOLLYWOOD?

• Grant number: 25/00810-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Marislei Nishijima
• Grantee: Julia Braga Strabello
• Host Institution: Instituto de Relações Internacionais (IRI). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to study the North American streaming market, such as the audio-video platforms Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney+, with the aim of investigating the contents of their digital libraries. The objective is to analyze whether streaming services are effectively making room for foreign (non-American) productions, especially Asian films and series. The focus is specifically on works from China, South Korea, Japan, and India, in order to determine whether these productions are genuinely new entries from Asian cinema or are largely counted as co-productions with the American industry. This investigation enables an assessment of the potential increase in Northeast Asia's soft power within the U.S. market, based on the identification of fully Asian entries in American streaming platforms. Historically, the largest global cultural production of cinema and television is associated with the name of the United States, which has established a cultural hegemony in the audiovisual production scene, allied with the large Hollywood studio and its complex digital distribution system. However, the technological evolution of global distribution platforms, together with the rise of foreign film industries, suggest a possibility of change and the rise of other countries as potential interlocutors of this form of 'soft power', which describes a power obtained in a soft way that dominates through the dissemination of a country's culture. In Asia, countries such as South Korea, with the Korean Wave (Hallyu) phenomenon, and China, with its investments in cultural policies and the film industry, have stood out in promoting their cultural narratives and have influenced mainly young people around the world. Thus, the motivation for this study arises from the questioning of a possible change in the trend of the international cultural sector, regarding the US hegemony in the face of the emergence of new players in the audiovisual industry due to the technological evolution of streaming. Data from 2017 to 2021 from the Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney+ platforms will be used for data analysis. To this end, the study will employ statistical tools, as suggested by the literature, such as correlations and mean differences, through the use of the Stata platform, and graphical visualization techniques for a better understanding of the topic. (AU)