Global Strategy, Asia Incorporated: The Transnational OTT and the New Cultural Imperialism

Principle Investigator：Ti Wei

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, OTT（Over-The-Top）platform has been moving into the center of the world distribution and consumption of audio-visual products. In particular, started its business from DVD rentals in the 1990s, Netflix rapidly grew and expand as one of the largest transnational media corporations. From the exchange of the material object to the streaming of the electronic files, Netflix has been using the fast transformations of communication technologies to change the dynamics and power structure of the global media environment. Netflix is not mere a platform of transmission. Since 2015, it actively and enormously invested new productions and conducted transnational co-operations. Asia is the key area in its global strategy. There have been over forty co-productions made by Netflix and its partners in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India and Thailand. In its claims of multiculturalism, Netflix is constructing a new form of cultural imperialism and Asian audio-visual industries are gradually to be incorporated. The study attempts to explore this currently ongoing trend and its political and cultural implications.