4 - The Rise of Platforms

Summary

The formation of a TV GVC was decades in the making. At the core of the historical process lies the industry’s global shift, which began into the last two decades of the twentieth century (the end of the broadcasting age) and accelerated in the new millennium (towards the streaming era). Documenting the latter part of this shift is the purpose of this chapter, which surveys the streaming landscape and focuses on the distinctive feature of the TV industry in the digital era: the rise of platforms. It contextualises the advent of streaming by raising the following question: is it an evolution or revolution in the history of screen entertainment? This chapter highlights the importance of scale, before introducing the concept of the platform to explain how it is achieved. It distinguishes three types of streaming platforms (internal, multisided, and transactional), which connect to three business models (SVoD, AVoD, and video-sharing).