Are Video Streaming Platforms Stifling Local Production Creativity? The Spanish Case

Abstract

International streaming platforms have broken into the European market and are partnering with local production companies to produce content. Online consumption generates a huge database on the tastes and consumption patterns of viewers. Although the business of video streaming platforms is to attract subscribers, all this data could be used to produce content adapted to the different sensibilities of the audience. We want to investigate to what extent entry of the streaming companies has impacted the creativity of the production process in Spain and how creativity may be affected by this. We carried out semi-structured interviews with creative workers who produce for both linear television channels and video on demand platforms. The sample focuses on four workers from independent production companies with years of experience working for the television channels that have started working for new streaming companies. Their responses imply that big data does not appear to reduce uncertainty and is not applied to make decisions in the first stages of the production process. However, production of local shows has changed significantly.