Netflix in Turkey: Localization and audience expectations from video on demand

Abstract

Drawing on in-depth interviews with users of Netflix and the local streaming service BluTV as well as analysis of press releases, and original TV series produced by these platforms, this study explores the emergence and impact of Video on Demand (VOD) in Turkey. It examines how VOD is adopted, negotiated, reformulated, and received in a non-Western context where global and local VOD platforms compete, substitute and emulate each other. We ask the following research question: What are Turkish audiences’ social, psychological and technological needs and expectations from global and local VOD platforms? In order to respond to this question, we explore Turkish audiences’ insight into what VOD means to them and offers them as content, in comparison with platforms’ marketing discourse. The article argues that a) the local content that platforms offer is a central juncture through which audiences articulate their larger expectations from VODs, and b) Netflix’s localization attempts do not always correspond with the audience demand, it is heavily critiqued and at times rejected by the local audience. The findings of this research indicate that the expectations, needs, and gratifications of Netflix and VOD audiences depend on three factors: Their interpretation of VODs’ local content in relation to their cultural experience with broadcast TV, their technological needs such as instant access to global content and time/space shifting opportunities, and lastly the political context and policies such as the internet regulation and censorship. The significance of this is study is in showing, as distinct from the abundant literature on localization of Netflix, the complexity of local taste. Audiences’ evaluation of a VOD is shaped simultaneously by multiple factors including their experiences with network TV, other VODs, media regulations as well as informal networks/piracy.