Streaming freedom in illiberal Eastern Europe

Abstract

The article asks how we begin to assess the connections and mutual influences between television’s increasing globalisation facilitated by digital distribution platforms and the globalisation of crisis borne by the failure of the neo-liberal free market paradigm, which has resulted in the rise of nativist nationalisms, xenophobia and authoritarianism. I argue that, considering these contradictory developments as interconnected disrupts some of the epistemological paradigms inherited from the Cold War and simultaneously helps us understand – and demystify – emerging paradigms of consumer empowerment associated with streaming in television and media studies. In particular, I demonstrate the importance of resisting sweeping assessments about the globalisation of the ‘HBO-type quality drama’ by considering the operations of HBO Europe, whose pioneering localisation practices in Eastern Europe have thrived within increasingly illiberal political conditions in the post-socialist Eastern European region.