Tracing the story of Netflix from Silicon Valley and Hollywood to its global dominance in streaming, this book explores the company’s transformation from a tech startup to a hybrid technology, media and entertainment corporation, and how the company learned some hard lessons in the streaming wars, adjusted its strategies, and re-emerged on top.

Helena Vanhala examines Netflix as a global actor whose operations are motivated by its profit-seeking policies in the increasingly complex geopolitical environment. The book reveals central tools in the making of global Netflix, such as innovation and control in global operations, advertising, technology, corporate governance, intellectual property (IP), the Netflix brand, the expanding Netflix universe, fandom, and more. Case studies of small and large markets add to the understanding of global Netflix, addressing local content creation and what it means to be at the receiving end of global Netflix flows. This book offers an understanding of how global Netflix manifests in global political, economic and cultural contexts, and what global Netflix means to local and global cultures, and to the operations of media and entertainment markets.

Essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students and scholars, as well as professionals, interested in Netflix, streaming, critical political economy of media, global media industries, film and television industries, and media and technology.

Helena Vanhala is a Professor of Media Arts at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Her published research includes work on streaming, international media, critical political economy of media, and terrorism and media. She has previously served at her university as the Department Head of Media Arts, Assistant Dean of the School of Informatics, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Director of the Center for Global Engagement.