New Digital Cinema: How Platforms Are Changing the Audiovisual Industry

Digitalization has been changing the methods of production, distribution, and use of written and audiovisual products, according to a process of “platforming”. Most audiovisual content is available via streaming platforms, through a lot of devices (PCs, tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, and videogame consoles), which have empowered the process of media convergence. Based on a theoretical framework related to the impact of the platforms on the ongoing process, we intend to analyse how platforms are changing the identity of the audiovisual industry and how they represent themselves online. In order to analyse the ongoing process, we intend to examine some platforms that could be considered as best practices in the audiovisual field: Netflix, MUBI, and Festival Scope. On the one hand, using these platforms as case studies will enable us to highlight some beneficial aspects of the ongoing process of digitalization and platforming: holding many gazes and points of view; catching market niches; building a peer-to-peer network. On the other hand, we intend to emphasize some risks connected to the intermediation of platforms in the audiovisual field in terms of economic, cultural, and social effects.