Abstract
This chapter frames the book’s ambition to analyse how new streaming services and incumbent television providers intersect and act in a new drama landscape, and how streaming impacts existing television production cultures, publishing models and industry–audience relations. It summarises the empirical case underpinning the book—an in-depth study of the Norwegian public service broadcaster (NRK) and some of its game-changing drama productions (e.g. Lilyhammer, SKAM and blank)—and describes its analytical approach of combining perspectives from production studies, media industry studies and fan studies. The study builds on insight gained through more than a hundred interviews with television experts and fans, hundreds of hours of observations and unique access to industry conferences, meetings, working documents and ratings.
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Notes
- 1.
These projects include Success in the Film and Television Industry: A Production Culture Perspective (Lillehammer University College, 2013–2016), Media Experiences (Lund University, 2013–2016), What Makes Television Drama Series Travel (Aarhus University, 2014–2019), Streaming the Culture Industries (University of Oslo, 2017–2021) and Rearching Young Audiences: Serial Fiction and Cross-Media Storyworlds for Children and Young Audiences (Copenhagen University, 2019–2024). Several monographs and anthologies have been published as part of these projects, including Bakøy et al. 2016, 2017; Hansen and Waade 2017; Hill 2019; Jensen and Jacobsen 2020; Waade et al. 2020b. See also Andersen 2019; Bruun 2020; Redvall 2013 for related studies following a similar approach.
- 2.
In 2019, for example, 98 per cent of the population had internet access, 95 per cent had a smartphone, 72 per cent had access to a tablet and 69 per cent subscribed to one or more film and television streaming services (SSB 2020: 91).
- 3.
I have analysed Lilyhammer and SKAM also in previous publications. Previous analyses of Lilyhammer include Sundet 2016 (Still ‘Desperately seeking the audience’? Audience making in the age of media convergence (the Lilyhammer experience)) and Sundet 2017a (Co-produced television drama and the cost of transnational ‘success’: The making of Lilyhammer). Previous analyses of SKAM include Sundet 2017b (‘Det er bare du som kan føle det du føler’—emosjonell investering og engasjement i nettdramaet SKAM), Sundet 2019 (From ‘secret’ online teen drama to international cult phenomenon: The global expansion of SKAM and its public service mission), and Andersen and Sundet 2019 (Producing online youth fiction in a Nordic public-service context). In this book, I see Lilyhammer , SKAM and blank in relation to each other and frame them within the overall context of streaming.
- 4.
The informants included both genders and a wide age span, though most were women between thirty and fifty years old. Gender-wise, there were forty-four women and six men. Age-wise, they distributed as follows: under 20 years old: 5 people; 20–29: 5; 30–39: 13; 40–49: 19; 50–59: 6; 60 and over: 2. For other analysis based on this material, see Petersen and Sundet 2019; Sundet and Petersen 2020.
- 5.
All interview quotations have been translated from Norwegian, Danish or Swedish into English by the author.
- 6.
Thanks to Kristian Tolonen, Håkon Lund Sørensen and Iacob Prebensen at NRK’s division for audience insight for providing audience ratings regarding Lilyhammer , SKAM and blank . Thanks also to Kim Erlandsen, Tom Øverlie and Rashid Akrim at NRK P3 for their in-depth insights into Google Analytics and fan behaviour from an industry perspective.
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Sundet, V.S. (2021). National Television, Drama and Streaming. In: Television Drama in the Age of Streaming. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66418-3_1
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