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Abstract

The global film industry has been irreversibly changed by the rise of video-on-demand (VoD) streaming services, with industry members and consumers alike split on whether these services are helping or harming the industry. Building upon existing research, the aim of this report is to determine the ways in which VoD streaming services have changed the film industry by first understanding the reasons behind the prominence of such services. Based on a review of existing research, two identical surveys were issued to participants in both the UK and the US, with the objectives of the research to find out what aspects of the viewing experience audiences value most, which features of VoD services have made them so popular, to the extent they could rival ‘conventional cinema’, and whether or not that success has come at a cost to Hollywood’s studio system. Results of the primary investigation, together with analysis of existing research, indicate that the negative effects of video-on-demand services on the film industry are not as substantial as initially believed, and that such services are in fact aiding the democratisation of film as a medium more so than damaging it. Resulting in the conclusion that the majority of negative change in public opinion towards conventional cinema is largely self-inflicted by a fundamentally flawed business model of film distribution, and substantial changes, some of which have already begun to be implemented, are recommended in order to secure the future of conventional theatrical distribution.

Course: Digital Media - BSc (Hons) - C1515

Date Deposited: 2019-11-18

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13427.html