University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Shifting paradigms in the global mediascape: from the Catalina bison to the digital glocalization of entertainment

(USC Thesis Other)

Shifting paradigms in the global mediascape: from the Catalina bison to the digital glocalization of entertainment

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content

SHIFTING PARADIGMS IN THE GLOBAL MEDIASCAPE:
FROM THE CATALINA BISON TO THE DIGITAL GLOCALIZATION OF
ENTERTAINMENT

by
Paolo Sigismondi
__________________________________________________________

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(COMMUNICATION)

December 2009

Copyright 2009 Paolo Sigismondi

ii

DEDICATION
To Daphne and Eva

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The intellectual journey of exploration leading to this dissertation started long
before I set foot on the beautiful campus of the University of Southern California in
Los Angeles, but it found here an ideal environment to reflect, investigate and
conduct research. This project benefited from the ongoing academic discussions
within the intellectual community of the Annenberg School for Communication, and
was enriched by contributions from a variety of individuals I would like to take the
opportunity to thank. I am particularly grateful to the dissertation committee chair,
Tom Goodnight, for his advice, intellectual curiosity and generosity throughout the
project, and to the other members of the committee, Sarah Banet-Weiser and Ellen
Seiter, for their feedback and comments since the early stages of the dissertation.
Also, I am indebted to the conversations I had with Rick Jewell of the School
of Cinematic Arts on the evolution of the Hollywood studio system over the years,
and with Omar El Sawy of the Marshall School of Business on the communication
technologies evolutions introducing the “digital glocalization of entertainment”.
Furthermore, for their insights into the evolving global media and entertainment
landscape I thank the industry professionals I had the pleasure to interview for the
purpose of this project in Los Angeles, whom I mention in the dissertation, and those
who preferred to remain anonymous. The dissertation is dedicated to my wife
Daphne with whom I shared the ideas and reflections on and about this project, and

iv

to our daughter Eva, whose daily routines and smiling eyes accompanied me in the
process.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

ABSTRACT x

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION: THE EVOLVING GLOBAL MEDIASCAPE

The ecology and the dimensions of the global mediascape 1
Interdisciplinary Debates on Global Entertainment 5
The purpose of the dissertation, its method of inquiry and organization 18
Purpose of the dissertation 18
Research question and theses 19
Method 22
Organization of the dissertation 27
Chapter 1 endnotes 34

CHAPTER 2
HOLLYWOOD’S GLOBAL PRIMACY, EXPLICATED

Hollywood, defined 36
Hollywood’s global economic leadership 38
Economic analysis of the Hollywood system 46
The economic drivers of Hollywood’s global competitive advantage 55
Hollywood’s global leadership / hegemony: An interdisciplinary
analysis 64
The potential threats to Hollywood’s global primacy in an evolving
landscape 70
Chapter 2 endnotes 78

vi

CHAPTER 3
THE RISE OF NON-SCRIPTED ENTERTAINMENT

The success of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment 80
The category of non-scripted entertainment: A new genre? 85
A global TV commercial success: The Big Brother format 94
The dark side of “reality TV”: Issues and concerns stemming from the
rise of non-scripted entertainment 104
The reality of global TV formats 107
The global players in the non-scripted entertainment landscape 114
Endemol 115
FremantleMedia 120
Other European entities operating in non-scripted entertainment 125
Hollywood and non-scripted entertainment 128
Chapter 3 endnotes 133

CHAPTER 4
THE NEW, DIGITAL SHELF LIFE OF ENTERTAINMENT

Technological revolutions as potentially disruptive changes in the
entertainment landscape 136
Hollywood meets technology 139
The impact of the ICT revolution on the entertainment industry 147
Digital content 149
Conduits: Changes in the delivery 154
New business models 161
The regulatory environment and issues in the digital media and
entertainment industry 171
The rise of non-authorized diffusion of entertainment content in a
digital environment 175
Digital entertainment: Threat or opportunity? The NBC 2008
Olympics coverage as digital glocalization of entertainment 178
An evolving digital entertainment landscape 190
The contradictions and complexity of the ICT revolution in the
21
st
century media landscape 193
Chapter 4 endnotes 196

vii

CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION: THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY AT A
CROSSROADS AMIDST A GLOBAL ECONOMIC RECESSION

Does Hollywood still rule the world? 198
New challenges and opportunities unfolding in the global
entertainment landscape 201
The drivers of Hollywood’s competitive advantage 201
The global rise of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment 203
The impact of the ICT revolution on the global entertainment
industry 210
Limitations of this study and future research trajectories 214
The global entertainment industry at a crossroads amidst a global
economic recession 222
From the Catalina bison to the digital glocalization of entertainment:
A new ecology of the global mediascape? 234
Chapter 5 endnotes 237

BIBLIOGRAPHY 238

APPENDIX 263

viii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: USA film and television tape rentals – Export 1992-2006 39

Table 2: International theatrical market 59
Table 3: US domestic box-office, 2003-2005 60
Table 4: USA film and television tape rentals – Import 1992-2006 72

ix

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: US Entertainment industry structure: The five competitive forces 47

Figure 2: US Entertainment business value chain 52

Figure 3: US Entertainment market dynamics and competitive advantage: 62
The “national diamond”

Figure 4: The potential impact of the digital distribution channels on the 167
“windows” of exhibition

x

ABSTRACT
The evolutions of the global entertainment landscape are multifaceted and
complex, unveiling a mosaic of different themes in a contested media space. The
dissertation analyzes on the one hand the drivers of Hollywood’s global primacy and
on the other two institutional trajectories with potential capability to alter the existing
competitive advantages within the global entertainment industry: the global rise of
the new wave of non-scripted programmes, and select features shaping the
boundaries and contours of the new, digital landscape of entertainment, ushered in
by the Information and Communication Technology revolution.
The study brings to the fore new challenges, opportunities and contradictions
unfolding in the global mediascape. The paradigms of the landscape are shifting,
introducing the digital glocalization of entertainment: Successful media texts
crossing national and cultural borders incorporate global, glocal and local elements,
enriched by customized elements made possible by the digital media environment.
The new paradigms are analyzed through the examples of the global “reality TV”
format Big Brother and the NBC 2008 Olympics coverage.
Profit oriented entities maintain a key relevance in the international flow of
entertainment crossing the globe via new, multiple distribution platforms, albeit new
entities are emerging, challenging Hollywood’s global competitive advantage. At the
intersection between new technologies, their appropriation by consumers, and
business models utilized by profit oriented entities to create, deliver and capture
xi

value in the evolving landscape, lies the global media and entertainment industry at
the turn of the 21
st
century.
1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION: THE EVOLVING GLOBAL MEDIASCAPE

The Ecology and the Dimensions of the Global Mediascape

Santa Catalina is a rocky island 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, yet
with its pristine landscape a world apart compared to the near megalopolis. Situated
in Southern California, the island has been selected over the years as a location for
various Hollywood movies, from Treasure Island to Mutiny on the Bounty, which
won the Academy Award for best picture in 1935 (Rosenthal, 2003). In particular it
was chosen as a location by a Hollywood crew shooting the silent film version of
Zane Grey's Western tale The Vanishing American in 1924. Historians of the small
island report (Overholt, 1962) that the production crew, in need to recreate a Western
feeling on the island, imported bison, a species foreign to the local fauna, with the
sole purpose of utilizing them in the shooting of the movie. After the principal
photography phase of the film was over the crew left the island, while the bison were
left behind. Over the decades, the bison herd descendent from the original “cast
members” of the motion picture, which ironically never appeared in the final version
of the movie, grew to as many as 600 units. As a result, the animals, not indigenous
to that ecosystem, have been altering the existing flora and fauna of the island and its
overall ecology ever since.
In a similar way, the export of Hollywood’s entertainment products has
been considered as a main element of the American cultural expansion
2

internationally by an evolving body of scholarly literature. Within this framework,
Hollywood’s cultural artifacts alter the existing ecologies of local cultures through
the successful global diffusion of entertainment and ideologies embedded within it,
from the center of the empire to its periphery. The flow of entertainment impacts
local cultures, ushering in American values and “way of life” at a global level. In
fact, the stories and characters proposed usually have little in common with the
everyday lives of audiences having access to them around the globe. According to
these scholarly conversations, their growing presence in entertainment outlets
globally stifles local creative industries on the one hand and negatively impacts local
cultures on the other. Hollywood’s popular culture artifacts therefore represent a key
feature, economically and culturally, of the US presence around the world, as a result
of Hollywood’s leadership in the global entertainment landscape: The global
distribution of entertainment content created in the US represents a crucial element
of the American global “soft power”, as one of its key exports in an increasingly
relevant sector.
The global economic dimensions of the “cultural and creative” sectors are
impressive: According to a study by UNESCO, “cultural and creative industries
alone are estimated to account for over 7% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product”
(UNESCO, 2005, p. 9). Furthermore, the global flow of cultural goods is increasing
and expanding, as an effect of and contributing to the phenomena of globalization: In

3

fact, “custom-based data show that the trade of cultural goods almost doubled during
the last ten years from US $ 38.3B in 1994 to 59.2B in 2002” (UNESCO, 2005, p. 9).
The entertainment industry plays a pivotal role in the global flow of content:
UNESCO, assessing the trade flows of feature-length motion pictures within
audiovisual content, estimates that “in 2003, the motion picture industry sold over
7.25 billion tickets in 145,598 theatres around the world and generated US$ 21.8B in
revenue. Secondary exploitation of movie features in the form of different types of
licensing, videos and DVD generated revenues of US$ 55B, giving a total market
value close to US$ 75B” (UNESCO, 2005, p. 47). Caveats related to these
measurements notwithstanding,
1
the American presence in the global entertainment
landscape appears predominant: UNESCO estimates for example that “the share of
American movies was more than 50 per cent on average between 2000-2002 for
most of the counties” (UNESCO, 2005, p. 47).
The trade imbalance is not only between developed economies and third or
forth world countries (the West vs. “the rest” paradigm), but shows a significant
imbalance within the Western world, with the US entertainment industry having a
clear global leadership. Specifically, the same report estimates that in the time period
1995-2000, the trade in broadcasting programmes between the US and Europe is “far
from balanced”, with EU countries “sustaining a trade deficit fifteen times the total
value of their export to North America”: In 2000 for example the US export to the

4

EU were approximately valued US$ 4.3B, while the EU export to the US were
valued US$ 275M (UNESCO, 2005, p. 48).
The entertainment sector constitutes a key industry in the post industrial
economy of the US, an “entertainment economy” (Wolf, 2003). This is becoming
even more pervasive as new communication technologies are being made available,
providing ubiquitous distribution of entertainment content. At a global level, the
increase of economic and political linkages among nations and the development of
new communication technologies have ushered in a new phase in the flow of
international popular culture artifacts. In this scenario, global entertainment is a key
feature of 21
st
century media landscapes and societies worldwide. Understanding
how the industry operates offers a starting point for the analysis of its impact and
consequences on the societies as a whole. Specifically, the analysis of Hollywood’s
global leadership and the potential threats to its global competitive advantage has
relevance beyond its significant economic value, because the entertainment industry
has cultural, political, and social impacts at a global level.
The global entertainment landscape is undergoing major changes at the turn
of the 21
st
century. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
revolution is altering existing business models and practices that have regulated the
industries for decades. The content and the delivery of entertainment products are
being modified. New business models are called upon to generate, deliver, and
capture value in the evolving entertainment industry.
5

This dissertation studies the evolutions, collisions, challenges and
opportunities in global entertainment at the turn of the 21
st
century as the ICT
revolution unfolds. The thesis is that the landscape’s paradigms are shifting,
introducing what can be defined as the digital glocalization of entertainment.
Furthermore new global players, mainly from Europe, are emerging. These elements
constitute challenges and potential threats to Hollywood’s global competitive
advantage. This chapter first explores the scholarly conversations this dissertation
aims to join and add a voice to. Subsequently, it presents how the study is structured
to achieve that goal, by illustrating its overall purpose, its research question and
theses, its method of inquiry, and its organization.
Interdisciplinary Debates on Global Entertainment
The phenomenon of the international trade imbalances of cultural goods in
general, and entertainment content in particular, did not go unnoticed in the evolving
debates on international communication in the 20
th
century. In fact, the notion of
cultural imperialism was brought to the fore in conversations, above and beyond the
economic field, when the analysis of the flow of international entertainment content,
ranging from music to TV programmes and feature-length motion pictures, showed a
significant imbalance generated by a mostly unidirectional flow of exports form
Western economies, and the US in particular, toward developing countries, as
various UNESCO studies pointed out.
2

6

Specifically, Herbert Schiller in his seminal works Mass Communication and
American Empire (1992) and Culture Inc. (1989) identified on the one hand the rise
of the American empire replacing former European colonial empires (mainly British,
French and Dutch), based on economic, military and communication power, and on
the other the rise of transnational, profit oriented entities within the American
dominance, notably in the culture industry. As a result of this power imbalance, the
scholarly conversation in the field raised concerns that American global leadership
would lead to global homogeneity within a consumerist culture.
Different strands of inquiry, in the evolving body of literature within the
fields of business and economics, political science and cultural studies have analyzed
the phenomenon of global entertainment.
3
A defining approach, within critical
studies, stems primarily from the Marxist critique of capitalism and specifically,
within this theoretical framework, from the Frankfurt School theorists’ focus on the
culture industry as a key component of the capitalistic economy and society
producing culture as a commodity with the intent to lead to “mass deception”
(Adorno & Horkheimer, 1979). Following a similar theoretical framework, other
scholars focused on the “dependence effect” (Galbraith, 1959, 1998) generated and
managed by dominating economic and political entities. As mentioned, Schiller
(1989, 1992) analyzes “the corporate take over of public expression” by profit
oriented corporation producing culture and entertainment, while other scholars focus
on its relevance in manufacturing consent (Herman & Chomsky, 1988), creating and
7

spreading cultural imperialism (Tomlinson, 1991), homogeneity and
“mcdonaldization” (Ritzer, 1993) or “structural imperialism”, imposing dominant
dynamics between the center and the periphery in the creation of culture (Galtung,
1971).
In the diffusion of global entertainment in particular many specific issues
have been raised and analyzed: US television exports in Latin American and its
consequences (Wells, 1972), the role of Disney comics in the diffusion of capitalistic
values (Dorfman & Mattelart, 1975), the dynamics and evolutions over time of
international flow in television products (Varis, 1986, feature-length motion pictures
(Guback, 1969; de Grazia, 1989; Jarvie, 1992; Vasey, 1997; Trumpbour, 2002).
Particular emphasis has been posed on the key role of global media entities (Herman
& McChesney, 1997) and Hollywood in particular (Wasko, 2003; Miller, Govin,
McMurria, Maxwell, & Wang, 2005) in the global political economy of
entertainment. Within this framework, Thussu (2007) also specifically identifies the
relevance and the impact of the emerging trend of contra-flows of non-Western
media in the global landscape arena.
The above mentioned scholars have brought to the fore the notion, deeply
rooted in the cultural imperialism theory and grounded in the political economy
approach, that cultural globalization would lead worldwide diversity mainly toward a
Westernized consumer culture, even more detrimental to local cultures given the
current trend of consolidation and concentration of media and entertainment
8

ownership (Collette, 1998). As a result, these scholarly conversations focus on media
and entertainment ownership and control, while also examining the relevant business
practices in producing and distributing popular culture artifacts globally.
Reception studies have focused on the analysis of different audiences’ reaction
to American productions as Dallas (Ang, 1986; Liebes & Katz, 1990) to identify
patterns in media consumptions and interpretations of media texts. Moreover other
scholars have analyzed the representation of non-Western cultures within the Western
media and entertainment identifying patterns of subordination and imperialism (Said,
1993; Shoat & Stam, 1994). As a result of the transnational flow of information and
culture, it has been pointed out, hybridization can occur (Garcia Canclini, 1995),
fostering transterritiorial and mulitilinguistic identities in postmodern societies and
cultures around the world. The aforementioned approaches help explicate the current
dynamic global cultural landscape where the balance is originated by competing and
oftentimes conflicting forces as in the case of cultural homogenization on the one hand
and hybridization on the other, and successful transnational media corporation localize
their offering to the cultures of recipient markets.
The increase in the global flow of entertainment is generally deemed at the
same time cause and effect of the phenomena of globalization, which has economic,
but also social and political dimensions, as entertainment content crosses national and
cultural boundaries reaching different local, and culturally situated, audiences.
Specifically, other strands of inquiry regard “cultural globalization as a process of
9

hybridization in which cultural mixture and adaptation continuously transform and
renew cultural forms” (Kraidy, 2005). These theoretical positions urge us to explore an
evolving landscape where transnational media and entertainment conglomerates play
essential roles in shaping global contemporary culture, while at the same time active
and culturally situated audiences meet, modify and adapt the popular culture artifacts
proposed by an increasing number of delivery channels.
Henry Jenkins (2006a & 2006b) expands the concept of active audiences, by
focusing on their avant-garde, the fans and bloggers, representing individuals
actively creating their own culture by appropriating and re-mixing existing popular
cultural artifacts. Jenkins’ initial framework of “participatory culture” turns into
“convergence culture” (2006b), in an effort to better capture the phenomena involved
in digital convergence processes as they unfold. He specifically analyzes the
intersections between commercial culture, created and distributed by the media
industries, and amateur culture, created derivatively by active audiences or generated
as a result of their original interests.
Considering media convergence as an “ongoing process occurring at various
intersections between media technologies, industries, content and audiences” (2006a,
p.154), Jenkins specifically focuses on the interaction between two forces: corporate
convergence and grassroots convergence dictating the dynamics of the evolving
media landscape on the one hand and the texts and meanings generated on the other
(2006a, p.155). In his analysis, corporate convergence leads to concentration of
10

media ownership, whereas grassroots convergence provides empowerment to the
audiences that actively produce, distribute and consume media content. The dynamic
relations between these two forces, one top-down and the other bottom-up, would
lead to global convergence shaping a new kind of pop cosmopolitanism (2006a,
p.156).
Overall, there is a general consensus among the evolving body of scholarly
conversations from different fields of study that have analyzed the landscape in the
last few decades that Hollywood holds the economic leadership, in the global
entertainment landscape (Demers, 2002; Epstein, 2005; Galtung, 1971; Gomery,
2000; Havens, 2006; Herman & McChesney, 1997; Hollifield, 2004; Mattelart,
1979; Miller, Govin, McMurria, Maxwell, and Wang, 2005; Olson, 1999; Porter,
1990; Rothkop, 1997; Said, 1993; Schiller, 1989 and 1992; Straubhaar, 2007; Taylor,
1997; Thussu, 2007; Tomlinson, 1991; Véron, 1999; Vogel, 2004; Wasko, 2003;
Wildman, 1995). This predominance has lead scholars to define the phenomenon of
Hollywood’s economic leadership in the entertainment sector as “Hollywood
hegemony” in the global mediascape, drawing on and adapting Gramsci’s work on
the actions and strategies of dominant socials groups to the role Hollywood plays in
the evolving dynamics of the global mass media landscape (Thussu, 2006, pp. 53,
156).
Specifically, within the political economy approach, Miller et al. (2005),
point out the relevance of global entertainment in the international flow of popular
11

culture, and the dynamics of Hollywood productions in the new global scenario. The
analysis specifically examines the rationale and consequences of the international
division of labor, a common practice within manufacturing industries operating on a
global scale to maximize their profits. Hollywood’s global operations, from setting
up international productions to minimize production costs to outsourcing digital
postproductions, take advantage of opportunities arising in the entertainment global
labor market and related industries.
As entertainment crosses national borders, the different political issues
generated are analyzed within the international relations framework with different
and oftentimes competing theoretical approaches. Generally, scholars situated within
the political science and international relations fields of study, tend to focus on the
specific roles of political agents, as nation states, profit oriented transnational media
conglomerates and international, Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) as
facilitators of the international flow of entertainment globally, both at the national
and international level, their impact and consequences.
By analyzing the evolving dynamics of the landscape, some scholars focus on
the phenomenon of the ICT revolution as an agent of acceleration of the diffusion of
entertainment content by global transnational, publicly traded media conglomerates
by virtue of the increased speed of its distribution and its diminishing costs,
introducing a political and cultural phase beyond nation-centrism (Georgiou &
Silverstone, 2007). However, as pointed out by Waisbord and Morris (2001), nation
12

states are still relevant as gatekeepers, retaining specific authority in facilitating or
limiting the distribution of foreign entertainment, establishing quotas and
determining to what extent foreign ownership of media outlets is allowed in the
country. This dynamic between nation states and transnational media and
entertainment conglomerates is usually negotiated on a nation by nation basis,
depending on the economic relevance of the country, its political affiliations,
oftentimes within transnational umbrella entities determining the legislative
framework, as in the case of the European Union (EU) in Western Europe.
The discourses of globalization in different strands of academic inquiry
appear to have taken the center stage in scholarly conversations, as the causes and
effects of the processes of globalization unfold, revealing a more complex and
interconnected international communication landscape. Specifically, as a result of the
phenomena of globalization, new strands of inquiry have provided new theoretical
frameworks applicable to the issues analyzed in global entertainment. As Appadurai
(1990) points out, the phenomenon of international flow of media entertainment
occurs within evolving disjuncture and differences among different cultures, at the
turn of the 21
st
century.
As a result, he identifies five dimensions (each with the suffix –scape) of
the global cultural flows: ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes,
and ideoscapes (Appadurai, 1990, p. 41). Specifically, mediascapes “refer both to the
distribution of the electronic capabilities to produce and disseminate information
13

(newspapers, magazines, television stations, and film-production studios) […] and to
the images of the world created by these media” (Appadurai, 1990, p. 42).
Mediascapes tend to be “image-centered, narrative-based accounts of strips of
reality”, experienced and transformed by local audiences globally. These “strips” of
reality, disaggregated and confronted with personal experiences, assume a central
role in developing the notion of self vis-á -vis the external world, as they “help
constitute narrative of the Other and protonarratives of possible lives, fantasies that
could become prolegomena to the desire for acquisition and movement” (Appadurai,
1990, p. 43).
Furthermore, the ethnoscape is experiencing diasporic phenomena, as more
and more populations dynamically move around the globe and live their existences
between different cultures. At the same time the transnational movements of popular
culture artifacts in the evolving mediascape expose local cultures to international
entertainment: Both phenomena generate hybridity, “the fusion of two hitherto
relatively distinct forms, styles, or identities, cross-cultural contacts” (Kraidy, 2005,
p. 5), a central component in the inquiry of the cultural dimension of global
entertainment.
Other scholarly voices (Chalaby, 2006) attempt to redirect the focus of the
scholarly conversations on Hollywood’s leadership in the global entertainment
landscape, however, after the shift from cultural imperialism to phenomena of
globalization has been transforming the research agenda in the field. In fact,
14

analyzing the specific role of the US media and entertainment industry within the
global entertainment landscape, Chalaby points out that at the turn of the 21
st
century
the notion of the “American cultural primacy” is still a fundamental aspect within the
global flow of entertainment: The relevance of Hollywood’s leadership / hegemony
in the global arena is still at the forefront of ongoing scholarly debates.
This dissertation adds a voice to the evolving scholarly conversations on
global entertainment, contributing to the ongoing debate. The goal of the study is to
analyze the unfolding shifts in the institutional logics of the industry, by focusing on
two specific institutional trajectories challenging the existing Hollywood’s
leadership: the global rise of the new wave of non-scripted programmes, and select
features shaping the boundaries and contours of the new, digital landscape of
entertainment, ushered in by the Information and Communication Technology
revolution. The study draws on Griffin’s (1984) work on trajectories, defined as
material/symbolic lines of development in a communication institution, and
translates Griffin's rhetorical trajectory to that of comparing institutional logics
(Fligstein, 1996; Thorton & Ocasio, 1999). Global entertainment is identified as a
contested media space with multiple institutional logics.
A logic is a formatting formula embedded in organizational practice. Over
time the organizations become identified with this formula that connects an industry
management and entertainment products. The Hollywood logic is defined as a
formula for combining symbolic, material, and other resources in a range of narrative
15

formats, distribution, spin offs, and development, while the European trajectory
among others competes with Hollywood introducing different narrative formats,
non-scripted entertainment, as the “reality TV” programmes. The dialectic tensions
between novel versus traditional trajectories determine the competition and the
cooperation in confirming and altering the institutions.
In so doing, the dissertation follows similar endeavors in global entertainment
scholarly conversations. The theoretical framework specifically draws on Bielby and
Harrington’s approach in their analysis of Global TV: Exporting Television and
Culture in the World Market (2008, pp. xi-xv). In fact, they identify different
institutional logics in their quest to understand and explicate “the complexities of the
industry’s organizational structure and dynamics, particularly when it crosses
borders” (p. xiii), as organizational forms are deemed “economic indicators of an
industry’s or field’s institutional logic”.
Within this framework, the dissertation specifically analyzes the two above
mentioned institutional trajectories (the global rise of the new wave of non-scripted
programmes, and select features shaping the boundaries and contours of the new,
digital landscape of entertainment, ushered in by the Information and
Communication). We are witnessing at the turn of the 21
st
century, it is argued in the
dissertation, a “cultural shift in the institutional logics of the industry” (p. xiv), as the
one pointed out by Thornton (2004) in her analysis of the higher education
publishing industry.
16

Additionally, the dissertation follows a path echoing Straubhaar work in
World Television: From Global to Local (2007, p. 2-8): analyzing with a “systemic
focus …the institutions of television” as “television creation, flow, and reception are
bounded but not determined by political, economic, and institutional structures.”
Also, “those structures, plus similar structures of technology, provide resources as
well as constraints for cultural agents, such as television producers and consumers”
and “rules and patterns grow within those boundaries but are shaped both by the
institutions and those who work within them.” The dissertation compares and
contrasts the institutional trajectories that appear to govern production of
entertainment narratives coupling interrelationships of competition within a
“complexity theory” (Straubhaar, 2007, p. 8) approach: There are “complex
possibilities, hard to predict exactly, but bounded by certain factors, such as
technology and economics, and patterned by others, such as cultural formations like
genres that flow among television systems.”
Within this complex and multifaceted landscape, the dissertation specifically
analyzes two institutional trajectories (technological and genre changes) within an
industrial economic framework. These two trajectories have the potential to modify
the existing structures and paradigms of the global mediascape at the turn of the 21
st

century. These are significant because they represent a change in the existing
political economy of global entertainment and they introduce more effectively
different logics, as local adaptations of global formats. The Big Brother format and
17

the NBC coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games provide examples of successful
glocalization strategies within the evolving mediascape, as they represent bids to co-
opt, blend and outstrip competition.
For the purpose of the dissertation, the concept of glocalization is utilized
following Straubhaar’s framework, who points out that “many national programs are
based on global or regional models, so national television itself must be
problematized and understood in new hybrid or glocal (local adaptations of global)
forms” (2007, p. 3). As Straubhaar pointed out (p. 149), the term glocalization stems
from a Japanese marketing strategy of “global-localization” or glocalization
(Robertson, 1995), the business practice to adapt cultural products to other cultures,
“instead of pressing for a global standardization”: As a result, “glocalization is a
blending of foreign and local” (p. 149), trying to cater to the entertainment needs of
what Iwabuchi calls “glocal me” worldwide (2007, p. 70).
In the complex and multi-layered global television landscape the TV format
business has increasingly gained relevance (Moran, 2004) and it represents a clear
example of glocalization of entertainment content as global formats are presented
locally in adapted versions to audiences usually unaware of their origin. As the
dissertation analyzes, this strategy has become institutionalized and systematically
practiced by new entities, mainly outside the Hollywood system, competing in the
global entertainment arena.

18

The ICT revolution plays a relevant role in the evolution of global entertainment
and adds a specific dimension to the ongoing process of glocalization of
entertainment content. The theoretical position adopted in the dissertation
acknowledges the importance of technological evolutions in the production and
distribution of entertainment content globally, yet it does not situate the analysis
within a technological determinism framework, where technology, mysteriously
developed in distant laboratories, somehow would find its way into society. At the
intersection between new technologies, their appropriation by consumers, and
business models utilized by profit oriented entities to create, deliver and capture
value in the evolving landscape, lies the global media and entertainment industry at
the turn of the 21
st
century.
The Purpose of the Dissertation, Its Method of Inquiry and Organization

Purpose of the Dissertation

The dissertation investigates the increasing global flow of entertainment
content at the turn of the 21
st
century, as the ICT revolution unfolds. The thesis is
that the global mediascape’s paradigms are shifting, unveiling signs of potential
threats at the horizon for the existing Hollywood’s global competitive advantage.
The goal of the study is to join and contribute to the evolving scholarly conversation
on global entertainment specifically analyzing on the one hand Hollywood’s global
predominance and on the other two institutional trajectories with potential capability
to alter the existing status quo. The analysis contributes to the understanding of:
19

1) Hollywood’s success in the global media landscape at the turn of the 21
st

century, identifying the drivers of its competitive advantages.
2) The global rise of the new wave of non-scripted programmes, originated in
large part outside the Hollywood system, as the emerging players in the global arena
are European “reality TV” global format developers and distributors.
3) The new frontiers of digital entertainment, with the analysis of select
features within the digital entertainment landscape, including delivery platforms
allowing audiences to access and retrieve entertainment content available on demand
globally.
These analyses aim to explicate to what extent Hollywood’s primacy is in
jeopardy, as the changes in the industry unfold. The study explores these changes in
the global entertainment landscape and Hollywood’s reactions within the evolving
landscape, while connecting them to the on going scholarly conversations. The
research question and theses, the methods utilized in the analyses, and a specific
preview of the organization of the dissertation and content of the chapters illustrate
the nature and the trajectory of the study.
Research Question and Theses
The research question and theses are:
Research Question: How and to what extent is Hollywood’s competitive advantage
threatened in the global entertainment landscape at the turn of the 21
st
century?

20

Theses: Hollywood has an economic leadership in the global mediascape. Among the
changes unfolding in the global landscape at the turn of the 21
st
century, two
trajectories represent a potential threat to Hollywood’s global competitive advantage:
- The rise of non-scripted entertainment (as in “reality shows”) originating
mainly from Europe is an example of contra-flow of entertainment taking place
within the West, impacting the trade of cultural products above and beyond the
economically key Atlantic corridor. The phenomenon specifically threatens
Hollywood studios’ global economic leadership, as the global TV formats have made
inroads in prime time schedules around the world, including the US.
In fact, as the global TV formats are selected by broadcasters around the
world, Hollywood’s global presence with its output (libraries and current
productions, both feature length motion pictures and TV content) faces new
competitors in TV landscapes worldwide. The phenomenon of “reality TV” has been
analyzed by critical studies scholars (Andrejevic, 2004; Bignell 2005), while its
political economy aspects and its specific potential threat to the Hollywood system
have not yet been fully explored.
-The ICT revolution is modifying the contours and boundaries of the global
mediascape, affecting the content, the conduits and the business models of the
entertainment industry. Through the interplay among active audiences on the one
hand and profit oriented entities on the other, within national and international

21

regulatory environments, the deployment of these communication technologies have
the potential to alter the existing dynamics within the landscape.
The entertainment landscape emerging, as the new technologies unfold, has
also the potential to amplify the threats posed by the rise of non-scripted programmes
to Hollywood’s competitive advantage, as non-scripted programmes oftentimes
appear better positioned to capture the opportunities emerging in the new scenario
(new revenue streams through SMS, potential for interactivity and mobile
deployment, etc.).
- For the purpose of the dissertation, Hollywood is defined by the six major
Hollywood studios, now all part of transnational media conglomerates, within the
MPAA, which have the leadership in producing and distributing entertainment
content globally. It is useful, however, to also consider Hollywood in a broader sense
as a system, including other sets of entities, as the talent agencies and the creative
communities, operating mainly in Southern California. They constitute in fact an
intertwined set of different organisms whose dynamic contrapositions contribute to
generate the current leadership in the global entertainment landscape.
The existing scholarly conversation appears generally to agree that
Hollywood’s predominance in the media and entertainment landscape will not be
affected solely by the digital fallout, although it might, painfully for the specific
individuals involved, change some of its internal dynamics and power relations
(Gomery 2000; Miller, 2007). The dissertation joins the ongoing debate, by
22

analyzing on the one hand the phenomenon of non-scripted entertainment and on the
other the distinctive features of the new digital entertainment landscape ushering in a
new, potentially disruptive, paradigm: the digital glocalization of entertainment. The
new paradigm is analyzed through the examples of the global “reality TV” format
Big Brother and the NBC 2008 Olympics coverage.
Method
4

The dissertation explores the above mentioned themes of the global rise of
non-scripted entertainment and the impact of the ICT revolution as potential threats
to Hollywood’s global competitive advantage. First, an economic and historical
analysis of the phenomena is conducted within a competitive sector analysis
framework to provide the preliminary evaluation of the global entertainment
landscape, its features, leaders, contours and boundaries. Specifically, the analysis
utilizes tools from the field of industrial economics, drawing on the work of Porter:
The competitive “five forces” and “national diamond” (Porter, 1980 & 1990)
theoretical frameworks assess the structure of industry landscape and specifically
identify the drivers of Hollywood’s global competitive advantages.
The analysis draws on primary and secondary sources, by collecting,
assembling, and analyzing relevant data. Specifically, financial data and reports of
relevant transnational media corporations is to be sifted through, as well as all
relevant available data to describe, quantify, and understand the unfolding
phenomena, as audiences’ Nielsen data provided by the International TV & Video
23

Almanac and trade journals, and audience data from the Fédération Internationale de
Football Association (FIFA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and data
provided by UNESCO. With the same purposes of defining the magnitude and the
evolution of the two themes investigated, data are to be analyzed drawing on existing
research from the IBM institute for Business Value, Standard & Poor’s industry
surveys of the different media, entertainment and telecom sectors, the Global
Technology Center of PricewaterhouseCooper, and FTI Consulting.
Furthermore, data from trade associations and US governmental agencies are
to be analyzed and compared: from the Motion Picture Association of America
(MPAA), the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the Entertainment Software
Association (ESA), the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), the US
government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and the US Federal Communications
Commission (FCC). In addition, existing research and data from the Institute for
Communication Technology Management of the Marshall School of Business, and
the Center for the Digital Future of the University of Southern California is useful
for the analysis of the study.
Also, relevant trade journals over the last ten years are to be systematically
analyzed to shed light on the developments of the evolving business practices. The
last decade (1999-2008) has in fact witnessed significant changes in the global
entertainment landscape, and specifically the increased relevance of both the flow of
non-scripted entertainment globally and the unfolding impact of the ICT revolution
24

on the industry. Trade journals are deemed central to announce innovations,
anticipate change, create valuations for professionals and participate in constructing
the entertainment marketplace. Specifically, the two major trade journals covering
the US and global business of entertainment Variety and The Hollywood Reporter,
daily on the desks of entertainment executives, are to be analyzed and explicated in
their descriptions and assessments of the evolving scenario.
In addition to the domestic and international business sections of the two
aforementioned trade journals, also TV Buying International- TBI, C21’s Media
journals, Broadcasting & Cable, BroadcastingEngineering, Mediaweek are to be
analyzed, as they provide up to date information on the global dimensions and
evolutions of the entertainment business. Finally the analysis of Content Agenda,
which more specifically addresses the issue of the technological developments
affecting the entertainment industry, helps understand the interactions between
evolving technologies and their impact on the entertainment business.
The analysis of the last decade’s key articles within relevant industry
publications is essential to capture the evolutions of the industry as they unfold at the
turn of the new millennium. The temporal horizon of the last decade allows the study
to capture the most relevant evolutions of the global entertainment industry more
pertinent to the analysis, sometimes left out in academic literature. In fact, they
describe and quantify the phenomena as they occur, while providing the reactions of
the main players at a crucial intersection of the landscape, affected by both the rise of
25

the new wave of non-scripted entertainment and the unfolding effects on the industry
of the ICT revolution. The trade journals also provide the context and background
for the interactions with industry professionals that probe positions, assess
developments and ask retrospective questions as to which judgments, anticipations
and values were confirmed, mistaken and why, and what new interests are taking
place.
The continuous interaction with industry professionals throughout the
research, made possible by my attendance to diverse trade events and conventions in
Los Angeles,
5
furnishes a key element to the dissertation. It provides insights on the
issues and challenges the entertainment industry faces, as they are perceived by the
industry executives, from Hollywood studios to emerging entertainment entities,
telecom companies, and trade associations, as the changes unfold and affect their
daily professional activities. It constitutes the first test for the analyses and research
foci of the dissertation and the necessary further background for in-depth interviews
with entertainment professionals.
In fact, in addition to the participation to relevant events, personal,
unstructured interviews conducted between October 2007 and August 2008, with
professionals operating in the relevant industries, provide a key dimension to the
analysis of the study. The interviews address the issues of the emergence of non-
scripted entertainment, and the challenges and opportunities provided by the ICT
revolution in the creation, production and delivery of entertainment content.
26

Specifically, the professionals interviewed ranged from current and former
Hollywood executives and talent agents, telecom executives, TV network executives,
and other professionals operating in the entertainment industry (producers, editors,
etc.).
6
The interviews’ goal is twofold: On the one hand to analyze the changes as
they are perceived by the agents of the evolving industry, and on the other to verify
to what extent existing academic theoretical frameworks and ongoing debates are
capturing and explicating the unfolding issues within the global entertainment
landscape.
In so doing, the study draws on similar perspectives within unfolding
scholarly conversations analyzing the evolving global media landscape.
For example, Havens (2006, p.1) in his Global Television marketplace “reconciling
critical political –economic analysis and critical cultural studies of global television”
also specifically utilizes interviews with industry professionals (2006, p.11),
combined with trade journals analysis to explore and explicate the global
entertainment landscape and its evolution. Also, Bielby and Harrington’s
methodological approach is similar (2008, pp. 183-188), specifically drawing on
industry trade publications, interviewing entertainment industry executives, and
attending diverse trade events and conventions.
The data from the secondary sources, the analysis of the trade journals, the
interactions with media and entertainment business executives and personal,
unstructured interviews enable this study to draw a picture of a contested space in the
27

global entertainment landscape. The paradigms of this key industry appear to be
shifting: from the changes in the ways audiences access and retrieve entertainment
content to the prospects of individual successes or failures of the profit oriented
entities weighting their alternatives and options in their quest to create, deliver, and
capture value in the evolving mediascape.
Organization of the Dissertation
The following chapter 2 defines Hollywood, identifies its existing global
competitive advantage, and its magnitude. The goal of this chapter is to sketch
Hollywood’s global hegemony within economic terms and theoretical frameworks.
After quantifying Hollywood’s leadership in the global entertainment landscape, the
analysis focuses on its business practices and the major historical evolutions within
the US entertainment sector. Different strands of inquiry in scholarly conversations
explicate Hollywood’s leadership differently. The study specifically utilizes Porter’s
five competitive forces and national diamond theoretical frameworks (Porter 1980 &
1990), drawn from industrial economics.
Porter’s theoretical frameworks have been widely utilized in the field of
industrial economics to assess the structure and the competitive advantages of select
players in different industrial sectors and are deemed “exceptionally influential”
(Ketels, 2006) in international trade and beyond for its multiple potential
applications. In fact, research efforts from different fields of inquiry have drawn on
Porter’s work to analyze in general the entertainment industry, and specifically
28

Hollywood’s global competitive advantages (Véron, 1999; Olsen, 1999). The
dissertation applies these frameworks to the emerging phenomena of non-scripted
entertainment and distinct trajectories of the ICT revolution, their impact and
consequences on the existing market dynamics.
Furthermore, the analysis of Hollywood’s global competitive advantage is
enriched by drawing on specific contributions within other scholarly conversations,
focusing on the role of cultural proximity and linguistic affinity (Straubhaar, 1991;
Trepte, 2003) in explicating the success of the diffusion of international
entertainment content. After having analyzed the drivers of Hollywood’s leadership,
the chapter explores the challenges in the evolving landscape of the last decade. The
chapter sets the stage for the subsequent analyses of the competing institutional
trajectories provided in the chapters 3 and 4.
Chapter 3 focuses on the challenges to Hollywood’s global leadership arising
within the “old media” landscape and specifically on the rise of non-scripted
programmes in the global TV marketplace. This theme is developed first through the
analysis of the genre, defining its boundaries and contours, while tracing its historic
roots in the 20
th
century TV landscape. Then the analysis shifts its focus on a specific
example of the new wave of successful global non-scripted programmes: the Big
Brother format. The programme constitutes a successful example of glocalization of
entertainment: A global format is distributed and adapted locally worldwide. The
specific business practices associated with the development, distribution, and
29

adaptation of the programme are explicated, analyzing the differences with scripted
entertainment, as feature-length motion pictures and TV series, drama or comedies.
Moreover, the analysis of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment is
extended to its global leaders: the European non-scripted format developers and
distributors. The analysis specifically focuses on the following entities:
- Endemol, developer and distributor of Big Brother and Deal or no deal, etc.
- FremantleMedia, developer and distributor of Pop Idol (American Idol in the US),
The Price is Right, etc.
- The “factual entertainment” divisions of the media entity Granada International
(part of the UK based conglomerate ITV plc), developer and distributor of shows
like Nanny 911 and Hell’s Kitchen and the BBC, developer and distributor of shows
like Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing with the Stars in the US).
The aforementioned entities are headquartered in Europe (mainly in the UK,
with the exception of Endemol, a Dutch production company evolved in the last
decade into a transnational global format conglomerate, operating with subsidiaries
and joint ventures in 25 countries in five continents including all major Western
European and North American markets, as well as Latin America, India, South
Africa and Australia).
The analysis explicates first to what extent the rise of these entities represents
a challenge to Hollywood (and its system, including talent agencies), as they make
inroads in primetime TV schedules around the world, replacing classic Hollywood
30

productions, as feature length motion pictures, situation comedies and drama series.
Then it focuses on Hollywood’s reactions to the phenomenon: the attempts to buy
foreign developers of formats, or to enter the arena with specific productions,
although these do not appear to be specifically part of their core competencies, which
include for instance relationships with professional talent. These kinds of challenges
for Hollywood regard mainly the content of entertainment. At the same time,
however, the non-scripted entertainment leaders are exploring new ways to distribute
their content globally, made available by the ICT revolution. The analysis then shifts
to the new digital media landscape, illustrated by the subsequent chapter.
Chapter 4 analyses select challenges arising within the “new media”
landscape and specifically several disruptive elements ushered in by digital
entertainment. These challenges are prompting the entities operating in the landscape
to adopt mixed formulas, characterizing the efforts on their part to preserve their
assets from the unfolding threats and at the same time to innovate. As the
communication landscape is undergoing radical changes as a result of the ICT
revolution, the entertainment industry as well is affected by the digitalization of
content in different ways. The ICT revolution is the latest chapter of the history of
the relationship between Hollywood and various technological revolutions affecting
the creation, development, and distribution of entertainment. Historically,
Hollywood has adopted a complex and to a certain extent ambivalent attitude toward
the emerging media and entertainment technologies, as they were made available in
31

the 20
th
century (as with sound, TV, Video Cassette Recording, Cable, Satellite,
Digital Video Recording).
The impact of ICT as it unfolds at the turn of the 21
st
century on the media
and entertainment industry has the potential to represent a disruptive technology,
altering market dynamics by modifying existing competitive advantages and
influencing media conduits, content and overall business models, while ushering in
new competitors. From an analog world of scarcity, the ICT revolution has the
potential to transition the media and entertainment landscape toward a scenario of
“digital abundance where any maker of content (film, music, video games) could
have access to the world’s audience through a server based on a demand media
environment” (Taplin 2005, p.1). The chapter analyzes select challenges ushered in
by digital entertainment: the changes and possibilities brought about by digital nature
of entertainment, the rise of new distribution channels made available by digital
technologies, the necessity of new business models to create and capture value in the
evolving landscape, analyzing the new digital, shelf life of entertainment. Moreover,
it specifically focuses on the new possible delivery options of non-scripted
entertainment, analyzed in the previous chapter.
Also, an analysis is conducted on the regulatory environment and technology
in the media and entertainment industry and the issues unfolding in the new media
environment, as the ongoing debate over net neutrality. Moreover, the issue of the
rise of non-authorized diffusion of entertainment content, or “piracy” as the MPAA
32

defines it, is explored in the new environment. The digital entertainment
environment is being assessed by the entities operating in the landscape as a threat or
an opportunity: As a result of their assessment, they can implement defensive or
offensive strategies (focusing respectively on the threats or on the opportunities) to
successfully interact with the surrounding environment.
The chapter specifically analyzes the NBC 2008 Olympics coverage as an
example of an offensive strategy, trying to explore fully the possibilities offered by
the digital environment in entertainment. It constitutes an example of digital
glocalization of entertainment: A global entertainment event is adapted locally,
taking full advantage of the new features of the digital landscape.
The final Chapter 5 draws the conclusions of the study: As the changes in the
global entertainment landscape unfold, new challenges to Hollywood’s leadership
emerge. In the current evolving technological scenario leading to an apparently
seamless flow of transnational images, the two trajectories analyzed, the rise of non-
scripted entertainment and the new digital entertainment environment, have the
potential to alter the existing status quo within the sector. The global entertainment
industry as a whole, and Hollywood in particular, are at crossroad at the end of the
first decade of the 21
st
century, amidst a global economic recession. Challenges from
the “old media” landscape, combined with other challenges arising in the new,
digital landscape, are changing the paradigms of the 20
th
century global mediascape,
ushering in the potential digital glocalization of entertainment as the new successful
33

paradigm to create, deliver, and capture value in the global digital entertainment
landscape.
The shift in paradigms is unfolding in the global media and entertainment
landscape, and its magnitude and the extent of its reach remain to be seen, as
Hollywood reacts modifying and adapting its strategies in the digital media and
entertainment landscape, and the global economic struggles to recover from a
recession. The resulting impact has the potential to change in the near future the
existing dynamics of the global entertainment landscape, not unlike the paradigms
shifts taking place as a result of major scientific revolutions (Kuhn, 1962).

34

Chapter 1 Endnotes
1
In fact, as acknowledged in the UNESCO report (2005, p. 47), “current balance of payments
data are not detailed enough to determine the proportion of each subcategory” and “the nature of the
trade of broadcasting contents, which is mainly expressed through transactions gathered in the balance
of payments, leads to very different conclusions from those obtained through market surveys”.

2
UNESCO has historically been at the forefront of the debate, voicing concerns and demands
from the developing countries of the world, specifically regarding the relationship between
international communication and national development. In the 1970s and 1980s these concerns raised
the demand for a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). Under the
chairmanship of Sean MacBride, UNESCO created a commission to study the question and published
in 1980 the “MacBride report” providing 82 recommendations on the global communication issues,
with the intent of fostering the democratization of the landscape (MacBride Report, 1980, pp. 191-
233).

3
Among these diverse approaches there are distinct and sometime conflicting research foci in
the analysis of the international flow of entertainment content. Within the field of business and
economics many issues have been analyzed, from its specific business (Squire, 2004) and accounting
(Daniels, Leedy, & Sills, 1998) practices to the micro and macroeconomics aspects of the industry
(Vogel, 2004; Moul, 2005) and the issues of ownership, concentration and competition (Compaine &
Gomery, 2000). Moreover, within the political science field, scholarly conversations have focused on
the international relations relevance of global entertainment (Taylor, 1997; Koopes & Black, 1977)
and its specific role as public diplomacy agent in the increasingly globalized landscape (Arndt, 2005;
Wagnleiter & May, 2000) as a soft power tool (Nye, 1990). Furthermore, many efforts of research
within cultural study have focused on the different issues arising when the flow of entertainment
crosses national and cultural boundaries and meets local and culturally situated audiences around the
globe (Parks & Kumar, 2003). The different fields of study explicate Hollywood’s global competitive
advantage utilizing different theoretical frameworks, ranging from a competitive sector analysis to a
semiotic approach to media texts, to the study of the role of nation states and transnational and
governmental organizations in the process of facilitating and regulating the global flow of
entertainment content.

4
The project was submitted to the USC Office for the protection of Research Subjects
(OPRS) for Internal Review Board (IRB) approval, as it involves interviews with professionals, and
was assigned the number IIR00000234. After reviewing the case, OPRS concluded on October 19,
2007 that “the project does not qualify as Human Subject Research”, as the interviewees were
contacted and questioned for the purpose of the study in their professional capacities (Appendix, p.
230).

5
Specifically, I attended the following events: : P2P Advertising Upfront L.A. DCIA
Conference, organized by the Distributed Computing Industry Association (Los Angeles, October 29,
2007), the Digital Hollywood conference (Los Angeles, October 29-November 1, 2007), the event
“Special evening with Mark Burnett” at the University of Southern California (March 5, 2008)
organized by the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the USC School of Cinematic
Arts with Mark Burnett (a top producer of non-scripted “reality” television programming)., the
Southern California Information System Researchers Workshop “SC-WISRD Version 2.0” at the
Marshall School of Business of the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, June 13, 2008),
the “IT, Technology, Telecom, IT Strategy and Consulting” session of the IBEAR 30
th
reunion
conference at the Marshall School of Business of the University of Southern California (Los Angeles,
July 18, 2008), and the Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM) Workshop
Series - Understanding the Networked Digital Industry “Disruptive Forces in the Interactive Digital
35

Media Market Place: Opportunities or Threats?” at the Marshall School of Business of the University
of Southern California (Los Angeles, July 31 and August 1, 2008).

6
I thank in particular Larry Auerbach, former executive vice president at the William Morris
Agency; David Auerbach, former senior vice president alternative programming at Warner Horizon;
Gaspare Benso, senior vice president finance and planning Home Entertainment International at
Paramount Pictures; Michael Burkenbine, film and TV producer; Jayson Dinsmore, senior vice
president alternative programming NBC Entertainment; Jianguo Lin, director of carrier sales, China
Telecom (Americas) Corporation; Marlise Malkames, freelance editor of “reality TV” programmes;
James Person, chief operating officer, CDG (CDMA-Code Division Multiple Access-Development
Group); Lisa Vebber, senior vice president program planning and scheduling NBC Entertainment;
David Weitzner, former president, worldwide marketing at 20
th
Century Fox and Universal Pictures;
and the other industry professionals I had the pleasure to interview, who preferred to remain
anonymous.

36

CHAPTER 2

HOLLYWOOD’S GLOBAL PRIMACY, EXPICATED

“There is only one Hollywood in the world” (H. Powdermaker, 1950, p.16)

Hollywood, Defined
Hollywood is a physical place, a district of the city of Los Angeles, California. It
is not a city, as oftentimes erroneously referred to by audiences around the world,
whereas West Hollywood is, representing one of the administrative peculiarities of
the county of Los Angeles where it is located. Besides being a physical place,
Hollywood is a metaphor for the American entertainment industry operating in
Southern California, not unlike Wall Street, which is considered a proxy for the US
financial sector. Unlike Wall Street though, where the New York Stock Exchange is
still located, Hollywood as a physical location does not actually have a significant
prominence within the entertainment industry operating in Southern California.
In fact, of the original “Hollywood studios” of the first half of the 20
th
century
only Paramount Pictures is still physically located in Hollywood at the turn of the
21
st
century. The other studios whether moved, as in the case of Warner Bros. to its
current location in Burbank in the 30s, or they were actually never there in the first
place, but always scattered in the county of Los Angeles. Over the decades however,
the name has become synonymous of the American entertainment industry: an icon
for audiences around the world on the one hand, and a point of reference for all the
entertainment industries worldwide. In fact, as Powdermaker put it, “Hollywood is a
unique American phenomenon with a symbolism not limited to this country. It
37

means many things to many people” (1950, p.16). It is a “state of mind” occurring
wherever people connected with the movies operate (1950, p. 18), whose goal is the
“mass production of dreams” (1950, p. 39). For the purpose of this dissertation,
Hollywood is defined as the system of the US entertainment industry revolving
around the following six major companies, part of the Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA): Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth
Century Fox Film Corporation, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Universal City
Studios and Warner Bros. Entertainment. All the studios, at the time of this writing,
are part of large, vertically integrated, media and entertainment conglomerates
(Collette, 1998).
1

The MPAA was formed back in 1922, as a trade association, as a result of the
concerns posed by the threat of government censorship, and as such was exempt
from antitrust law (Epstein, 2005, p. 93). Its function is now to “serve as the voice
and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television
industries”
2
, domestically through the MPAA and internationally through Motion
Picture Association (MPA).
3

It is useful to analyze the American entertainment industry located in Southern
California as a system, whose center lies in the aforementioned Hollywood studios.
A system can be defined as a “set of objects or entities that interrelate with one
another to form a whole” (Hall & Fagan, 1968). As Littlejohn points out (2005), the
distinctive characteristic of a system are: wholeness and interdependence, hierarchy,
38

self-regulation and control, interchange
4
with the environment, balance, change and
adaptability, and equifinality. In fact, in addition to and dependent upon the six
Hollywood studios, the following sets of entities also have to be factored in the
analysis of the American entertainment industry, as key elements: the talent
agencies, the creative community (actors, directors, writers, independent producers)
and their guilds, industry labor
5
, the trade industry press and specialized research
firms.
Their interrelations centered on the Hollywood studios determine the outcome of
the industry, both creatively and economically. They indeed are interdependent and
constitute a whole, and historically they have proven to be able to self-regulate (as in
the rating system established by the MPAA for example)
6
maintaining a balance,
while changing and adapting to the evolving landscape, as they ultimately share the
common goal of creating and sustaining the artifacts of the American entertainment
industry.
Hollywood’s Global Economic Leadership
The US entertainment industry, providing leisure time products and services
for audiences around the globe, is the global leader in financing, producing, and
distributing entertainment content (Amobi & Donald, 2007b).

39

Table 1: USA Film and Television tape rentals – Export 1992-2006
Source: US Government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis

USA Film and Television tape rental
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Year
Export (USD Mil.)

According to the US government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, receipts
for film and television rentals abroad
7
have increased steadily from $2.5 billion in
1992 to $11 billion in 2006, as shown in table 1 (US Government, 2007, p. 114).
Entertainment represents one of the most relevant exports for the US economy and a
significant item of American trade in virtually every corner of the world.
The major corporations in this sector are headquartered in Los Angeles
county in Southern California, with field offices handling their operations overseas
managing the distribution of their intellectual properties under copyright
internationally, and stem from the original Hollywood studios of the 1920s.
Hollywood can therefore be defined as a “global industry geographically

40

concentrated” (Véron, 1999, p. 9), with its entities physically located in Southern
California with a truly global reach.
The core business of the Hollywood studios is to finance, produce and
distribute entertainment content ranging from feature length motion pictures to TV
programmes, including animation and live action series. The entertainment products
they produce are what economists define as experience goods (Shapiro & Varian
1999, p. 5), whose value is determined by the individual experience they provide to
their audiences, an entertainment experience. They are also public goods non-
excludable in consumption, in that one’s person consumption of an entertainment
product does not affect its potential fruition from another person, unlike other
products as physical goods for example (Wildman, 1995).
As a result, entertainment products usually are exploited through a carefully
designed “shelf-life” including theatrical release, home entertainment, Video on
Demand (VOD) and Pay per View (PPV), Pay TV, Network TV, Cable TV, and
ancillary markets domestically and internationally (Vogel 2004; Squire 2004). The
exclusivity and subsequence (in most cases) of each of these “windows” of
exhibition allows Hollywood studios to practice price discrimination of their
products and capture a larger share of the value generated by their artifacts. They fall
into the category of “information goods”, expensive to produce and cheap to
reproduce (Shapiro & Varian 1999, p. 3), with the average “negative costs” (the
costs to produce the first copy, or “negative” of the film) for a feature length motion
41

picture constantly exceeding $ 63M in the period 2003-2007 (MPAA, 2008, p. 6). In
addition to the negative costs, the marketing costs associated with the theatrical
release alone of a movie have constantly exceeded $ 34M in the same period. As a
result, the total costs incurred by MPAA members to release domestically in movie
theatres a feature length motion picture in the period 2003-2007 have on average
exceeded $ 100M (MPAA, 2008, p. 6).
This “windowing model” developed in the industry is based on “contractually
agreed-upon periods of time that permit the exhibition of films. Such release
windows are based on revenue, and content moves from windows that draw higher
revenue per viewer to those that draw lower revenue per viewer” (White, 2003, p.
15). This release strategy in the distribution allows studios to capture larger and more
diversified revenue streams (Blume, 2005), as opposed to the risky business model
utilized until the early 50’s, which included only revenues generated by theatrical
exhibitions. Overtime, the relevance of the revenue streams originated by the first
“run”, the theatrical exhibition, has diminished, as the home entertainment and
television exploitation of the properties under copyright have increased their
importance. The television market in fact has access to the advertising revenue,
estimated in the US at $74 billion by Standard & Poor in 2007, (Amobi & Donald,
2007a, p. 3) and subscription revenue streams, estimated at $75 billion by Standard
& Poor in 2007 (Amobi & Donald, 2007a, p. 15).

42

The sector could be defined as an oligopoly, with few (six at the present time)
major players, all units of publicly traded media and entertainment conglomerates,
accounting for the large majority of the product distributed in the US and globally.
The Hollywood studios, both domestically and internationally have a clear leadership
at the box-office. In fact, data from Box Office Mojo report that over the period
2001-2006, the market share of the six Hollywood studios (considered within their
conglomerates) averaged approximately 80 % or more in the US theatrical market
(Amobi & Donald, 2007b, p 7). Also globally the six Hollywood studios consistently
rank at the top of worldwide charts in the same period, as reported by Showbizdata.
In particular, Warner Bros. ranked first with 16.2 % of the global theatrical gross in
2007, Sony/Columbia Tristar in 2006 with 16.4 %, Warner Bros. in 2005 and 2004
with 15.7% and 14.2 % respectively, and Buena Vista International (Disney) in 2003
with 18.1%. In the same five year period, only once was there a non-US or non-
Hollywood affiliated distributor among the top 10 positions in the share of global
gross theatrical revenue (the Japanese Toho ranking 10
th
in 2006).
The international exploitation of entertainment products is an essential
element in the development of Hollywood’s entertainment content, which is
oftentimes produced and distributed domestically at a deficit. In fact, foreign
revenue streams are instrumental in the recouping of the initial investment necessary
to produce high value entertainment products, which are experience, non-excludable
public goods, and in reaching a profit, whenever possible (Weinberg, 2005). In
43

addition, while the domestic market shows signs of having reached a stage of
maturity, Hollywood studios continue to explore new ways to expand internationally
in their quest to increase their revenue streams, as they are under constant pressure of
delivering profit increases on a quarterly basis. International distribution constitutes a
pivotal aspect in Hollywood studios’ business practices, as it represents a key set of
“windows” of exhibition to capture larger and more diversified revenue streams from
the same properties under copyright, stemming from studios’ libraries and current
productions.
In general, the categories of foreign or international markets as a whole
provide useful statistical data on the magnitude of the phenomenon, without however
shedding light on specific real business practices. In fact, the general notion of
foreign markets comprises vastly different specific local markets, and generally what
is produced for the domestic US market is then distributed overseas, given the
fractured nature and diversity of each market. The international distribution is
handled by local field offices in the major markets. In so doing, studios are able to
directly manage the release and distribution of their products (ranging from feature-
length motion pictures to TV series, live action and animation, etc.) and their overall
“shelf life” in the country they operate in. As a result, they can effectively practice
cross promotions among divisions of the conglomerate and realize synergy among
the various “windows” and revenue streams to capture the highest profit from their
intellectual properties under copyright. A direct presence in relevant local markets,
44

when allowed by local regulatory environments and economically viable for the
relevance of the market, appears to be the preferred course of action for Hollywood
studios, jointly or severally (Aft, 2004).
8

Historically, the foreign markets distribution of movies has been following
the US distribution, with adaptations to local cultures and languages when necessary
and economically viable. Oftentimes the timing of the releases in different markets
has not been simultaneous to better capture the different economic potential provided
by specific seasons in different territories: For example, the US summer
blockbusters have not been usually released overseas until the more lucrative winter
holidays season. In recent years however, the international distribution strategies of
feature-length motion pictures appear to follow the trend of “day and date” release:
Studios organize the simultaneous theatrical release in various markets globally to
coordinate worldwide marketing efforts on the one hand and to discourage the
diffusion of unauthorized content on the other (Aft, 2004).
Entertainment content for TV, ranging from made-for-TV product to feature-
length motion pictures, is handled through licensing agreements with local TV
platforms (satellite, cable, broadcast or free TV, and increasingly with telecom
and/or internet companies), establishing the number of runs per period, its
exclusivity (or lack thereof) in the territory, usually within “package” deals including
different products, which can be current ones and/or stemming from the studios’
libraries. Havens (2006) identifies three distinct phases in the development of the
45

global television marketplace in the last five decades. The first wave, from 1957 to
1972, is considered a “formative moment” of the landscape (2006, p. 17), when most
of the business practices of the marketplace were generated, with US content clearly
leading the international flow of entertainment content. The second phase, from 1973
to 1985 showed signs of contraction of the global market for US producers, as local
productions capacities increased (2006, p. 24). The third phase, from 1985 to present,
has been witnessing a second wave of television globalization fostered by the rise of
new platforms, made available globally by new communication technologies, mainly
cable and satellite (2006, p. 27).
Moreover, Hollywood studios are interested in increasing their presence in
relevant territories to capture a larger share of local entertainment consumption in
various markets, both in the movie and the TV segments. As a result, they have
started to engage in co-production in foreign languages and with foreign entities: The
end products adapt on the one hand to local cultures while on the other they rely on
the existing global structures of distribution of entertainment content. This strategy
of localization of entertainment (Chalaby, 2002) appears to be effective to increase
even more their presence in relevant foreign markets within local regulatory
environments, while at the same time leveraging existing corporate structures and
content under intellectual property rights.

46

Economic Analysis of the Hollywood System
The Hollywood system comprises profit oriented entities operating jointly
and severally to reach a profit in the creation, production and distribution of
entertainment, domestically and internationally. It represents a relevant industry in
economic terms and specifically for the US a key export within its international trade
balance. As such, it is useful to analyze it within theoretical frameworks drawn from
the field of economics. In particular, the branch of industrial economics provides
useful tools to analyze the entertainment sector and the cluster of the Hollywood
studios within the sector, their competitive advantages and strategies, and the
evolution of their strategies over time.
To specifically analyze the structure of an industry, Porter proposes the “five
forces of competition” theoretical framework (1980). They are: the competition and
rivalry among the existing firms within the industry, the bargaining power of the
suppliers, the bargaining power of the buyers, the threats posed by new entrants, and
threats posed by potential substitutes, as illustrated in Figure 1.

47

Figure 1: US Entertainment industry structure: The five competitive forces
(Porter, 1980)
US Entertainment Industry Structure

Their analysis provides a useful starting point for subsequent evaluations on
the nature of the industry. In fact, the magnitude and the interaction among these five
forces determine the structure or the sector, its boundaries and dynamic evolutions,
its players and their collaborative and competitive interactions, the existence of
barriers to entry the sectors for newcomers, the degree of existing competition in the
industry, its attractiveness and its equilibrium overtime.
Utilizing this framework for the US entertainment industry, the structure of
the US entertainment industry is best described as a cluster of competitive industries:
an oligopoly of six entities, the Hollywood studios, or “sexopoly”, as Epstein defines
48

it (2005, p. 93), which solidly share the leadership in the competitive landscape.
While intensely competing on certain aspects of the business, as access to talent,
Hollywood studios cooperate in others, as in the activities supported by the MPAA,
ranging from the rating system for the feature length motion pictures released in
theatres to the defense of the intellectual property rights of entertainment content
against its unauthorized utilization.
Their competition appears to be rarely based on cost advantage, resulting in
the production of entertainment at the lowest possible cost, rather on differentiation
advantage, producing the best possible entertainment content and recouping the
investment on a global scale. As mentioned, they are also associated in the MPAA,
domestically and internationally, to protect their interests. The competition among
Hollywood studios appears to stimulate the production of entertainment artifacts in
line with the demand of audiences worldwide: Their products in fact have the
leadership in the US entertainment business and globally.
In the process of creating and distributing entertainment content to different
audiences, Hollywood studios historically have altered their strategic positioning,
successfully adapting to the changing economic and political environment.
Originally positioned as exhibitors at the beginning of the 20
th
century, the founders
of Hollywood studios strategically decided to enter the production side of the
business to secure access to content (Gabler, 1988). These entities also decided to
move from the East coast to the West coast of the US and to Hollywood in particular
49

for two distinct sets of reasons. On the one hand the mild, sunny climate and the
diverse landscape lent itself to outdoor production throughout the year. On the other
hand setting their operations in Southern California helped the independent studios to
effectively circumvent the existing patents and the actions from patent holders
operating from the East Coast (Lessig, 2004, pp. 53-54).
In 1915 US courts deemed the Motion Picture Patents Company (formed by
the holders of the patents involved in the production and distribution of
entertainment via movies, constituted mainly around the patents owned by the
Edison company) an unacceptable monopoly and ordered it to be dissolved. This
decision proved essential for the development of the then independent production
studios, which eventually morphed into the Hollywood studios. A completely new
and more diversified industry emerged as a result of this specific government
intervention and the independent studios generated what is usually referred to as the
“golden age of Hollywood”.
In the “golden age of Hollywood” approximately from the 1920s to the 1940s
(Jewell, 2007), the studios coped with high levels of uncertainty and risk associated
with on the one hand the volatile demand and on the other the difficulties intrinsic in
the production of entertainment. They did so by completely controlling all the
different aspects of the production of entertainment in their studio “back lots” with
exclusive contracts with talent. Furthermore they became fully vertically integrated
entities, as producers, distributors and exhibitors of filmed entertainment.
50

As early as 1921 however, business practices in the distribution of motion
pictures combined with vertical integration with exhibitors determined a US Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) complaint against Famous Players-Lasky Corporation
regarding the practice of block booking (the bundling of films as a distribution
strategy of the studios towards the independent exhibitors). The complaint originated
a series of subsequent rulings and consent decrees and their enforcement eventually
led to the Paramount consent decree in 1948, when Hollywood studios, then mostly
vertically integrated, were obliged to divest their interests in the exhibition side of
the business (their movie theatres operations). As a result, the industry became more
competitive, not only in the exhibition segment increasing the number of
independent theatrical exhibitors, but also in the production segment of the business
(Burgelman & Meza 2003). Hollywood studios ceased to be organized as a dream
factory, as they could not practice any longer exclusive contracts with exhibitors on
the one hand and with talent on the other. Talent agencies’ relevance also increased
significantly as a result and the competitive and operative landscape of the industry
was modified ever since.
In 1970 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted the
“Financial Interest and Syndication rules” (FinSyn rules), prohibiting TV networks
from owning a financial interest in the production or syndication of many shows that
they aired, specifically during prime time (Burgelman & Meza 2003, p. 9). As a
result, independent content creators flourished, so did independent TV stations. The
51

result was more voices participating in the media arena across the country, both in
the production and the distribution of entertainment.
On the other hand, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulated some of
the restrictions operating in the media ownership and cross ownership among media
outlets and allowed the FinSyn provisions to expire. Following the deregulation of
the communications industry by the Telecommunication Act of 1996, the industry
has been accelerating its pattern of concentration in the media and entertainment
industry across its different segments (Collette 1998), leading to what has been
defined “merger madness” (Litman & Hoag 1998), and the trend still continues, with
for example the 2006 acquisitions of DreamWorks and MGM by Paramount/Viacom
and by a consortium lead by Sony Pictures Entertainment respectively.
As a result of the changes in the landscape, and the reactions of Hollywood
studios to gain and maintain their leadership in the US entertainment sector,
nowadays these entities focus on the distribution aspect of the business and they are,
as an industry executive eloquently puts it, “basically distributors, banks, and owners
of intellectual copyright” (Epstein, 2005, p. 106). In fact, their strategic role and
overall positioning has clearly shifted from the golden age of the Hollywood system
(Jewell, 2007), where they would control all the different aspects of the business,
from production to exhibition, to minimize the risks associated with their activities,
to a strategic leadership in the key aspect of the distribution of entertainment content,
domestically and globally.
52

Therefore, in the US entertainment business value chain, determining how
value is created and delivered in the entertainment business, Hollywood studios are
mainly positioned between the content creators and the packagers of entertainment,
the media, as shown in Figure 2, explaining how value is generated in the US
entertainment business and who the different players are, with their activities and key
success factors, drawing on Porter’s theoretical frameworks.
Figure 2: US Entertainment business value chain
US Entertainment business value chain
Content
Creators
Content Content
Creators Creators
Distributors Distributors
Packagers Packagers
(media) (media)
Audience Audience
• Movie Producers
• Some Studios
Players Activities Key-Success Factors
• Theaters
• TV Networks & Pay-TV
• Home Video
• Internet
• Studios Studios • Final Customers
• Audience
• Creation and
production of movies
• Distribution and
Financing
•Marketing/ Promotion
• Provide access to
final viewers and
customers
• Pay Tickets, buy/rent
home video, watch TV,
download from Internet
• “Bet” on right projects
• Access to Talent
(Directors & Actors)
• Access to financing
• Access to Distributors
• “Bet” on right projects
• Copyright and library
ownership
• Capital to finance
productions
• Relationship with
Creators and access to
packagers
• Promote releases
• Media coverage
• Audience and scale to
enable the purchase of
blockbusters
• Contract rights
negotiation
• Regulation expertise
•Remix
• Viral activities

In the 21
st
century’s Hollywood system the studios focus on the financing and
distribution of entertainment, including the marketing and promotion activities. Their
strategic positioning and key success factors appear to lie in their ownership of
copyrighted entertainment in their libraries and their know-how to generate value
53

through their exploitation in aforementioned “windows”. Also relevant is their access
to finance on the one hand and packagers/media on the other, as they are part of large
vertically integrated media conglomerates, and their established, longstanding
relationships with talent and talent agencies.
Another key element in Porter’s cluster analysis is represented by the
potential threats from new entities attempting to enter the landscape and challenge
Hollywood studios’ leadership. Historically, the threats posed by potential new
entrants have been in the last decades low due to the existing barriers to entry for
new comers determined by existing know how and the capital intensive nature of the
business, both in the filmed entertainment and TV content. In fact, new comers do
not have the know-how to operate at a profit in this particular industry, nor can they
rely on an established network of decades of working relations with the supporting
and related industries, as talent agencies for example, even should they have access
to the necessary financial resources.
The economic barriers are specifically relevant: Currently the average cost
per motion picture theatrical exceeds $100M, including “negative costs” and
distribution costs (MPAA, 2008c, p. 6). As mentioned earlier, the movies very rarely
recoup its initial investment in the theatrical run, rather when they indeed do it is
only after the exploitation of the property under copyright in the different windows
of exhibition available. This is also true for TV content, usually produced at a deficit
for its first TV run, which reaches break even and eventually profit only when it
54

reaches a critical mass of episodes to be exploited in subsequent windows (as in
syndication TV for example).
Therefore, the inherently risky nature of producing and distributing
entertainment in the US market can be best managed by diversifying the offer, and
spreading the risk, among different films and TV series per year, and implementing
the access to worldwide network for the distribution of their products along their
value chain, through the different existing media, TV networks, broadcasters and pay
TV services, cable channels, and syndicated stations. In fact, virtually all the
Hollywood studios are vertically integrated in the US media market, being part of
publicly traded media conglomerates, with the only exception of Sony Picture
Entertainment (foreign owned, and not allowed to own significant equity positions in
the US broadcasting industry).
The analysis of the US entertainment industry brings to the fore the intrinsic
issues the industry faces in order to create and capture value from experience goods
in a volatile and risky business through different “windows” of exhibition and
licensing, leading to diversified revenue streams (Blume, 2005). Hence the necessity
arises not to focus solely on the theatrical markets, but to analyze the entertainment
industry as a whole, comprising TV and advertising, in a landscape where the ICT
revolution is looming as the sword of Damocles for the Studios, their business
models and global leadership.

55

The negotiation power of the distribution channels, ranging from movie
theatres exhibitors to TV outlets is not particularly threatening for Hollywood
studios, which own the entertainment content on the one hand and are part of media
conglomerates on the other. Similarly the suppliers, who contribute to create the
content, do not have high bargaining power as an economic dimension (although it is
worth noticing that some talent and their representatives have clear negotiation clout
in specific deals). Therefore the existing threats from suppliers (content creators),
and buyers (media outlets) in the US media and entertainment landscape, or
substitutes of entertainment have been relatively low so far, leading through a
virtuous circle to the existing prevalence of Hollywood in global entertainment.
However, at the turn of the 21
st
century, as Hollywood studios are facing the
challenges of stagnant revenue streams in the US domestic market, with the “DVD
market showing signs of saturation”, they are bound to explore “alternative means of
content exploitation” (Amobi & Donald, 2007b, p.1), as they are expected to deliver
profit increases on a quarterly basis, and to devise new business models based on the
technologically evolving competitive landscape.
The Economic Drivers of Hollywood’s Global Competitive Advantage
From an industrial economics standpoint, Hollywood’s current worldwide
competitive advantage can be explained utilizing Porter’s theoretical framework of
“national diamond” (Porter, 1990). This theoretical framework explicates
competitive landscapes and markets where an intense competition appears to be a
56

positive factor in determining competitive advantage, especially if the competitors
share geographical proximity. Under this framework, four conditions, the
“determinants of national advantage” (Porter, 1990, p. 71), have to be considered,
jointly and severally: factor conditions, demand conditions, strategy/structure/rivalry
conditions and relating/supporting industry conditions. The combination of these
elements contributes to the competitive advantage and constitutes a virtuous cycle
where each element helps build and maintain the leadership of the industry vis-à-vis
external competitive factors and entities.
9

For the US entertainment industry geographically concentrated in Southern
California, factor conditions refer to the existing established presence in the region of
specific skilled labor, ranging from the “below the line” crews to the “above the line”
talent operating in the industry, comprising veteran professionals in the different
activities needed in the creation, production and distribution of entertainment. It also
includes, as pointed out by Porter (1990) the role of prominent film schools, as the
ones at the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California
at Los Angeles (UCLA), and the American Film Institute (AFI). These institutions
located in the region contribute to Hollywood’s leadership as they attract individuals
with potential talent from all over the world, providing them with state of the art
training and ultimately facilitating their entry into the industry. In addition, the mild
and sunny climate of Southern California with its diverse landscape, ranging from
deserts to mountains, valleys and the Pacific Ocean, allows diverse outdoor scenes
57

all year round. In fact, it is considered one of the main drivers of the original moves
from the East coast of the US to the region for the producers / distributors which
eventually formed Hollywood in the early 20
th
century.
10

Relating and supporting industries conditions refer to the existence of
specific industries, also geographically concentrated in Southern California, whose
know-how help develop the industry’s competitive advantage. They are an integral
part of the Hollywood system as previously defined: They are the talent agencies, the
music and recording industries, the trade industry press and specialized research
firms, the entities comprising the creative community and the industry labor. Over
time Hollywood studios have built long term, established relations with all these
entities, to the point where there seems to be a phenomenon of a certain degree of
osmosis among different players operating in the entertainment industry in Southern
California. In fact it is not infrequent that talent agents become studios executives
and vice versa, tightening the different professional backgrounds in the industry and
the consequent relations. This complex system, with an impressive level of industry
know-how and talent developed over decades, is hardly replicable anywhere else in
the world. The existence of this phenomenon in and of itself helps build and maintain
the global competitive advantage of the Hollywood system as a whole.
The conditions of the cluster determined by the structure, the strategy and
rivalry of the industry underline the competitive landscape of the US entertainment
industry, analyzed previously in the chapter. Historically, as described by Gabler
58

(1988), Hollywood studios have fiercely competed and rivaled one another on
certain aspects of the business. At the same time however, their competition did not
constitute a destructive factor for the industry as a whole, as the major players would
agree on key issues regarding the industry, as the production codes, rating systems
and in general how the industry would operate and evaluate itself though entities like
the MPAA and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (AMPAS),
awarding the Oscars for excellence in the different facets of the creation of motion
pictures.
As a result this particular kind of competition has been producing a global
competitive advantage for the industry players, as opposed to “zero sum game” of
other industries, where the competitive strategies of the industry players contribute to
undermine the very existence of the industry itself by attempting to eliminate key
players of the industry or undermine their long term prosperity. Historically, the
studios have prospered in the second half of the 20
th
century expanding on the one
hand the global market for their entertainment products, while at the same competing
to increase their individual market share.
Demand conditions refer to the size of the accessible domestic market
available for the industry’s products. For the Hollywood studios it represents the
demand for entertainment generated within the US by customers willing and able to
pay for media entertainment. The US domestic market is by far the largest in the
world, with on average more than 1.4 billion tickets sold per year and more than $9
59

billion generated at the box office per year in the period 2002-2007 from the
theatrical release of feature-length motion pictures alone (MPAA, 2008c, pp. 2-3).
In general, as shown in Table 2 for the period 2002-2006, in the worldwide
theatrical market the US represent the most significant revenue stream, followed by
the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa). The evolution over time of
revenues stemming from the other markets show an evolving landscape: In fact, the
percentage coming from the Asia-Pacific region has been increasing in the recent
years (and it is estimated to increase further, as the huge markets of the People’s
Republic of China and India, with combined populations exceeding two billion
individuals are slowly opening up to foreign-produced entertainment content). In
contrast, the Latin America and Africa regions represent a smaller percentage of the
international theatrical market in economic terms.
Table 2: International Theatrical Market
Source: MPA

International Theatrical Market
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Year 2002-2006
Percent
Canada
Latin America
Asia-Pacific
EMEA
US

60

The US domestic market has been clearly dominated by the oligopoly
comprising the Hollywood studios (as shown in Table 3), which as a result, can
benefit from its size.

Table 3: US Domestic Box-Office, 2003-2005
Source: Boxofficemojo.com

US Domestic Box-Office
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Years 2003-2005
Percent
Others
Warner Bros.
Universal
Sony/Columbia
Paramount
New Line
Miramax
MGM/UA
Dreamworks
Buena Vista
20th Century Fox

In fact, in the period 2003-2005, Hollywood studios and other entities with
them affiliated consistently exceeded 80 per cent of the American domestic theatrical
market. As a result, they can fund expensive projects, having the domestic market as
the first target for recouping their investment. When they then compete
internationally, very few other entities, if any, can afford similar budgets for
entertainment products, due to the limited size of their domestic markets compared to
the US domestic one. As a result, Hollywood products have high production value

61

compared to other international entities, which cannot tap into entertainment markets
with similar dimensions.
This phenomenon helps create a virtuous cycle, where Hollywood’s artifacts
have a higher production value since they have access to a large domestic market,
this element increases their competitive advantage internationally increasing their
global market share, which in turn further increases their competitive advantage. In
fact as a result of this international market dynamic, Hollywood studios have
successful access to global markets and they can increase their investments in
entertainment.
The end result of this mechanism is that Hollywood studios can afford to
fund even larger projects, whose investment can be recouped internationally. The
increased size of the investment raises the economic barriers for potential new
entrants in the industry, already significant, as shown in the previous analysis of the
“five forces”, making it extremely risky and difficult for foreign entities to compete
at a global level.
All these conditions operate to generate and maintain the global competitive
advantage of the US entertainment industry, as shown in Figure 3, where the
“national diamond’ is represented with its four determinants.

62

Figure 3: US Entertainment market dynamics and competitive advantage:
The “national diamond” (Porter, 1990).

US Entertainment market dynamics
• 6 Big Studios located and aggressively
competing in Hollywood: Warner Bros.,
FOX, Paramount, Universal, Sony, Disney
• Skilled labor. USC and UCLA film schools
• Weather condition that enables whole year
outdoor production
Factor Conditions Factor Conditions
Strategy, Structure
and Rivalry
Strategy, Structure
and Rivalry
• US is the largest market
in the world. On average
in the period 2002-2007:
- 1.4B tickets per year
- $9B box office per year
Source: MPAA, 2008
Demand
Conditions
Demand
Conditions
• Music and Recording
•TV
• Talent agencies
• Special effects
• Content developers
• Production design
Relating and
Supporting
Industries
Relating and
Supporting
Industries
M. Porter M. Porter’ ’s national diamond theoretical framework, 1990 s national diamond theoretical framework, 1990

This “diamond” is a “mutually reinforcing system” (Porter, 1990, p. 72),
where the different determinants, generated by diverse entities, work together in
synergy to create and sustain the global competitive advantage of the specific
industry cluster. They indeed represent a system, with all its ramifications. Porter
(1990) also points out that, in general, other elements have to be factored in when
analyzing the competitive advantages of specific industry clusters: chance
11
and
governments. In fact historically events out of the control of the entities operating in
the industry have conditioned the path of the industry itself stemming out of
63

uncontrollable or unpredictable sources. In addition, as mentioned before in the
chapter, the governments of nation states still play a role in the diffusion of the flow
of international entertainment, as national sovereignty remains through rules and
regulations.
In fact, as pointed out by Waisbord and Morris, even in the age of
globalization of markets driven by transnational corporations and international
financial institutions, states still matter, as they ultimately “hold the power to pass
legislation that affects domestic media industries” (2001, p. xi). Specifically, cultural
policies can be enacted to protect indigenous media producers, through the
imposition of “domestic content” quotas in different media, ranging from movie
theatres to the different TV platforms, in order to develop the local cultural industries
(as in the case of Brazil, Mexico, the EU for example).
There can be also attempts to close off international entertainment flows
altogether (as in the case of Iran and the People’s Republic of China for example).
Generally, international trade policies are developed to promote cultural export of
domestic products internationally (vs. trade liberalization) through fiscal incentives
or financial support to stimulate or facilitate the production and distribution of
entertainment, directly or indirectly (Gerse, 2004). Domestic barriers created by local
governments can therefore alter the flow of entertainment content from the large US
market to small local markets internationally (Wildman, 1995). Overall then, the
combined action of the “diamonds” determinants plus the roles of chance and
64

government, utilizing Porter’s (1990) theoretical framework, play a pivotal role in
explicating the current and longstanding leadership of Hollywood in the global
entertainment landscape.
Hollywood’s Global Leadership / Hegemony: An Interdisciplinary Analysis
The industrial economics analysis of the Hollywood system offers an
interesting and useful approach to shed light on the nature of the industry comprising
profit oriented entities, their relations and evolutions over time in their domestic and
international operations. As illustrated, Porter’s theoretical frameworks of five forces
in the industry sector analysis (Porter, 1980) and national competitive advantage
(Porter, 1990) are utilized to explicate on the one hand the nature of the cluster
comprising the US entertainment industry and on the other the specific drivers and
the dimensions of its leadership, analyzing also the nature and the origins of potential
threats at the horizon.
12

A solely industrial economics approach however would not be exhaustive, as
the entertainment sector in general, and Hollywood in particular, is deeply involved
and plays a pivotal role in the way popular culture artifacts are generated, and as a
consequence in the society as a whole. The cultural industries in general, and the
entertainment industry in particular, do not represent sectors where the above-
mentioned theoretical frameworks can provide a sufficiently complete analysis (as in
many other manufacturing sectors for example). In fact, they reflect distinct and
relevant cultural values and generate specific impacts in the way popular cultural
65

artifacts are produced and consumed by audiences globally, which are not
specifically addressed in analyses that do not exceed the boundaries of the field of
industrial economics.
Therefore, the analysis of the global entertainment industry can benefit from
insights and contributions stemming from an interdisciplinary analysis, utilizing and
harmonizing theoretical tools from disciplines across different fields of study. In fact,
as the entertainment industry’s output is generated by profit oriented entities, on the
one hand theoretical frameworks drawn from industrial economics provide useful
tools to analyze the sector and the cluster of the Hollywood studios in particular,
their global competitive advantages and strategies. These theoretical frameworks,
which help explicate the structure of an industry regardless of its output and the
bases of the leadership of its players, offer tools for scholarly conversations outside
the economic field interested in shedding light on the dynamics of the entertainment
sector.
On the other hand, also relevant stands on the issues are generated by
approaches outside the field of industrial economics, and these can enrich the
economic analysis of the Hollywood system. Specifically, the political economy
framework expands the theoretical boundaries of the analysis, as called for by the
complex interplay, generated by the international flow of entertainment, among
profit oriented entities, nation states, international NGOs and culturally situated
audiences.
66

Relevant scholarly conversations outside the field of economics refer to
Hollywood’s predominance as “Hollywood hegemony” in this pivotal sector, whose
relevance exceeds its already relevant economic dimensions, as it permeates and
impacts the receiving societies. In so doing, these are inspired by Gramsci’s notion
of hegemony of particular dominant societal groups and their strategies to maintain
their predominance, and utilize this theoretical framework to best describe and
analyze Hollywood’s positioning and competitive strategies within the global
mediascape (Miller, Govin, McMurria, Maxwell, and Wang, 2005; Thussu, 2006).
Specifically, recent work by Chalaby (2006) has focused the scholarly
conversation on Hollywood’s pre-eminence in the global entertainment landscape,
after the shift from cultural imperialism to phenomena of globalization has been
transforming the research agenda in the field. After comparing the global US media
and entertainment conglomerates to the major European media players, Chalaby
concludes that at the turn of the 21
st
century the notion of the “American cultural
primacy” is still a key piece of the global flow of entertainment mosaic. The US
conglomerates are deemed best positioned to capture the opportunities of the media
landscape at a global level, due to their capacity to adopt localization of their content
in their international strategy. In addition, it has been underlined the relevance of
Hollywood’s international business practices, and especially the role of key
corporate executives in the international media entertainment marketplace, in
shaping the flow of content and as a result the global popular cultural landscape
67

(Havens, 2006, pp. 46-52). As a result, Hollywood’s global predominance would be
the result of business practices, as they are managed and adapted when necessary by
Hollywood’s global executives.
Furthermore, other scholarly voices over the years have provided
contributions to the debate over the US leadership or hegemony in the global
entertainment landscape. Specifically, different efforts of inquiry provide insights in
explicating the global superiority of American popular culture artifacts, above and
beyond the economic factors and business practices of the entertainment industry.
Katz and Liebes, in their seminal work on the cross-cultural success of Dallas (1990,
p. 5), explain the global success of American programmes on the one hand through
the “universality, or primordiality” of its themes, making them more
“psychologically accessible” to different audiences and their intrinsic “polyvalent”
nature of the stories proposed. On the other, they point out the “sheer availability” of
American entertainment products in global entertainment marketplaces.
Similarly, following and expanding on Hall’s (1980) notion of oppositional
reading of a text from its decoders, beyond the original intent of the encoders, a
success piece of entertainment is explicated by Fiske (1987) through “polysemy”, in
a situation of semiotic excess, where the same text generates different meaning for
different audiences. Along similar lines and elaborating on the concept of polysemy,
Olson (1999) introduces the concept of “narrative transparency” to explain the
success of American productions overseas. The reason of the cultural success of
68

Hollywood globally would lie in the intrinsic capacity of their texts to seem familiar
to audiences globally, even if crafted somewhere else.
While confronting imported entertainment content to locally produced fare
however, usually the preference for the latter ones is explicated by cultural proximity
and linguistic affinity (Straubhaar, 1991; Trepte, 2003), the notion that local
audiences seek after and respond better to more familiar images and overall values
and beliefs embedded in the entertainment content proposed. Recent studies (Cohen,
2008) suggest that also other dimensions, as national pride, could be involved in the
selection of preferred forms of entertainment, and in this case locally produced
content have a clear advantage.
The notion of participatory and convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006a &
2006b) is also a useful analytical tool to show how new available technologies, and
their appropriation and uses by the consumers globally, have changed the media
landscape and contributed to social change. In fact in the fruition of scripted
entertainment audiences are showing interest in deciding what to watch and when to
watch it, regardless of the original schedule proposed by the creators or broadcasters
(with the surge of Digital Video Discs and Digital Video Recording devices).
The theoretical position adopted in this chapter, acknowledging Hollywood’s
dimension as an industry (albeit a very particular one for its key role in creating and
distributing popular culture worldwide) comprising a specific cluster of firms, draws
specifically on industrial economics to explicate the current market structure and its
69

global competitive advantages. This framework enables us to analyze the sector, its
players, dimensions and evolutions over time on a global scale. However, it
acknowledges that the analysis can be enriched by insights and contributions from
other theoretical frameworks within an interdisciplinary approach. In fact, drawing
on contributions from different fields of study analyzing Hollywood, a more
revealing light can be shed on its practices, the impact and consequences of the
structure of this key industry and its output, above and beyond its economic
relevance, albeit significant.
The combination of these theoretical approaches sets the stage for the
subsequent analysis of the evolutions of the global mediascape, and specifically of
the potential threats to the current Hollywood’s global leadership / hegemony. In
fact, by identifying emerging institutional trajectories challenging Hollywood on a
global stage, the study contributes to the evolving scholarly conversations on the
global political economy of entertainment, as new entities outside of the Hollywood
system have increased their global relevance. Moreover, utilizing contributions from
research efforts in different fields of inquiry, the analysis of the competing
institutional trajectories is enriched by multiple levels of inquiry, particularly useful
as the entertainment sector lends itself to a multidimensional focus.

70

The Potential Threats to Hollywood’s Global Primacy in an Evolving
Landscape
As Hollywood studios have long discovered, they do not operate and
compete solely in the movie business, but in the larger entertainment business. When
in the 1950s the new medium of TV disrupted the media and entertainment
landscape, focusing only on the movie side of the business represented a “marketing
myopia” (Levitt, 1975) for the Hollywood studios, as the industry and the
competitive landscape had to be considered as a whole.
13
As a result, Hollywood
studios have been diversifying their investments in the entertainment industry since
then, establishing a significant presence in the TV business in addition to their
original core business, the movies. Also, the international dimension of the
entertainment business has been a key element in establishing and maintaining
Hollywood studios’ leadership, as the revenue streams generated by foreign markets
are oftentimes essential to recoup the original investment to create and produce
content domestically.
Historically, they have successfully adapted to the evolving global landscape,
being able to incorporate the new entertainment phenomena, as they arose, in new
revenue streams, both in the creation and the distribution sides of the business. In
fact, similarly to the exploitation of entertainment content in the different “windows”
of exhibition in the entertainment business, the Hollywood studios are organized to
better capture the value created in the entertainment landscape and to effectively
71

compete globally. As a result, they operate with different divisions, ranging from
theatrical, television, home entertainment, animation, digital distribution and
ancillary revenues, including licensing to consumer products distributors,
domestically and internationally.
At the turn of the 21
st
century, however, they face new challenges with the
potential of altering the existing status quo, and specifically the global primacy of
the Hollywood system, whose center lies in the oligopoly comprising the studios. On
the one hand, the rise of non-scripted entertainment in prime time schedules of
broadcasters around the world has introduced new competitive entities in the global
arena, with specific competences and know-how. On the other the ICT revolution, as
it unfolds, is revealing its potentially disruptive force on the existing business
practices in the creation and distribution of entertainment.
Moreover, in the consumption of entertainment content audiences also appear
to be willing to have a say in its outcome. In fact, as shown in “reality TV” shows
votes, audiences appear to want to determine the outcome or modify existing content
(through the processes of remixing, YouTube videos and adaptations) or to plainly
interact as they appropriate the entertainment content (as in video games). As a
result, the combined action of these elements is affecting the entertainment
landscape, with non-scripted entertainment appearing to lend itself to the digital
landscape better than traditional scripted entertainment.

72

There are signs of changes occurring in the US market. According to the US
government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, while receipts for film and television
rentals generated from export still vastly exceed those generated from import, the
latter have registered a much more significant increase in recent years, as shown in
Table 4.
Table 4: USA Film and Television tape rentals – Import 1992-2006
Source: US Government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis

USA Film and Television tape rental
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1,000
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Year
Import (USD Mil.)

In fact, these data illustrate that the import for the category has increased
from $ 76 million in 1992 to $ 845 million in 2006 (US Government, 2007, p.115),
showing that while the imbalance between US import and export for popular culture
goods still remains, at the same time there are signs of contra-flows of entertainment
73

in a more dynamic landscape (Thussu, 2007). It is worth pointing out that the
significant increase of imports commenced to take place in year 2003 and it appears
to be continuing to unfold at the time of this writing.
In an evolving global entertainment landscape new entities, mainly from
Europe, as Endemol, FremantleMedia and ITV are successfully competing with
Hollywood studios worldwide in providing prime time TV content to broadcasters,
mainly non-scripted entertainment, as “reality TV” shows and game shows. These
entities have been able to compete and make inroads also outside their original
domestic markets and specifically to establish a significant presence in the US, the
largest entertainment market in the world, with all the existing barriers to entry
notwithstanding.
The rise of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment and of the European
entities leaders in producing and distributing the genre has enormous implications,
above and beyond the flow of entertainment content within the Atlantic corridor
between Europe and the US. In fact, one of the determinants of Hollywood’s global
competitive advantage in the “national diamond” framework analyzed in this chapter
(the demand conditions) is being challenged by these European entities, able with
this genre to successfully penetrate the American entertainment market. In so doing,
they can effectively hamper the virtuous cycle originated by Hollywood’s
predominance in its domestic, and world’s largest, market.

74

Furthermore, the genre has successfully reached all the relevant domestic
markets worldwide, introduced in the different territories with local adaptations of
global formats. Moreover, it is worth noticing that the revenue streams generated
from television represent a significant aspect of the leading media and entertainment
conglomerates’ operations. In fact, analyzing the “sultans of the small screens” (the
diversified conglomerates Time Warner, Viacom, Walt Disney and News Corp.),
Thussu (2006, p. 16) points out that the percentage of total revenue generated by TV
in 2004 range from 39% to 67%.
As television is a relevant feature of the entertainment landscape, the global
success of the aforementioned non-US entities has the potential to challenge
Hollywood studios’ global leadership, by competing in the increasingly relevant
genre of non-scripted entertainment both in the US and internationally. In fact, non-
scripted entertainment appears to lend itself to local adaptations better than scripted
entertainment, by proposing a global format to local culturally situated audiences
around the globe with local hosts, contestants and situations in a way not possible for
example for comedy or drama series. Also, it can be argued, the narrative
transparency is higher in non-scripted entertainment, as local audiences oftentimes
are not aware that these programs have been ideated elsewhere, rather they believe to
be watching local fare.
As a result, many of the elements utilized to explicate Hollywood’s global
leadership with the previous interdisciplinary analysis, as narrative transparency and
75

localization, are clearly present on an even bigger scale in the local distribution of
non-scripted entertainment global formats. In addition, cultural proximity, if not even
national pride can be triggered by these shows, whose local adaptation are so central
in the development of the programme that they appear to be completely generated
locally, as in the case for example of the currently most successful show in the US
TV landscape, American Idol, which is a local adaptation of the global format Pop
Idol, generated originally by FremantleMedia in the UK.
In following chapter the rise of non-scripted entertainment is analyzed, with
specific emphasis on the aforementioned European entities, their background and
business practices and the overall differences with scripted entertainment generated
in the Hollywood system both in the creation and distribution processes and
Hollywood’s reaction to the phenomenon. This analysis enables the study to explore
an emerging institutional trajectory challenging Hollywood’s global predominance:
the rise of non-scripted entertainment global leaders. These entities, mainly from
Europe, have successfully made inroads in the US prime time schedules, somewhat
reversing the unidirectional flow of entertainment, from the US to Europe, within the
Atlantic corridor and impacting Hollywood’s virtuous cycle described by Porter’s
national diamond. In addition, these European entities operating with different
business models and practices, as the local adaptations of global formats, have
expanded their distribution globally, reaching all the relevant markets worldwide.

76

Furthermore, as the ICT revolution unfolds, the global entertainment
landscape is undergoing significant changes in the production, distribution of content
and in its overall business practices. A new institutional trajectory is developing
within the global mediascape. Digital distribution has the potential to eliminate or
significantly reduce bottlenecks in the diffusion of entertainment, and in so doing to
alter existing competitive advantages. Large size distribution structures could not
necessarily be the only approach to the new landscape, as the “long tail” theory
suggests (Anderson, 2004), and as a result the existing barriers to entry into the
industry could be lowered. In fact, digital distribution allows profitable release of
few units of more titles by potentially new entities, as the costs associated with
distribution diminish. In addition, the digital landscape increases the risks of
unauthorized access to entertainment content under copyright, without any
significant loss of quality, throughout the shelf life of entertainment products.
As a result, the “windowing” model, which has been regulating the
entertainment industry in the last decades, is under increased pressure, as digital
distribution has the potential to replicate or amplify authorized and unauthorized
access to entertainment content throughout its exploitation, ranging from theatrical to
TV and home entertainment. Also, non-scripted entertainment appears to lend itself
better to be consumed through these channels than scripted content (historically
Hollywood’s forte). In fact, on the one hand it has potentially more interactive
features (which can be exploited through SMS for example) and on the other its
77

revenue streams are less threatened by piracy, as they are more based on their first
exploitation (the TV presentation, oftentimes live) than on subsequent “windows” of
exhibition, to be protected by unauthorized access.
Chapter 4 specifically analyzes the new digital shelf life of entertainment, its
origin and impact on the competitive landscape affecting its content, distribution and
business models, tracing the history of Hollywood’s ambivalent reactions to new
technologies affecting the entertainment industry, and focusing specifically on non-
scripted entertainment in the digital scenario.
These two institutional trajectories within the global mediascape at the turn of
the 21
st
century, the rise of non-scripted entertainment and the ICT revolution’s
impact on the way entertainment is produced, distributed and consumed globally by
audiences have the potential to alter the existing virtuous cycle sustaining
Hollywood’s global competitive advantage, analyzed in this chapter utilizing the
theoretical framework combining industrial economics and political economy with
insights drawn from an interdisciplinary analysis. The next two chapters focus the
analysis on the emerging landscape, as it is being shaped by these institutional
trajectories and by Hollywood’s reactions.

78

Chapter 2 Endnotes
1
To keep track of the evolving media landscape, organizations as Free Press monitor the
ownership of media and entertainment assets, while making available this information to the public
(see for instance their website at http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart.php?chart=main).

2
With offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D. C., as reported in its January 17, 2008
press release (MPAA, 2008a).

3
MPA “represents the interests of major motion picture companies in the global
marketplace”, as reported in its February 15 press release (MPA, 2008b). Its member companies
include the international divisions of the aforementioned six Hollywood studios (part of the MPAA):
Buena Vista International (Walt Disney), Paramount Pictures Corporation, Sony Pictures Releasing
International Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox International Corporation, Universal International
Films and Warner Bros. Pictures International.

4
The extent to which the interchange with the environment occurs qualifies the system as
open or close.

5
Often referred to as the “below the line” workers (as opposed to the abovementioned
professionals referred to as the “above the line”).

6
Another example, as pointed out by Epstein (2005, p. 97) is the data provided by the
research firm National Research Group (NRG) to the Hollywood studios. Oftentimes the interactions
within the Hollywood system do not take place without conflict, as the ongoing negotiations between
guilds and studios on contracts renewals have consistently shown.

7
In the definition of the US government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis “film and
television tape rental cover the rights to display, reproduce, and distribute US motion pictures and
television programming abroad” (US Government, 2007, p.106).

8
For example, Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks have united their international
theatrical distribution operations within the distribution company United International Pictures (UIP),
based in London (Aft, 2004).

9
Other examples of these clusters of industries, geographically situated with global
competitive advantages are the Japanese consumer electronics industry and the Italian fashion
industry. Similarly to Hollywood’s strategy, these clusters, although geographically situated in
specific regions where they can benefit from “national diamond” conditions, operate globally taking
advantage of opportunity arising in different parts of the globe (Porter, 1990, p. 69).

10
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, another main reason for the establishment in Southern
California of the then emerging “independent” players was its physical distance from the owners of
the patents regulating the industry in its infancy at the beginning of the 20
th
century (Lessig, 2004, pp.
53-54).

11
Examples of occurrences falling into this category are: acts of pure inventions, major
technological discontinuities, discontinuities in input costs, significant shifts in world financial
markets or exchange rates, surges of world or regional demand, political decision by foreign
governments and wars (Porter, 1990, p.124).

79

12
Other research efforts (Véron, 1999; Olsen, 1999) have utilized similar frameworks in
their analysis of Hollywood, also drawing on the work of Porter. The contribution to the scholarly
conversation of the dissertation is to apply these frameworks to the emerging phenomena of non-
scripted entertainment and the ICT revolution, their impact and consequences on the existing market
dynamics, as they challenge Hollywood’s global competitive advantage.

13
Levitt (1975, p. 3) points out that early Hollywood’s focus on their specific products,
feature length motion pictures, as the new TV technology was developing, is a classic example of
“marketing myopia” on their part. In fact the Hollywood studios initially missed the opportunity to
expand their business by being too product-oriented (and considering themselves only as movies
makers) as opposed to customer-oriented (and therefore position themselves as entertainment
providers).
80

CHAPTER 3

THE RISE OF NON-SCRIPTED ENTERTAINMENT
1

“Reality ends here!” (Unofficial motto of the USC School of Cinematic Arts)

The Success of the New Wave of Non-scripted Entertainment
It is Tuesday night, April 15, 2008. As American audiences tune in to browse
the available prime time shows between 8:00 and 10:00 pm on network TV, the
offering of the main channels include a variety of programmes, including American
Idol on Fox, Big Brother on CBS, The Biggest Loser on NBC, and Dancing with the
Stars on ABC. As Nielsen would estimate the day after (Kissel, 2008a), the majority
of viewers opted to watch American Idol (23.6 million), while the second most
watched programme was Dancing with the Star (15.4 million). Also, the most
watched show of the night on cable TV was another non-scripted programme, The
Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel, describing the harsh conditions of crab
fishing in Alaska, attracting more than 3 million viewers, according to Nielsen
(Kissel, 2008a).
What the above mentioned programmes have in common is that they are not
taped shows following a precise script, rather they present their audiences with
events whose outcome is not predetermined and unfolds before their eyes. This is not
an isolated case in the US TV landscape, nor are the prime time schedules of this
night particularly different from those available in other major TV markets
internationally. In fact, the last ten years have witnessed the rise of non-scripted
entertainment in the prime time schedules of broadcasters worldwide. Since the year
81

2000 in the US, the largest TV market in the world, foreign generated TV formats as
Big Brother, Survivor and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire have successfully made
inroads into national TV broadcasters attracting large audiences, and the networks
have been devoting significant prime time slots to non-scripted entertainment.
Sifting through the Nielsen data of top prime time programs in the US, as
provided by the annual publication International TV & Video Almanac, in the last
decade from 1998 to 2007, it clearly emerges that before the arrival of the non-
scripted entertainment wave, scripted entertainment dominated the prime time of US
national broadcasters.
2
In fact, prior to 2000 on average only one of the top ten
ranked primetime programs could not be defined as typical, scripted, Hollywood
entertainment content (usually sports events as NFL Monday Night Football) . Since
the successful arrival of the aforementioned non-scripted shows, in the period 2000-
2007, on average half of the top ten primetime programs fell in the category of non-
scripted entertainment, with new programs successfully replacing other “reality TV”
shows as they decline or complementing the existing networks’ schedules, as
American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.
Commenting on the phenomenon, current and former US media and
entertainment executives appear to concur that the rise of non-scripted entertainment
brought to the fore a genre that will not disappear easily, rather they consider it a
permanent feature of the landscape for the foreseeable future.
3
The category is
recognized as an established genre and it has gained its own relevance within the
82

Emmy awards, created and administered by the Academy of Television Arts &
Sciences.
The general consensus of industry executives is that non-scripted
entertainment tends to be more flexible, generally cheaper than scripted
entertainment and it lends itself better to integration with advertisers on the one hand
and with network schedules and cross-promotions on the other. From a TV network
point of view Lisa Vebber, senior vice president program planning and scheduling at
NBC Entertainment, points out the adaptability to the evolving strategies of the
network of these programmes, which generally enjoy an abridged life cycle. In fact,
non-scripted entertainment can generally reach astonishing successes faster than
regular scripted entertainment rapidly becoming “a TV event you don’t want to miss
in the age of TiVo” while at the same time it also tends to fade faster, with the
exception of few hit shows (Vebber, 2008).
4

From an audience point of view, what is deemed attractive is the
“unpredictable nature of these types of shows”, which are at the same time
embedded in familiar mechanisms and environments repeated on a regular basis.
They are like “a letter you get every week from someone you care about. It’s the
same envelope, the same stationary, the same stamp, but inside you know that the
letter will be very, very different” as Mark Burnett, top “reality TV” producer points
out (Littleton, 2004). Moreover, their global success and their capacity to cross
national and cultural borders can be attributed to the fact that they are “multiepisode,
83

easily repeatable, locally replicable and made for reasonable budgets…they can
qualify for quotas [in local content] in those territories where there are quotas and
hook the interest of local audiences” as Paul Jackson, director of international
formats and entertainment, Granada, identifies (Moran & Malbon, 2006, p. 9).
In the recent 2007-2008 season the prime time schedules devoted by national
TV broadcaster to non-scripted entertainment was even more significant than the 34
per cent in the time period 8:00 – 10:00 pm originally planned
5
(Variety, 2007) due
to the writers’ strike, a result of the prolonged negotiations between the WGA
(Writers Guild of America) and Hollywood producers affecting the production of
scripted series, as reported by the trade journals (Clarke, 2007b; Adalian, 2007c;
Schneider, 2007; Adalian & Schneider, 2007; Schneider, 2008b). In fact, as the strike
was being announced and enforced by the WGA, the broadcast networks
strategically decided to rely significantly on non-scripted entertainment content also
in their midseason schedules.
The success of non-scripted entertainment has not been limited to national
broadcast networks: Cable channels have also been successfully utilizing similar
programs throughout their schedules. In fact, one of the first “reality TV”
programmes, The Real World, predates the “reality TV” wave in the schedules of US
broadcast TV networks, as it was introduced in 1992 (and still running, in its
twentieth season) by the youth oriented music channel MTV, which has been
inserting other non-scripted entertainment programs ever since. One of these
84

programs, The Osbournes, chronicling the daily adventures of the aging rock music
performer Ozzy Osbourne and his family, has been the biggest earning success of the
channel’s history. Originally intended to be a mini series, it was prolonged to a three
year production, due to its success (Bignell, 2005, p. 34).
Therefore the success of non-scripted entertainment is not unique to
broadcast TV networks, but it encompasses the whole TV landscape, including cable
and satellite channels as well. Also, in addition to be a regular feature in the
schedules of established network and cable channels, there are even television
channels solely devoted to non-scripted entertainment, as Fox Reality in the US and
the satellite channel Reality TV owned by Zone Vision Network in the UK (Havens,
2006, p. 142-144), showing that the genre is clearly becoming a staple of the 21
st

century television, in all its different segments. Furthermore, non-scripted
entertainment has been consistently making inroads in prime time schedules of TV
networks throughout the different TV seasons, irrespective of the size of the
audiences and advertising markets with them associated.
In the 2008 US summer season a new “theme” of non-scripted shows has
successfully entered the landscape drawing on the tradition of Japanese TV, with the
programmes Wipeout and I Survived a Japanese Game Show aired in prime time by
ABC (Kissel, 2008b).
6

85

The boundaries of the genre keep evolving while still seemingly expanding and, as
Hill (2007, p. 29) puts it “a picture emerges of a viewer navigating their way through
a busy, noisy and constantly changing factual television environment”.
The Category of Non-scripted Entertainment: A New Genre?
The category or “genre” of non-scripted entertainment comprises vastly
different kinds of programmes. The defining element reuniting these programmes
into one category is that they document non-scripted events, usually without
featuring professional actors,
7
whose outcome has not previously determined. These
programmes are presented to an audience live or they are previously recorded (in the
latter case what is being presented to the audiences undergoes a significant process
of editing and other post-production techniques).
There does not appear to be controversy in scholarly conversations on the
topic that the term “reality TV” widely utilized in trade journals and television jargon
to describe and categorize the new wave of non-scripted entertainment does not
capture the essence of the phenomenon and actually tends to mislead as “it does not
hold up to scrutiny” (Brenton & Cohen, 2003, p. 8). In fact, “reality TV” is deemed a
“misnomer, perhaps even an oxymoron” (Andrejevic, p.16), due to the “intrinsically
selective nature of the editing process and the artificiality of the situations in which
contestants are filmed” (Brenton & Cohen, 2003, p. 8), ranging from being secluded
in a house without any contact with the external world, as in the case of Big Brother,
or marooned on a desert island or other remote and inaccessible locations, as in
86

Survivor. Moreover, also some industry insiders pointed out that the term “reality
TV” is a misnomer since the beginning of the rise of the genre (Bart, 2001).
Therefore, the category is referred to as “non-scripted entertainment”
throughout the dissertation.
8
The genre, comprising diverse TV programmes, inserts
itself in a continuum of TV offerings having at the two extremes live events (similar
to sports events) on one side and scripted content including professional talent
employed behind and in front of a camera on the other.
There have been attempts to categorize the different sub-genres within non-
scripted entertainment, identifying similarities and differences among programmes.
For example Biressi & Nunn (2005) distinguish event TV programmes (the “water
cooler TV”), the must see shows, from the “group challenge” shows with a
“Darwinian game show ethos” and the ones devoted to a “therapeutic-domestic
space” (2005, p. 13). The imagination and creativity of format developers on the one
hand and the producers and broadcasters on the other have been devising and
delivering new non-scripted entertainment content in different shapes and formats,
once it became apparent that audiences worldwide were embracing the new genre. In
this context, different facets of human life have been shown as a spectacle for
audience consumption: from professional activities to job search, from elimination or
game shows to dating-based competitions, from self-improvement to fear-centric
activities.

87

In general, what appears to attract audiences is the “spectacle of the real”,
which has become a “powerful presence in many aspects of contemporary audio-
visual media culture” in our post-modern society (King, 2005, p. 21). Andrejevic,
analyzing the show Big Brother, situates the phenomenon within broader “societal
developments that are reorganizing the division between labor and leisure,
consumption and production, shopping and watching TV” (2004, p. 8). He
specifically points out the signs and anticipates the rise of “a world in which we will
create value for advertisers and marketers by allowing ourselves to be watched as we
go about our daily routines” (Andrejevic 2004, p. 8), raising concerns about the
spectacle of “fun surveillance”. Furthermore, as the flow of entertainment crosses
national and cultural borders, the end result can be defined as “the globalization of
privacy publicized” (Bignell, 2005. pp. 40-41).
The current top show in the US, American Idol, falls into the category of
elimination shows, drawing on the tradition of talent shows ranging from Ted Mack’s
Original Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scout to Star Search. The show
is the American adaptation of the format Pop Idol distributed by FremantleMedia, a
UK unit of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The different sub-genres
call for different sets of professional skills. Oftentimes they draw on existing and
already established Hollywood professional figures, but they also generate the need
for new ones.

88

In fact, some of the non-scripted entertainment shows rely on a documentary
style narratives and techniques within a cinéma vérité approach, filming events as if
the cameras were invisible or not noticed by the participants.
9
Examples are provided
by shows as Survivor and The Real World, where participants are followed in their
daily activities by cameras trying to capture the most salient or entertaining events as
they unfold. Other programmes replicate the dynamics, and the professional skills, of
typical game show genres, as in the shows Deal or No Deal or Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire? where the actions takes place in a TV studio in front of live audiences.
Oftentimes the scale or the nature of some of these projects, as in the case of the
afore mentioned Survivor, which takes place in exotic and remote locations, call for
specific professional skills, similar to large productions usually previously only
associated to big budget feature-length motion pictures. Also, for all the programmes
that are not live or entirely live, the need of editing is clearly essential in the final
outcome of the content proposed to the audiences.
The rise of non-scripted entertainment does not appear to have significantly
altered the professionals activities involved in the production of entertainment,
especially for those involved in the “below the line” activities, as these shows need
cameramen, set designers, editors, etc. already present in the Hollywood professional
landscape. Also, established Hollywood professionals have joined the genre, as in
the case of producer Jerry Bruckheimer, with a successful background in TV and
films, producing the non-scripted entertainment programme Amazing Race, but also
89

new players have emerged as Mark Burnett, the producer of many shows including
Survivor. However, the new genre has introduced in the US and around the world
new entities, the format developers and distributors, many of which are not part of
the Hollywood system, as defined in the previous chapter. In fact, many of the
relevant players of the non-scripted global TV format landscape are part of European
media and entertainment conglomerates.
Interestingly enough, US entertainment or Hollywood’s global leadership in a
similar way does not extend to the global sports arena: Typical US sports, as baseball
or football or car racing competitions NASCAR, do not travel well internationally as
they are not practiced by global audiences (only basketball to a certain extent can be
defined an American sport played and watched globally). Unlike these American
ones, other sports have a true global reach, as the soccer FIFA World Cup
10
or the
Formula 1
11
racing competitions, and they also have a non-US origin. Similarly, the
US global entertainment advantage does not appear to include the non-scripted
entertainment landscape, while it is still solid in the scripted entertainment, movies
or TV content.
Although, as mentioned earlier, there has been a dramatic surge of worldwide
demand for non-scripted entertainment in the last decade, the genre per se is not
entirely new. In fact, non-scripted entertainment has always been a regular feature in
broadcast TV schedules since the advent of the new medium in the late 1940s. It
actually even predates the roll out of TV sets, as the radio show Candid Microphone
90

inspired the TV programme Candid Camera originally aired in the US in 1948 and
considered one of the ancestors of the current “reality TV” phenomenon, as it
depicted ordinary people being caught on camera reacting to practical jokes.
Andreievic (2004, p. 65) points out that reality-based entertainment is as old as
human society itself, tracing its roots to ancient spectacles provided by the Roman
circus for example. A specific relationship between film and notions of the “real” is
traced back by Brenton & Cohen (2003, p. 13-14) to the Nineteenth century French
National Assembly works deeming cameras as “an instrument of objective
knowledge,” just like thermometers, barometers and microscopes, and in so doing
claiming the object for scientific purposes, as argued by the radical deputy François
Arago in 1839.
Non-scripted entertainment programmes like game shows quickly became a
staple of the then new medium television in the 1950s, taking advantage of its
revolutionary ability to broadcast live images across the nation and allow audiences
to witness events as they unfolded. The genre’s popularity declined significantly and
abruptly in the late 1950s as a result of the scandals stemming from the unraveling of
disturbing details of the corruption cases which allegedly took place in the hugely
popular game show Twenty-One, where selected contestants were found to be given
the game show questions in advance.
These episodes significantly undermined the major premise of these kinds of
shows, their authenticity: “I have deceived my friends, and I had millions of them”
91

confessed in a read statement the contestant Charles Van Doren before the US
Houses of Representatives oversight subcommittee. As a result, big-prize quiz
programs disappeared from the prime time networks’ schedules, replaced by scripted
Hollywood series (Barnouw, 1990). In fact, in the aftermath of the scandals
surrounding the authenticity of game shows, the fall schedules of broadcast networks
in 1959 featured more than thirty new Hollywood series, mainly westerns, and
“prime-time television settled for a steady diet of telefilms” for years to come
(Barnouw, 1990, p. 248).
In the following decades non-scripted entertainment survived in the schedules
of broadcast TV networks, albeit on a minor scale, almost always relegated whether
in day time (having left the more lucrative prime time) or on networks attracting
smaller audiences.
12
However, the relevance of these shows in the TV landscape
goes beyond their success and popularity, or lack thereof, at the time of their airing,
as they constituted a pool of creative ideas for non-scripted TV programmes future
creative endeavors in the landscape could draw upon. In fact, some of these shows
inspired the more successful recent new wave of non-scripted programmes, as the
aforementioned talent shows for examples, which the current most popular TV show
in the US, American Idol, clearly draws on. Also, for example, Jon Murray, the
producer of the aforementioned non-scripted show The Real World, has stated to
have been inspired for his show by the 1973 PBS series An American Family, which

92

chronicled the daily non-scripted adventures of a family, and decided to produce a
“remake for the MTV generation” (Andrejevic, 2004, p. 71).
The distinctive features of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment
programmes compared to their “forefathers” is that they are now a stable element of
prime time schedules of TV broadcasters and they have access to and they generate
significant economic resources, allowing these show to have higher production
value. In fact, shows like Big Brother or Survivor have production crews and
resources unthinkable for similar productions only a decade ago, as they generate
significant advertising revenue streams. Also game shows, as Deal or No Deal or
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire have cash prices, whose value vastly exceeds those
of previous similar shows.
Their specific arrival at the turn of the 21
st
century in prime time schedules
of TV networks worldwide stems from a combination of different and distinct
elements. On the one hand there was a surge in Europe of new entities generating
successful TV formats, which quickly expanded their reach overseas, in a
competitive environment where the ICT revolution was beginning to show its
disruptive potential.
In the US there were also concerns originated by talent strikes, as a result of
extended and difficult negotiations between the actors’ union (Screen Actors Guild)
and producers (McNary, 2001). New formats coming from overseas and not
significantly affected by talent strikes appeared oftentimes to provide an appropriate
93

solution to the temporary problem. Their success, however, brought about the
resurgence of the genre of non-scripted entertainment, previously deemed “not ready
for prime time”, and established it as an essential component of entertainment
content in the 21
st
century TV landscape.
Also, it has been pointed out by exploring the role of celebrity in the modern
social realm, that the cultural milieu in Western societies was becoming more
receptive to accept the mediated interactions of ordinary people with hybrid media
forms as the ones new “reality TV” formats were proposing, rendered possible
through “complex processes of identification and voyeurism” (Biressi & Nunn,
2005, p. 144). In addition, audiences appeared willing and able to participate in the
televised events, and to partake in determining their outcomes whenever possible.
“Reality TV” could therefore be considered as a “changing vehicle for the
representation of ordinary (that is non-elite) people and a platform for the projection
of ordinary voices”, even though “the ‘politics’ of the more popular factual
programming and reality TV in particular is quite differently articulated” (Biressi &
Nunn, 2005, p. 155). Moreover, other scholarly voices brought to the fore
problematic features of the phenomenon in the era of digital capitalism, as the issue
of surveillance generated by shows like Big Brother, which thrives in the underlying
premise to “collapse the distance that separates those on either side of the screen by
cultivating the fantasy that “it could be you up there on that screen” (Andrejevic
2004, p. 9).
94

To specifically explore the phenomenon of the rise of this new wave of non-
scripted entertainment, with its genesis, expansion and ramifications, the following
analysis of the show Big Brother, one of the most successful global “reality TV”
formats, helps shed light on the origins and business practices of this new wave of
programmes, their production and global distribution and adaptations.
A Global TV Commercial Success: The Big Brother Format
On September 17, 1999 surrounded by curious anticipation and growing
concerns a new show aired on the Dutch TV channel Veronica, owned by the
European conglomerate RTL. A selected number of contestants agreed to spend a
few weeks in a secluded house without any contact with the outside world, while
constantly being watched and recorded by ubiquitous cameras and microphones
following their every move during the entire experience. A process of elimination of
the contestants on a regular basis, the “eviction”, created the central mechanism of
the game until the last remaining participant won the final prize. As the winner of the
show triumphantly exited from the secluded house more than three months later, at
the turn of the new millennium, the success of the new programme, providing the TV
channel with ratings vastly superior to their regular average, had already attracted the
attention of TV executives around the world.
The show’s title was Big Brother, echoing Orwell’s novel 1984, and its
commercial success prompted TV networks around the world to adopt the format
and air the locally adapted program in their prime time schedules. In fact, already by
95

the year 2000 broadcasters in major TV markets, including the US, the UK,
Germany, Italy and Spain, had aired their first versions of Big Brother. The
subsequent success of the localized versions of the program further expanded the
appeal and demand for the show, which was adopted, and adapted, by broadcasters
all around the world well beyond the first European and North American countries
aforementioned. In fact, the programme made inroads in TV landscapes in Latin
America, Oceania, Africa, Middle East and Asia: a true case of an unprecedented
global TV phenomenon. Its success, combined with the spectacular contemporary
commercial results of other two non-scripted entertainment programmes, Survivor
and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, spearheaded the new wave of “reality TV”
shows, oftentimes based on the formula of TV formats developed globally and
adapted locally, which is still unfolding.
The original idea of the show developed by the Dutch company Endemol,
under the working title The Golden Cage, was to have contestants live in the
secluded house of the game for an entire year, while they had to contribute to their
self-sufficiency (by growing their own food for example). Only the abridged and
modified version of the show however was ultimately accepted by broadcasters
under the name Big Brother, even though interestingly enough, Endemol’s chief
John de Mol, never properly read “nor would he ever” Orwell’s 1984 (Bazalgette,
2005, p. 111). The programme, as predicted on the eve of the premiere of the show
by John de Mol addressing his team of collaborators, became for Endemol what
96

“Mickey Mouse is for Disney”, as Peter Bazalgette, one of the former top executives
of the company and responsible for its introduction in the UK, recalls (Bazalgette,
2005, p. 143).
As the show successfully crossed national and cultural boundaries, it has
become a regular feature of primetime schedules of worldwide TV networks. The
original format has been adapted in local languages, whether with the same title
13

utilizing specific local subtitles varying from country to country (and from season to
season)
14
or with a different one, as in cases in France with Loft Story and Secret
Story for example.
Bignell (2005, pp. 53-59) specifically analyzes the comparative success of
Big Brother in different countries, not only in terms of ratings and audience shares
achieved by the programme, but also in its role in defining the brand and profile of
the hosting channel. The analysis of the results across the different territories (for
example the disparity of success of Survivor and Big Brother in the US and in
Europe) appears to point out that “rather than a homogeneous and monolithic notion
of contemporary television, Reality TV … exists in a dynamic state where uneven
and negotiated processes need to be recognized” (p. 59) and “forces of globalization
and localization operate interdependently (p. 58).
While the central format of the show remained the same, with the elements of
the contestants secluded in a house and competing to remain the last standing
individual after subsequent rounds of eliminations, local adaptations have inserted all
97

sorts of twists and variations to the original version. In fact, as subsequent seasons
are being developed by local producers in combination with TV broadcasters, “all
stars”, “VIP” or teenagers versions have been introduced, different housemates’
exchanges have been practices, and differences in the eviction process have been
utilized. Furthermore, attempts to increase its interactivity have been experimented
with, as in one US edition where a contestant, the “America’s player”, received
directions directly from the audience on how to play not unlike other non-scripted
programmes (as in Fremantle’s American Idol, where audiences vote for their
favorite contestant, hence influencing the outcome of the competition as it unfolds).
Also, there have been multi-regional versions of Big Brother, where
contestants came from different countries within the same regions: Africa, Balkans,
Middle East, Latin American Pacific Rim and Scandinavia. In these instances,
contestants representing their countries enjoyed in addition to their new found
celebrity status a special connection with the local national prides of their countries
of origin, as in the case for example of the pan-African version, where the winner
from Zambia was dubbed the “African queen” (Bazalgette, 2005, p. 267), not unlike
a beauty pageant contest winner. These non-scripted events with participants from
different countries of the same region appear to draw on former European
Broadcasting Union live shows as Jeux Sans Frontières, where teams coming from
little European towns would compete in ability games representing their home
countries, or the Eurofestival singing contest, where different pop singers,
98

representing their respective European countries of origin, would sing and compete
at a live event to be voted the winners of the contest by international judges.
15

The local adaptation of the international format appears to be essential for the
success of the programme, as both the hosts and the contestants reproduce local
cultural dimensions and the ambience also is structured to better resonate with local
audiences. In Australia for example network executives carefully designed the
environment to recreate the distinctive Australian lifestyle to make the dwelling of
the contestants “a real Aussie home”, creating in the audience the feeling to be
experiencing “a national thing” (Roscoe, 2004, p. 312). The Hindi version aired by
Sony’s satellite TV channels opted instead to include as participants D-list film
actors, models and TV personalities, choosing “those who had relationship histories
in hope of sparkling interest in the house” (McMurria, 2009, p. 188). Therefore, in
addition to a format with proven track record, the success of the show is dependent
upon the choices made by local producers on the one hand and local broadcasters on
the other.
In fact, they are in charge of crucial decisions affecting the final creative
output: casting, editing, and the overall ambience of the show. In the words of a
former Endemol top creative executive, the three crucial factors in the production
process are “casting, casting, casting” (Bazalgette, 2005, p. 152). The choice of the
right contestants is in fact central to activate on the one hand the mechanism of
audience resonance with the programme, by reproducing familiar local social
99

dynamics, and on the other to create entertaining events stemming from their
interactions within the household. As the programme shows “normal life” events as
they unfold, the right mix of characters is essential to produce interactions worth
watching for audiences at home.
In addition, the editing process is a key element, as the final outcome of the
programme undergoes a post-production process to entice the audiences. In fact, only
portions of the show are aired live and the majority of what is broadcast is taped and
edited. Post-production techniques serve multiple purposes: They help, in addition to
the predetermined format, to create stories out of the footage stemming from the
different cameras, guiding the narratives of the event not unlike scripted shows, with
cliffhangers and drama building throughout the show. In addition, they avoid on the
one hand potential issues stemming from live incidents and on the other they extract
the most salient moments out of the lives of the contestants, as they are being
recorded without interruptions for the entirety of their stay in the house.
Also, from the start the show executives have considered the programme as
an ideal multiplatform product for the 21
st
century media and entertainment
landscape. In fact, in addition to the traditional free-to-air broadcast TV run of the
show, supported by advertising revenues, other media venues have been utilized,
both television channels or the Internet generating Pay TV or Pay Per View revenues
allowing audiences to have access to the secluded house, where camera and
microphones follow the contestants’ every move in real time and throughout the day
100

(Adalian, 2007b). Another central distinctive aspect, compared to scripted
entertainment, is the possibility of the show to better allow product placement (and
as a result incremental advertising revenues) and cross-promotional activities for the
local broadcaster, being live and potentially open to insert commercial messages.
This is a specific potential of non-scripted entertainment, as scripted entertainment is
generally produced well in advance and with a “closed” narrative, which prevents
significant changes, interruptions and modifications from outside entities once the
final product is edited.
From a theoretical standpoint, analyzing the drivers of the global success of
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and drawing on uses and gratifications theory,
adapted for the 21
st
century globalized media landscape, Cooper-Chen provides a
useful theoretical framework applicable for the analysis of the global success of Big
Brother and the broader category of non-scripted entertainment, as they are
distributed globally and adapted locally (Cooper-Chen, 2005, pp. 238-248). She
specifically identifies three levels of factors necessary to the successful adaptation of
global shows: global, local and “glocal” factors.
Global factors refer to the cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social
integrative, and tension release individual’s mass media needs: These factors tend to
be universal.
16
Local factors relate to the specific differences in different cultures and
are identified by five main dimensions of cultural variability: power distance,
individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation.
17

101

“Glocal” factors refer to the local adaptation of the show. They take place in
different dimensions of the programme: content, personnel, production/scheduling,
audience, critical reaction, and convergence with new technologies. These
dimensions are essential in reproducing familiar dynamics to the local audiences in
terms of gender, age, ethnicity/nationality for example (Cooper-Chen, 2005, p. 244).
The combined harmonic action of these three factors is activated by
successful global shows, providing an example of the rising phenomenon of
“glocalization” of entertainment, also identified by Kraidy (2003) and Straubhaar
(2007) as a key framework within the evolving flow of entertainment in the
international communication landscape, that “will likely characterize the global TV
scene for years to come” (Cooper-Chen, 2005, p. 250).
Therefore the global success of Big Brother, as described in its launch and
global diffusion, can be explicated by this framework, as the programme activates
and integrates global, local and “glocal” factors. By contrast, scripted entertainment
does not usually lend itself to successful adaptations to local markets and cultures, as
its capacity to replicate local and “glocal” factors is intrinsically more limited than
non-scripted entertainment (the script has a closed structure, whereas non-scripted
entertainment is by nature flexible and it is shaped by local adaptations).
In addition, the increased interconnectedness of the contemporary world also
contributes to create “local-to-local” connections in local adaptations of global
formats, as pointed out by Kraidy and Murphy (2008) in analyzing the adaptation of
102

another Endemol’s format Fame Academy by the Lebanese Broadcasting
Corporation mediated by the French adaptation of the same format. The increasingly
complex and multifaceted connections between local and global dimensions fostered
by the business practices of global television formats adapted locally prompted the
above mentioned scholars to specifically focus on the phenomena of translocalism in
global communication studies, paying attention to local-to-local connections in the
global context, above and beyond the global-local dynamics.
Moreover, the differences in success in different territories can be explicated
similarly, as differences in local / “glocal” factors or lack of harmonization among
global and local elements. In fact, there have been instances where the adaptations of
the global format failed to meet the local cultural standards, with all the efforts of
local producers notwithstanding. For example, in 2004 the Middle East version of
Big Brother, broadcast by the Middle East Broadcasting Company from the Persian
Gulf island of Bahrain, was forced to close down the production after only eight days
as a result of the growing concerns and open protests of local audiences irritated by
what they deemed indecent and sinful behaviors of the contestants in the show. This
extreme measure was decided even though specific adjustments had been put in
place to adapt the programme to local mores, as the house was carefully designed to
have for instance separate sleeping quarters and prayers rooms for male and female
contestants (Bazalgette, 2005, p. 252-259).

103

In addition, the local adaptations of the global format Big Brother lend
themselves to be delivered via multiple, digital platforms. In fact, the 2008 10
th

edition of the programme broadcast in the US by CBS was made available across the
CBS audience network comprising the broadcast TV network CBS, the Pay TV
channel Showtime, on line platforms such as the website CBS.com and others in
partnerships with online players (AOL, Microsoft, CNET Networks, Yahoo,
Comcast, Joost, Bebo, and Veho among others) and social application partners
(Automatic, Brightcove, MeeVee, vSocial among others), and the CBS Mobile
Network (presented on MediaFloTV’s mobile TV service) (Consoli, 2008). The
content proposed varied from the original edited episodes, live uncensored feeds,
“after dark” editions, photos, video clips and other materials from the programme
(ringtones, wallpapers, live “house alerts” etc.).
In addition, audiences could participate in interactive activities connected
with the programme: They can incorporate clips into their blogs, wikis and widgets
and interact on the message board of the programme. Also, CBS partnered with
AirPlay to create a live interactive mobile Big Brother game, where fans can
participate in the “live TV challenge” associated with the show to win a trip and
participate to the live season finale of the programme in Los Angeles (Consoli,
2008).
The multiple platforms utilized by CBS are able to attract and retain younger
audiences, usually more looked after by advertisers. In fact, as viewers of network
104

TV tend to grow older (in the US the average age has reached 50 years), Big Brother
is still able to capture on average a younger audience: Specifically, while the median
age of CBS viewers in 2008 is 54, the Tuesday edition of Big Brother’s is 45 (being
the programme reaching the youngest audience for the network, tied by How I met
your mother and Kid Nation) (Shneider, 2008d).
The commercial success of Big Brother did not come without incidents or
controversies, as the intrinsic nature of the show, depicting the lives of contestants
without privacy and under stressful situations, generated negative reactions
throughout its run by a growing number of detractors, who pointed out its distasteful
or eerie aspects. In addition, specific incidents taking place in many local versions of
the show prompted different reactions and contestants have been asked to leave the
show as a result of their behavior in different occasions. In general, the phenomenon
of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment has generated in the last decade
successful programmes attracting large audiences worldwide, but also criticisms
from different voices globally questioning the nature of this genre and the dangers
associated with its increasing mediatic presence.
The Dark Side of “Reality TV”: Issues and Concerns Stemming From the
Rise of Non-Scripted Entertainment
As mentioned, concerns have been voiced on the “dark side” of “reality TV”
shows like Big Brother, pointing out the potential negative effects on the contestants
and the viewers of the show alike, in addition to lower aesthetic standards usually
105

associated with these programmes. These concerns stem on the one hand from the
experiment-like conditions of the program depriving the contestants of some basic
elements of privacy while encouraging voyeuristic tendencies in the audiences
watching the edited events on TV or the live feed through the Internet on the other at
home.
Since the beginning of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment, cases of
contestants negatively impacted after their participation to these programmes abound
and do not appear to cease as the genre has reached an established popularity, from
the controversies surrounding the very first edition of Big Brother broadcast in the
Netherlands, with the local Institute of Psychologists warning contestants not to take
part as “the damage could be really serious” (Bazalgette, 2005, p. 132) to the alleged
nervous breakdown of the runner up of the 2009 edition of Britain Got Talent, after
the finale of the show reaching almost 70% of the national audience in the UK
(Clarke, 2009). The sudden rise to mediatic fame appears to create an emotional
imbalance and rollercoaster for the contestants of non-scripted entertainment,
oftentimes catapulted unprepared to the lime light of multimedia platforms.
Interestingly, an interdisciplinary research at the University of Southern
California (Young & Pinsky, 2006) has shown that contestants of reality TV shows
tend to exhibit more narcissistic traits than the average population and even more
than the professionals working in the entertainment industry, as actors, musicians,
etc.
18
They appear to be looking for the coveted celebrity status the show might
106

provide, even if this is in most cases short lived. It is worth noticing though that after
the novelty of the first seasons has passed, the individuals who voluntarily enter the
show appear in general to be aware of the experience awaiting them in the contest
(they are avid fans of the show and usually they have carefully watched the previous
versions on DVD) and as a result less vulnerable vis-à-vis the challenges they face.
Studies on the phenomenon have pointed out the dangerous allure and risks
of “reality”, as it is proposed by non-scripted entertainment to its audiences (Murray
& Ouellette, 2009). In particular, issues of neoliberal citizen have been raised as a
result of the “take responsibility for yourself” approach generated by the courtroom
program Judge Judy (Ouellette, 2009). Also, concerns have been raised by the
potential interactivity nature of non-scripted entertainment shows (Andrejevic, 2009)
under corporate control, “monetizing the public in its participatory tendencies” as in
the example of American Idol (Kjus, I. (2009), where audience participation through
their votes is turned into another revenue stream for the producers and distributors of
the show.
Concerns over labor issues associated with the new genre have been brought
to the fore. In general, the changing international division of labor (Mosco, 2008, p.
110) involve the entertainment industry workers within the broader category of the
“knowledge workers”, as pointed out for example by the work of Miller et al. (2005)
specifically addressing the issue of global entertainment workers. In this framework,
“reality TV” appears to propagate the international division of labor “within an
107

increasingly deregulated and market-driven global television economy” (McMurria,
2009, p. 196).
The trade journals analyzed reveal signs of the malaise surrounding the
business practices of non-scripted entertainment involving labor: allegations of
“sweatshop” like conditions for workers involved in “reality TV” productions in the
US, with format owner holders violating wage and hour laws (Benzine, 2009), and in
general weaker negotiation power compared to their unionized scripted
entertainment counterparts. Within this theme of inquiry, studies have also focused
on the dynamics and contrasts between the representation of labor and labor behind
the camera in “reality TV” shows as The Simple Life and Project Runway
(Hendershot, 2009). In general, the cost-cutting strategies of TV networks, which
contributed to the rise of the genre in the TV landscape (Raphael, 2009) appear to
involve also labor associated with the productions. Programmes as Big Brother can
be analyzed as a prime example of the strategy of minimizing costs of TV
entertainment “through casting cheap labor in the form of D-list celebrities or
“ordinary” folks” (McMurria, 2009, p. 180).
The Reality of Global TV Formats
In the previous chapter an analysis has been conducted on the best business
practices regulating the entertainment business, domestically and internationally,
adopted by the global leaders of the industry, the Hollywood studios. Through a
carefully designed shelf life including subsequent and oftentimes exclusive
108

“windows” of exhibition domestically and internationally, scripted entertainment is
exploited with the goal of capturing the highest value from the intellectual properties
under copyright, recouping the initial investment and eventually reaching a profit,
when they are successful.
The intrinsic distinct nature of non-scripted entertainment products calls for
and lends itself to different business exploitations in the global entertainment
landscape, some of which are shared with already established genres, but oftentimes
with distinct features, especially when they are distributed internationally. The
cornerstone of non-scripted entertainment shows lies in the “format” of the
programmes. This term, with its origin traceable back to the Latin term liber
formatus (a book printed in a specific way), can be defined as “the total package of
information and know-how that increases the adaptability of a programme in another
place and time” (Moran & Malbon, 2006, p. 7).
When probed about the topic and the term, different industry executives
appear to focus on different aspects of this intellectual property. For example, the
format is deemed “a unique combination of elements that makes the end product
sufficiently different to any earlier programme” by Charlie Parsons, the creator of
Survive!, adapted internationally as Survivor (Brenton & Cohen, 2003, p. 63).
Furthermore, a former “reality TV” executive from Endemol, Peter Bazalgette
identifies the following conditions for the existence of a format “if I can persuade
someone in the US or Australia to buy a license to produce it as a format and to pay
109

me a consultancy fee to advise them on how to make it, then it is one” (Brenton &
Cohen, 2003, p. 63). In a global environment where “the legal status of the format as
a unit of intellectual property is vague in the extreme” (Brenton & Cohen, 2003, p.
63), the emphasis of the issue varies and it can be focused on innovation and
differentiations, as Parsons does, or in its business potential with specific accent on
its international saleability, as Bazalgette puts it.
19

Generally, when a new idea for a non-scripted TV programme is generated, it
takes place in the form of a format paper, including the most relevant aspects of the
show and identifying its main parts, the connections between the different parts, the
structure of the different episodes and the principal on-screen figures (Moran &
Malbon, 2006, p. 38). For a completely new show, the original format has to be
developed adding to the previous stage specific elements, as its title, the intended
target audience, suggested timeslot in the schedule and its length. Usually, a pilot is
produced to give prospective buyers a more precise idea of the structure and the
potential of the show.
Until this stage, the production of a pilot, the procedure does not differentiate
significantly with scripted entertainment where a similar process is put in place, with
differences clearly regarding the structural different elements of the genres (for
example scripts as opposed to situations devised to generate entertainment out of
non-scripted occurrences).

110

Also, different intermediaries help connect the owners of formats with
potential buyers. Talent agents operating in established agencies, such as William
Morris and CAA, or independent professionals with a specific expertise in the genre,
who might act as pure intermediaries, receive a fee for their services once the deal is
made, or assume the risks and buy the licensing rights of a format for a specific
territory, benefiting from a subsequent license in the territory from local
broadcasters.
Once the format is sold specific different business practices take place
compared to the scripted entertainment landscape. In fact, the deals usually include,
in addition to the licensing fees to broadcast, the fees to adapt the programme
locally. To facilitate the adaptation of the format in the country, usually the licensor
offers to the licensee what is referred to by industry practitioners as the “format
bible”: This document includes all available and relevant information and
instructions regarding the programme and the possibilities of adaptation of the
format (it represents in a nut shell the know-how of the owner regarding the format
and its best practices to date). The document evolves over time with the development
of the programme internationally to include all successful local adaptations. As a
result, a new licensee can draw on an evolving database within the global TV
landscape, as the information provided by the licensor constitutes a clear point of
reference for the local adaptations of the programme.

111

Non-scripted entertainment calls for a more defined “two-step creative process”
in the creation, distribution and production of the programme. On the one hand, it is
clearly important for the success of the program that it could rely on an innovative,
solid and well structured format, which constitutes the skeleton of the program. On
the other hand, the success also stems from the local productions and adaptations of
the show. These are two separate and necessary steps for its success in the local
territories, as adaptation and the physical production are essential for the creation of
the final programme, so is as a result the role of non-scripted entertainment
producers.
In fact, producers in conjunction with local broadcasters manage some of the
critical success factors of these shows based on universal themes, locally adapted
through the crucial role of casting and editing to “create” entertainment out of
ordinary lives under extraordinary circumstances, trapped in predetermined TV
formats. In fact, as mentioned for the Big Brother format, in the editing room the
entertainment “magic” of a story is enhanced or created involving “creative”
processes similar to scripted entertainment, especially if the majority or the entire
show is taped and does not take place live, while through casting it is possible to
create the preexisting conditions for entertainment (ranging from drama, romance,
etc.), enhancing the potential narrative structure of the formats.
Also, the agreements between the owner of the format or the local producers
and the broadcaster usually detail the specific medium of the license (free-to-air, pay
112

TV or both) and the future partition of the revenues generated by the exploitation of
ancillary rights, as merchandising, SMS or other revenues as those generated by
phone votes from the audiences for example. These revenue streams can be
significant and its prospective value is an important element buyers factor in when
deciding on the potential success of a non-scripted entertainment programme in their
schedules. Typically, ancillary revenues are split between the licensor, the format
owner, and the licensee, the broadcaster. Also, other revenues might be generated
depending on the specific nature of the programme. For example, in the case of the
American Idol show other revenues streams stem from the sale of records released by
the contestants of the programme, and a percentage of the winner’s earnings goes
contractually to the creators and owners of the format (Moran & Malbon, 2006, p.
67).
Non-scripted entertainment has usually a limited shelf-life compared to
scripted entertainment programmes, comedy and drama series, as they are generally
exploited through fewer subsequent windows, if any. In fact, due their narrative
structure where oftentimes the central element of the show is based on the result of
the events unfolding before the audiences’ eyes, once the outcome is known, most of
its appeal ceases to exist and only die-hard fans of the show appear to be interested
in watching the same events again.
20

The global format TV landscape has witness numerous litigations over the
rights of the shows and revenues generated by non-scripted entertainment, especially
113

after the impressive recent rise of popularity of the genre across the globe. The main
issue appears to lie in the fact that “the law does not recognize a format as a distinct
entity entitled in itself to legal protection” (Moran & Malbon, 2006, p.129). Also, as
previously mentioned a common, agreed upon, single definition of the term “format”
does not exist, neither in legal nor in business and practitioners’ terms, and in
broader terms the trading of formats “can be described as the selling of remake rights
which enable buyers to produce a local remake of the original program tailored to
suit their domestic television market” (EBU, 2008, p. 3).
Not surprisingly therefore, the rise of the new genre and its success also
generated many lawsuits, as the sector was creating and delineating the contours and
boundaries of the “reality TV” landscape. For example, Pearson and Endemol in the
late 1990s engaged in one of the most significant “format wars” as similarities were
noticed between Survive! (the format behind the programs Expedition Robinson first
and Survivor subsequently) and Big Brother (Brenton & Cohen, 2003, pp. 60-61).
Many other litigations followed suit in the last decade, as non-scripted
entertainment shows have been proliferating at an astonishing rate worldwide, as a
result of the commercial success of the aforementioned programmes on the one hand
and the structure of the industry in its infancy on the other, with many new relatively
small players appearing and competing in the arena. As mentioned, the somewhat
elusiveness, in international legal terms, of the very nature of the formats has
generated countless legal disputes across the global TV landscape, with different
114

grounds, findings and final court decisions, as a study of European Broadcasting
Union (EBU) reports (EBU, 2008, pp. 83-159) illustrating the decisions reached in
different judicial systems.
However, the process of generating and developing formats from ideas is
getting more and more consolidated and big players attempt to provide more
“lawsuit-proof” packages to their clients on the one hand and know-how on how to
adapt them on the other, with tools as the aforementioned “bibles” of the formats. In
fact, although the format itself is generally not protected by law, there are other legal
protections available and applicable in case of litigations by the creators and owners
of TV formats, as “copyright, confidentiality, passing off, trademarks and design
protection” (Brenton & Cohen, 2003, p. 111).
Nowadays the global TV format landscape appears to be in the process of
consolidation as few established players have built over time a competitive
advantage including specific know-how and legal entry barriers to the industry. The
next section analyzes the competitive landscape, focusing on the European and
global leaders in the sector, their genesis, evolution and competitive strategies
domestically and internationally, commencing with the analysis of the creator,
developer and distributor of the format Big Brother, Endemol.
The Global Players in the Non-scripted Entertainment Landscape
The European media and entertainment landscape has been generating
original non-scripted entertainment for decades. In the last decade, however, the
115

dimensions and global reach of its distribution has reached unprecedented levels,
representing a significant international contra-flow of media content (Thussu, 2007),
taking place within the Western world on the one hand and at a global level on the
other. New entities have joined the landscape, competing with already established
media players, as the new wave of non-scripted entertainment has been making
inroads in the prime time schedules of European broadcasters first and worldwide
TV networks following suit, including the US. The following analysis will focus first
on Endemol, the creators and distributors of the previously analyzed successful
global TV format Big Brother, to then encompass their main European competitors
in the non-scripted entertainment landscape.
Endemol
Endemol is a relatively new player in the global entertainment arena, yet
has rapidly gained global leadership in the genre of non-scripted entertainment. It is
headquartered in the Netherlands, with subsidiaries and/or joint ventures in 25
countries in five continents, including all major Western European and North
American markets, as well as Latin America, India, South Africa and Australia
(Endemol, 2007, p. 11). Moreover, it sells directly to countries where they do not
have a permanent presence: As a result their most successful shows as Big Brother
and Deal or No Deal are sold and can be watched by local audiences in over 40
countries worldwide (Endemol, 2007, p. 9). It was founded in 1994, when the
production companies of two Dutch television producers, Joop van den Ende and
116

John de Mol, merged to found a new entity which would have aggregated the assets
of the respective companies and the names of the founders: Endemol. The merger
triggered its international development and since then the company has rapidly
expanded outside its national boundaries to become a global leader in the TV formats
creation, production and distribution.
The convergence of media content and new distribution channels made
available by the ICT revolution constituted, as it was deemed by investors and
professionals alike, the essential crossroads in the new digital media and
entertainment landscape at the turn of the 21
st
century. The specific adaptability and
potential commercial exploitations across different platforms provided by non-
scripted entertainment in the new environment did not go unnoticed as financial
professionals were estimating the value of media and entertainment companies in the
new landscape.
In this milieu, in 2000 the Spanish telecommunications conglomerate
Telefónica bought the company for an estimated € 5.5 Billion (De Pablos &
Hopewell, 2007) at the peak of what would have been referred to only a few months
later as the global “Internet bubble” of the technology stock markets originated
within the US NASDAQ.
One of the founders John de Mol agreed to remain on board to provide
continuity with the previous entity, but the company witnessed a series of corporate
restructuring processes in the following years, deciding also to float a minority stake
117

of the company at the Euronext Amsterdam Exchange in 2005 (Edmunds, 2005) and
eventually deciding to sell the company outright in 2007. Many different suitors in
the global entertainment landscape lined up once the intention of Telefónica to
dismiss what was no longer deemed a core asset in the conglomerate became
apparent, as reported by trade journals (Goodfellow, 2007).
On July 2007 the Spanish telecom conglomerate finalized the sale of the
control (75 per cent) of the publicly traded company at the Amsterdam stock
exchange to a consortium of investors including Cyrte Investments (featuring one of
its original founders, John de Mol), Mediacinco (a Spanish/Italian joint venture of
the media and entertainment conglomerates Mediaset and Telecinco) and GS Sachs
Capital Partners (financed by the investment bank Goldman Sachs) for an estimated
€ 2.63 Billion (De Pablos & Hopewell, 2007). Therefore the transaction took place at
a significantly lower amount than the original price of purchase of 2000, while the
takeover group made a public offer to purchase the outstanding shares of Endemol
and eventually delisted the company from the Euronext Amsterdam Exchange
(Screider, 2007).
As a result of the changes in ownership, changes in management followed
suit, bringing back as Chief Executive Officer a former Dutch top executive of the
first phase of Endemol, ousted by Telefónica in 2003 with the founder de Mol
(Barraclough, 2007). Since the new ownership has finalized the acquisition, the
company appears to have been expanding its international operations, increasing
118

their presence in the digital media landscape (Endemol 2008a; Woodson, 2008; Fritz,
2008a) and through acquisitions of other non-scripted entertainment entities
(Endemol 2008b; Grant, 2007).
Analyzing the company’s annual report and financial statements made
available by the company while it was publicly traded, the contours of a diversified
global media and entertainment conglomerate of the 21
st
century emerge. Endemol’s
annual turnover exceeded €1Billion in 2006, originated globally from three main
revenue streams: 75% stemming from non-scripted programmes, 12.5% from
scripted programmes
21
and the remaining 12.5% from digital media. Non-scripted
entertainment is the core business segment of the company and comprises “reality
TV” shows, game and talent shows, while scripted entertainment comprises classic
TV fare, as drama and comedy series. Revenues are typically generated through fees
from broadcasters, advertisers, telecom and Internet companies. As new brands are
created, mainly in non-scripted entertainment as Big Brother and Deal or No Deal,
they are exploited also in the new media realm, providing a significant revenue
stream. The company does so through brand exploitation, leveraging TV and other
brands through participation TV, ring tones, broadband streaming of programmes
over the Internet and mobile phones and interactive participation of audiences with
SMS. The top countries by revenue are: UK, US, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy,
Germany (Annual Report 2006, Endemol, 2007, pp. 18-19).

119

Endemol’s competitive advantage is generated by the creation of TV
formats and the exploitation of its library of new (as Wipeout), classic (as Big
brother) or recently developed (as Deal or No Deal) TV formats globally. Big
brother, in its eleventh season in the US in 2009 was launched in 1999 in the
Netherlands and it is now produced in thirty-six different countries worldwide. Deal
or No Deal was created by the central creative unit in the Netherlands and introduced
globally in 2005 and by 2007 distributed in more than forty countries. In the US it is
adapted and broadcast for English speaking audiences by NBC and for Spanish
speaking audiences, with the title Vas o No Vas, by Telemundo (not unlike Canada,
where the format generates two different shows, one for French speaking audiences
and another for English speaking audiences).
Other formats are originated directly in the foreign territories where they
operate, with subsidiaries or through joint ventures, and then distributed globally, as
in the case of Star Academy in France. The Chief Operating Officer of the company
identifies, as reported by the Italian trade journal Prima Comunicazione, the key
success factors to compete globally the flexibility and creativity of the media
conglomerate, having corporate offices at the headquarters in the Netherlands
working constantly with field offices in a continuous flux of creative ideas from and
to the center of the company, adapted then locally with local partners (Rotili, 2008,
p. 46-57).

120

The global structure of Endemol, and its continuous string of successful
non-scripted entertainment shows made it in the last decade an ideal acquisition
target for large media conglomerates, willing and able to diversify their assets and
expand their global reach. As mentioned, Endemol is now partially owned by the
Italian-based media and entertainment conglomerate Mediaset. Similar in structure is
the other major competitor in the non-scripted entertainment arena, FremantleMedia,
as they both can be deemed examples of “vertically integrated transnational groups”
(Moran & Malbon, 2006, p. 85) operating in the global non-scripted entertainment
arena within large and diversified European media and entertainment conglomerates.
These entities have ownership of libraries of formats they distribute globally,
working oftentimes in joint ventures with local entities in the different territories, as
for example in the case of Endemol Globo in Brazil a joint venture with the national
media conglomerate Globo, and with local broadcasters to adapt their programmes
locally.
FremantleMedia
From the early 1990s FremantleMedia has grown significantly in the UK
media landscape, eventually expanding internationally to become one of the most
relevant global media entities, especially in the non-scripted entertainment sector.
The growth has followed the path of aggressive acquisitions within the industry on
the one hand and development of original entertainment content on the other. The
company stems from the entity Pearson Television, originally a unit within the UK
121

media and publishing group Pearson Plc., established in 1995 as the conglomerate
was strategically expanding internationally through acquisitions in the TV
production sector. In fact, Pearson Plc. first acquired Thames Television in the UK
(in 1993), then Grundy World Wide in Australia (in 1995) and All American
Television in the US (in 1997) (Moran & Malbon, 2006, p. 94).
Consequently, following these acquisitions the conglomerate established a
solid presence in the international TV production business with relevant assets within
its catalogue, including the classic game shows The Price is Right and Family Feud,
which were licensed globally to local broadcasters. In 2000 Pearson Television was
itself taken over by the European media company CLT-UFA, which eventually
became part of the RTL group, within the German conglomerate Bertelsmann, one of
the world’s largest media companies, with annual consolidated revenues in 2006
exceeding € 19 Billion (Bertelsmann, 2007, p. 94).
22

As a result of the change in ownership and with the intention to sever the
ties to the previous conglomerate, the company eventually dropped the Pearson
Television name and adopted the current name FremantleMedia, originally a US
distribution company purchased by Pearson Television through the All American
Television acquisition (Moran & Malbon, 2006, p. 94). The company, now part of a
large European conglomerate, is still headquartered in London and owns a large
catalogue of scripted and non-scripted entertainment shows, as the company, not

122

unlike Endemol, also explores opportunities in the realm of more traditional scripted
entertainment (Ewing, 2008), as a 360 degrees global entertainment entity.
It is present in 22 countries, with the larger subsidiaries (utilizing also the
creative labels UFA, Grundy, Blue and Blue Circle) operating in Australia, France,
Germany, Hong Kong and the US (Bertelsmann, 2007, p. 142). Also,
FremantleMedia operates through the divisions Creative Networks, comprising the
entertainment and drama departments and coordinating local production operations,
and FremantleMedia Enterprises, which handles the exploitation of the catalogue
through distribution and licensing.
FremantleMedia’s overall strategic positioning appears to be driven by six
priorities, as reported in their “purpose and strategy” section of their website
(FremantleMedia, 2008a): maintain and expand their competitive position in their
largest media markets, become a significant player in all major global entertainment
markets wherever they do not already own a significant presence, focus on rights
retention of programmes, maintain a balanced asset portfolio by developing new
formats while nurturing the existing brands, attract entertainment talent through
becoming the employer and partner of choice for professionals, both creative and
executive, and grow new business and new platforms activities taking advantage of
the technological evolution in the marketplace as they unfold. The company reported
in 2006 and 2007 revenues exceeding € 1.1 Billion “driven by a strong performance
from FremantleMedia North America, the global roll-out of new formats and the
123

ongoing worldwide popularity of existing programme brands” (FremantleMedia,
2008b).
The non-scripted shows of FremantleMedia include the property Pop Idol,
the TV talent show successfully adapted worldwide, and the entity is clearly an
integral part of the success of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment globally,
exploited in the 21
st
century media and entertainment landscape. A particularly
significant example of the changes in the landscape is provided by the successful
introduction and adaptation of this property in the American TV market, the largest
in the world. The format Pop Idol was introduced in 2002 in the US as a local
adaptation under the name American Idol on the Fox TV channel with the talent
agency CAA packaging the deal with FremantleMedia and the co-owner of the show
19 Television, owned by its producer, Simon Fuller (Adalian, 2002). The success of
the show vastly exceeded the original expectations of the broadcasters and producers
becoming the top prime time program in the US (International TV & Video
Almanac, 2007) and a generator of multiple revenue streams in addition to the usual
advertising revenues generated by a free-to-air programme on network TV.
In fact, sponsors like Coca-Cola, Ford and ATT, in exchange of
investments reportedly exceeding $ 20 million per season (McClellan, 2004)
participated throughout the seasons inserting promotional messages directly in the
program, as corporate sponsors of the show (Schneider, 2008a). In addition to the

124

main sponsors and the classic advertising air time, also product placement deals, on
an episode per episode basis, were established.
In fact, consumer oriented companies are eager to activate integrated
marketing strategies in an evolving communication environment marked by the
increasing diffusion of Digital Video Recording (DVR) devices as TiVo, which
allow audiences to record and watch at a time of their choosing the show, potentially
skipping the commercial breaks that typically fund the programme. The franchise
has proven particularly profitable and able to generate multiple revenue streams in
the evolving 21
st
century media landscape. They range from telephone calls or SMS
from the audiences eager to vote their favorite contestants participating in the final
outcome of the show to multiple brand exploitations, including even a new theme
park attraction (Schiller, 2008).
The exploitation across different platforms of the properties in their
catalogue is not limited to the most successful prime time shows, but involves a
diversified range of programmes, including older shows as The Price is Right and
Family Feud, adapted as mobile game shows for example, as reported by the
industry trade journal C21 Media (Anonymous, 2008). Taking advantage of the
evolving digital landscape, FremantleMedia also explores diversified distribution
channels and new online platforms, as BlinkBox, allowing users to buy, rent and
edit TV shows (cutting scenes from the shows, adding messages and sending the
final output to friends’ PCs or mobile phones) (Benzine, 2008a).
125

Other European Entities Operating in Non-scripted Entertainment
There are other entities operating in the non-scripted entertainment
European landscape, whose distribution and impact is increasingly global. Some are
units of established media conglomerates, as ITV and BBC, while others are
emerging players in the landscape, which is still evolving. Both headquartered in the
UK, the media and entertainment companies Granada and Carlton communications
agreed to merge their activities in 2002 creating, after the approval of the local
regulatory commissions was finalized in 2004, the media conglomerate ITV.
The new entity operates in different segments of the media landscape, most
notably in broadcasting through all the different available platforms mainly in the
UK, and in content creation and distribution, domestically and globally, generating
in 2006 more than £2 Billion revenues (ITV plc, 2007, p. 51). ITV comprises all the
structures of the previous companies, some of which trace back their origins to the
beginnings of commercial TV broadcasting in the UK in 1955. Specifically relevant
to the non-scripted entertainment landscape, the new entity also includes Granada
International, the commercial arm of the Granada media group which has been
operating in the global TV market with non-scripted entertainment programmes as
Hell’s Kitchen and Nanny 911. The unit at the time of this writing is in the process of
winding up as a separate entity to be folded into the conglomerate as ITV Global
(Clarke, 2008).

126

Also the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the UK public television
broadcaster, is a relevant player in the global TV landscape, as they produce and
distribute content offered in different platforms to audiences in the UK and abroad.
In the production side of the business they utilize both their in-house structures and
independent producers. In the distribution side they tend to rely on their corporate
structures, domestically and globally. In fact, they operate globally through the
international division BBC Worldwide, which has established a global presence in
the media landscape through the activities of licensing of the content of their TV
library and managing international channels under the BBC umbrella brands. Their
financial report for the years 2006/2007 indicates for the international division of the
company income of £249 million stemming from Television sales and £118 million
from their channels (BBC 2007, p. 96)

. BBC is further expanding its international
presence launching more channels internationally, as well as high-definition outlets
and on-demand services, utilizing four thematic brands BBC Entertainment, BBC
Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies, dedicated to children (Holmwood &
Gibson, 2007). Their vast catalogue also includes relevant non-scripted
entertainment fare distributed globally as the programmes Strictly Come Dancing
(adapted in the US as Dancing With the Stars) and The Weakest Link.
All the aforementioned entities are therefore part of large European media
conglomerates, which have identified non-scripted entertainment as a key strategic
element in their media assets portfolios in the 21
st
century. The sector is still
127

evolving, with new entities appearing in the competitive landscape, although at a
slower pace compared to the beginning of the rise of the new wave of non-scripted
entertainment a decade ago.
Among other relevant European entities operating in the non-scripted
entertainment landscape, Castaway Productions owns the right of the TV format
Survivor. The company was formed in the UK by Charlie Parsons, the original
creator of the show, with his business partners Waheed Alli and Bob Geldof, when
they sold their company Planet 24 operating in the “reality TV” sector to the
aforementioned Carlton Communications. In the transaction they retained the rights
of the format, which they keep licensing globally (Clarke, 2001).
Also in the UK, Celador International is the creator of the aforementioned
format Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, one of the successful game shows part of
the new wave of non-scripted programmes licensed globally. The company sold in
2006 part of their assets to the Dutch company 2waytraffic, which was itself
acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment for a reported $223.5 million in June 2008
(Levine & Schreiber, 2008). The deal increases the presence of the Hollywood studio
in the non-scripted entertainment sector, adding the format to their library, which
already includes game shows as Jeopardy! and Power of 10, signaling Hollywood’s
attention to the phenomenon and its presence in the non-scripted landscape.

128

Hollywood and Non-scripted Entertainment
For the most part of the 20
th
century Hollywood has represented,
geographically and ideally, in the global entertainment landscape the locus where
“reality ends” and the “dream factory” thrives, echoing the USC School of Cinematic
Arts unofficial motto and the anthropologist Hortense Powedermaker’s definition in
the 1950s. Since the new wave of non-scripted entertainment originating mainly
from Europe (and specifically created and distributed by the above mentioned
entities) disrupted the global TV landscape at the turn of the 21
st
century, Hollywood
has been reacting and adapting to the evolving scenario.
As the new formats and entities started to appear in the global entertainment
landscape about a decade ago, the Hollywood studios initially did not seem to be too
interested in expanding activities to include a relevant presence of non-scripted
entertainment in their portfolios. In 1999 the then emerging entity Endemol, as
reported by a former executive, initiated contacts with the international divisions of
all the Hollywood studios to explore potential buyers: Some studios showed more
interest than others, but ultimately no deal was made as the asking price (about $1
Billion) was deemed too high for a company whose major formats at the time had
still to prove their success (Bazalgette, 2005, p. 119-120). However, the following
global success of the genre did not go unnoticed for long and the studios gradually
have been involved in non-scripted entertainment.

129

Their approach to this sector appears to have followed two paths: establishing
new divisions in their conglomerates devoted to this particular genre, as Warner
Bros. with its division Warner Horizon (Schneider, 2006) or through acquisitions of
existing foreign non-scripted entertainment entities, as Sony Pictures buying both
established formats as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire through the acquisition of the
Dutch company 2waytraffic (Levine & Schreiber, 2008), and start-up companies as
the UK Gogglebox (Turner, 2008). Also, the sector’s boundaries do not end at the
major Hollywood studios’ gates, as smaller US entertainment entities specialized in
non-scripted entertainment are also active in the landscape, as GRB Entertainment.
The role of talent agencies, key intermediaries in the production of scripted
entertainment in Hollywood as talent representatives, appears to be less central in the
non-scripted world where the majority of the characters are not professionals and not
represented, at least initially. Their role as intermediaries, however, is still relevant in
many transactions generated in the non-scripted entertainment business environment,
as in the case of the talent agency CAA in the above mentioned introduction into the
US of the show American Idol (Adalian, 2002). Furthermore some talent agencies
have created specific units, domestically and internationally, to explore opportunities
in non-scripted entertainment, as in the case of ICM, with its international television
and media division including overseas offices (Adalian, 2007a).
Moreover, as the genre appears to be an established component of the US TV
offerings, the production of non-scripted entertainment programmes involves on a
130

regular basis many Hollywood above or below the line professionals, including
directors, cameramen, editors, screenwriters, casting agents, etc. in their professional
capacities, oftentimes developed in the scripted entertainment or documentary
genres, adapted to the particular necessities of non-scripted entertainment and it
constitutes a relevant component of work generated in the US entertainment business
sector.
This chapter has analyzed the rise of non-scripted entertainment in the global
media landscape as an institutional trajectory developed mainly in the last decade.
The analysis has illustrated its origin, the business practices vis-à-vis scripted
entertainment, the major players in the sector (mostly part of European media
conglomerates), and Hollywood’s reactions. This institutional trajectory has the
potential to alter Hollywood’s existing global competitive advantage, as analyzed in
the previous chapter. Within Porter’s “five forces” theoretical framework (Figure 1,
p. 42), the rise of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment constitutes two
specific threats to Hollywood’s oligopoly: the arrival of “substitute” products
catering to the same demand of entertainment historically satisfied by Hollywood
content, and the appearance in the landscape of “new entrants”. In fact, TV formats
generated by European entities have successful made inroads, adapted locally, in the
major TV markets, including the US, with all the existing barriers notwithstanding.
As a result, some of the determinants generating Hollywood’s economic
leadership in Porter’s “national diamond” framework (Figure 3, p. 56) are being
131

undermined by the phenomenon. For example, the demand conditions, the size of the
US domestic market able to generate the demand for high value productions
subsequently exported overseas, is being affected. In fact, European-generated non-
scripted entertainment formats have successfully entered the market and carved out a
significant presence in the US landscape satisfying a sizeable portion of the US
demand for entertainment. Therefore Hollywood’s virtuous cycle of high
investments targeting the large US entertainment market first and then competing
internationally with local productions, which cannot afford similar budgets, is being
impacted and altered in the global TV landscape by the surge of European non-
scripted entertainment.
The superior local adaptability of non-scripted entertainment programmes
makes them more appealing in foreign TV markets than regular Hollywood
productions, which cannot practice “glocalization” of entertainment as effectively. In
fact, as previously analyzed with the successes of the programme Big Brother, non-
scripted entertainment effectively incorporates local, global and “glocal” elements
being the result of global formats adapted locally (Cooper-Chen, 2005). In their
global elements non-scripted entertainment can utilize “universality” of themes, and
they are also available globally (Katz & Liebes, 1990), as they are distributed by
transnational entities, as Endemol and FremantleMedia, with field offices around the
globe. Furthermore, non-scripted entertainment appears to lend itself to
“participatory culture” tendencies (Jenkins, 2006a), when they occur, better than
132

scripted entertainment. The previous analysis of the financial results of the global
leaders show that they in fact constitute a relevant revenue stream in their business
models (the “brand exploitation”: SMS, votes, etc.).
The phenomenon of “glocalization” of non-scripted entertainment appears to
satisfy many of the criteria identified by media scholars analyzed in the previous
chapter with an interdisciplinary focus to explicate the success of entertainment
content based on the narratives proposed. In fact, “narrative transparency” (Olsen,
1999), proximity and linguistic affinity (Straubhaar, 1991; Trepte, 2003) “sheer
availability” while being “psychologically accessible” (Kats & Liebes, 1990, p.5)
and even national pride (Cohen, 2008) are features present in global formats of non-
scripted entertainment adapted locally, and more significant than in scripted
Hollywood fare, as they specifically include local features.
After the analysis of the institutional trajectory represented by the rise of the
new wave of non-scripted entertainment worldwide driven by transnational media
and entertainment conglomerates outside the Hollywood system, mainly from
Europe, the next chapter focuses on another institutional trajectory proving further
potential disruptive elements for Hollywood’s existing global competitive advantage:
select feature within the analysis of the impact of the ICT revolution on the global
entertainment landscape, with the potential to alter the existing status quo of the
industry.

133

Chapter 3 Endnotes
1
This chapter greatly benefited from unstructured interviews with industry professionals
conducted between October 2007 and June 2008, and my attendance to the Digital Hollywood
conference (Los Angeles, October 29-November 1, 2007) and the event “Special evening with Mark
Burnett” at the University of Southern California (March 5, 2008) organized by the Lloyd Greif
Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the USC School of Cinematic Arts with Mark Burnett, the top
producer of non-scripted “reality” television programming. I am particularly grateful to: Larry
Auerbach, former executive vice president at the William Morris Agency; David Auerbach, former
senior vice president alternative programming at Warner Horizon; Michael Burkenbine, film and TV
producer; Jayson Dinsmore, senior vice president alternative programming NBC Entertainment;
Marlise Malkames, freelance editor of “reality TV” programmes; Lisa Vebber, senior vice president
program planning and scheduling NBC Entertainment; and also to other industry professionals, who
prefer to remain anonymous.

2
Within the international flow of entertainment in the 1990s, the most popular genres were
drama and film, followed by children’s programming and light entertainment (Havens, 2006, pp. 41-
42), showing that generally comedies do not “travel” well internationally, being more culturally
situated, whereas dramas do, as they deal with more universal themes.

3
Personal, unstructured interviews conducted between October 2007 and June 2008 with
media and entertainment executives, as illustrated in note 1.

4
Personal, unstructured interview conducted with Lisa Vebber, senior vice president program
planning and scheduling at NBC Entertainment, on April 11, 2008.

5
Data based on the analysis of the schedules announced during the networks’ presentation in
May 2007, as reported by the trade journal Variety. Among the US networks, NBC leads the way in
inserting non-scripted entertainment in prime time with approximately 50 per cent of their schedules
devoted to such programmes, followed by ABC with almost 40 per cent.

6
The show Wipeout is produced by the American unit of the Dutch-based “reality TV”
conglomerate Endemol with local US producers (Pulse: Creative), while I Survived a Japanese Game
Show is produced by US producers (A. Smith & Co. Productions and Babyfoot) (Lowry, 2008a). They
are both inspired by the established Japanese tradition of TV contests comprising exaggerated stunts
performed by the participants, usually presented multiple times to the audiences including slow
motion replays. They both also add twists of conventional elimination “reality TV” programmes.

7
When celebrities, including actors, do appear in the show, they do not follow scripts, but
they insert themselves in the situations presented, as they unfold, as in the case of Dancing with the
Stars or The Surreal Life for example.

8
The term “factual entertainment” is also utilized in corporate parlance and websites,
especially in the UK. “Non-scripted entertainment” is the preferred term utilized throughout this
dissertation, as it is deemed more extensive and therefore more able to capture the evolving nature of
the phenomenon. Curiously, the divisions responsible for these kinds of programmes within US
entertainment entities, from Hollywood studios to network TV and talent agencies, are usually defined
as “alternative programming”.

9
The resurgence of this technique in non-scripted entertainment has transcended the genre,
appearing as a distinctive feature also of scripted entertainment as in the series The Office.

134

10
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) (2006) reports that the 2006
World Cup had an estimated cumulative television audience of 26.29 billion across 214 countries and
territories, and that the final match alone attracted an estimated global audience of 715.1 million
viewers.

11
Business Week (Ewing & Rossant, 2004) estimates at $ 1B globally the value of the
business generated annually by the Formula 1 competitions, stemming from broadcast rights,
merchandising, and track revenue.

12
One of the new quizzes, Jeopardy!, acknowledging with irony the issue modified the
general structure of existing game shows, providing the answers directly to its contestant and asking
for the corresponding questions, inspired by the aforementioned case of Twenty-One, where selected
contestants were given the questions of the show in advance.

13
Sometimes the title is translated in local languages, as in Argentina’s Gran Hermano and
Italy’s Grande Fratello for example.

14
The specific subtitles’ name adapted by local versions range from Zero Privacy (Belgium),
to The Wall (Greece and Norway), The Battle (Germany) and Project DNA – Do Not Assume and
Summer of Secrets (USA), etc.

15
The relevance of these shows, which contributed for example to the rise of Scandinavian
pop group Abba, once very popular in the 70s and broadcast in Eurovision has declined significantly
in the last decades.

16
Cognitive needs are satisfied by the acquisition of knowledge from the show, affective
needs by the pleasurable fun of playing a game, personal and social integrative needs by the
familiarity of the situations proposed, and tension release needs by the relax provided by the dynamics
of the show (Cooper-Chen, 2005, pp. 238-242).

17
Applying these dimensions of cultural variability, Cooper-Chen identifies four distinct
“Cultural Continents” sharing similar traits: Western, East Asian, Latin and Equatorial (Cooper-Chen,
2005, p. 243).

18
The study analyzed three groups of individuals and their respective Narcissistic Personality
Inventory (NPI): celebrities, MBA students and the general population. The findings pointed out that
celebrities are significantly more narcissistic than the other two categories, and that “reality TV”
personalities had the highest overall scores of the NPI among the celebrities, followed by comedians,
actors and musicians. These findings lead the authors to suggest that “reality television has provided
an outlet for narcissistic individuals, many with limited abilities, to believe that they can succeed in
the entertainment industry”, but “it could be also the case that the producers of reality television
shows have reasons for picking the most narcissistic contestants”, as they tend to be more entertaining
with their tendencies to create drama under stressful or competitive circumstances (Young & Pinsky,
2006, p. 470).

19
The term format has been also utilized in the scripted entertainment genre, when the
original script of a series is licensed internationally and adapted locally with local actors, producers,
etc., as in the afore mentioned series The Office, originally from the UK.

20
A similar occurrence takes place in other live shows, as sports events, where reruns do not
appear to capture a similar interest from the audiences of the first run, once the final outcome is
already known.
135

21
The revenue streams generated from scripted entertainment are especially significant in the
Netherlands, Italy and Spain, where the company has established a particularly strong presence
(Endemol, 2007, p. 11).

22
Bertelsmann group comprises the following divisions: RTL group, Europe’s leading
broadcasting and production company (which includes FremantleMedia) providing in 2006 28.3 per
cent of the conglomerate revenues, Random House, the world’s largest trade book publishing group
with 9.8 per cent, Gruner + Jahr, a printing and publishing company, with 14.2 per cent, BMG, which
operates in the music business with labels such Arista, Columbia Records, Epic Records, with 10.1
per cent, Arvato, a media and communication services providers, with 24 per cent and Direct Group, a
content distribution division, with 13.4 per cent (Bertelsmann, 2007, pp. 98-99). Interestingly enough,
the relevance of the RTL division increases from 28.3 to 42.9 per cent, hence becoming the first
division in the overall conglomerate financial results, if the Earning Before Interests and Taxes
(EBIT) measure, a more specific measure of profitability, is considered instead of the revenues
generated.

136

CHAPTER 4

THE NEW, DIGITAL SHELF LIFE OF ENTERTAINMENT
1

“How the technology develops from now on is […] not only a matter of some
autonomous process directed by remote engineers. It is a matter of social and cultural
definition, according to the ends sought” (Williams, 1975, p. 137).
Technological Revolutions as Potentially Disruptive Changes
In the Entertainment Landscape
Hollywood is geographically located in proximity of the San Andreas fault,
an unstable geological boundary dividing the Pacific and North American tectonic
plates, and as a result it is periodically impacted by seismic activities shaking and
disrupting the existing landscape. Researchers monitor the fault and its potential
disruptive impact on the highly populated surrounding area on a regular basis. A
study in 2006 by Yuri Fialko of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the
University of California, San Diego revealed that “the fault has been stressed to a
level sufficient for the next "big one"—an earthquake of magnitude seven or
greater—and the risk of a large earthquake in this region may be increasing faster
than researchers had believed” (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 2006).
Technological revolutions also periodically shake and alter Hollywood’s
entertainment industry, modifying the existing status quo and established market
dynamics while introducing new players and ultimately changing the competitive
landscape, not unlike earthquakes. As the Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) revolution unfolds in the society as a whole, its impact on the
137

entertainment industry landscape in general and on the Hollywood system in
particular is still unclear: Is this revolution the industry equivalent of the long
overdue “big one”?
As Williams pointed out in his analysis of television as technology and cultural
form (1975), the end result of the impact of every new communication technology
and in this particular case of the ICT revolution will depend on how it is adopted,
modified and ultimately accepted by the different social players involved. In this
evolving environment, it is central to analyze the actions of profit oriented entities,
whose goal is to create, deliver and capture economic value in a digital media and
entertainment landscape. Among the latter ones, the Hollywood studios, the global
leaders in the sector in the last decades, play a pivotal role: As they analyze the
evolving landscape, they can adopt defensive or offensive strategies vis-à-vis the
challenges and opportunities ushered in by the new technology as they unfold and
affect the entertainment landscape.
This chapter analyzes the institutional trajectory of the ICT revolution as it is
impacting the evolving global mediascape and specifically posing threats to the
existing Hollywood’s primacy. It first provides an historical background on how
Hollywood studios have reacted to the major technological changes of the 20
th

century, then focuses on select unique features of the new, digital landscape and their
specific impact on three key dimensions within the media and entertainment
industry: content, conduits, and business models.
138

The unfolding Hollywood’s reactions to the threats and opportunities provided
by new technology are therefore analyzed, as they are an essential component of the
evolving landscape, drawing on theoretical tools from the field of corporate strategy
(SWOT analysis). Specific examples of defensive and offensive strategies adopted in
the landscape are illustrated, among the different potential strategic courses of action
available for old and new players in the media and entertainment industry, within the
evolving regulatory environment. These examples help shed light on the unfolding
changes within the industry, as it is shaped by the technological evolutions and the
actions of key players, the profit oriented media and entertainment entities.
Diverse groups, and their interactions, affect the diffusion of the new technology,
from the consumers / citizens by virtue of the authorized or the rising non-authorized
appropriation and consumption of entertainment, to the nation states and
international NGOs influencing the evolving regulatory environments at national and
global level on different facets of the entertainment landscape, including the
definition and protection of the IPR, whose impact contribute to shape the contours
and boundaries of the field.
The changes in available communication technologies have historically
produced a significant impact on the ways audiences worldwide access and consume
mediated entertainment on the one hand and on the industries providing
entertainment content and distribution on the other, within complex and oftentimes
contradictory dynamics. The intersection of Hollywood and the ICT represents the
139

latest chapter of the history of a complex and oftentimes antagonistic relationship
between the global entertainment industry leaders and the changes ushered in by new
available communication technologies as sound, TV, Video Cassette Recording
(VCR), Cable, Satellite, Digital Video Recording (DVR), and ultimately the Internet.
In fact, historically Hollywood has adopted a complex and to a certain extent
ambivalent attitude toward the emerging media and entertainment technologies, as
they were made available. This complex relationship, with sudden twists and turns,
has little to envy to the classic Hollywood “boy meets girl” genre, in which after the
first occasional encounter between the protagonists (the boy and the girl), the boy
usually loses the girl only to find her later in the third act of the script, leaving
audiences guessing along the way.
Hollywood Meets Technology
On October 1927 Warner Bros. released the feature length motion picture
The Jazz Singer, which featured for the first time, albeit briefly, sound in its musical
sequences and in some dialogues, as it chronicled the story of an American Jazz
musician in the 1920s. The Hollywood studio had been working with Western
Electric to add sound to films for more than a year creating a joint venture named
Vitaphone and it was ready to capture the wave of success stemming form the
“talking picture”, releasing within the following three months the “all talking” short
film My Wife’s Gone, and the feature length motion picture The Lights of New York,
the first true “talkie” in 1928 (Jewell, 2007, p. 91-93).
140

As Jewell points out, the reactions of the Hollywood system to the sound
revolution of the 1920s were mixed, with some entities embracing the new
technology (as Warner Bros.), while others dismissing it as a fad, which wouldn’t
last. In fact, as the first “talkies” were released, accepted with enthusiasm by the
public, Joseph Schenck, then president of United Artists, declared that its company
would not produce “talking pictures” deeming them “not more than public curiosity
in a novelty” and predicting they wouldn’t “last more than four or five months”
(Jewell, 2007, p. 93).
Much to Mr. Schenck’s chagrin though, the sound revolution proved to
provide a long lasting impact on the industry, modifying its existing dynamics for
decades to come. Some players of the silent movie era declined, while others took
advantage of the disruptive element of the introduction of the sound to enter the
market or to expand their competitive advantage. As a result, a new landscape
emerged after the re-equipping costs of the technology were absorbed and new
professionals, whose technical skills were needed in the new medium, permanently
entered the industry. The introduction of other new technologies also produced
different impacts on the motion picture industry, then the central element of the
entertainment sector, in the golden age of Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1940s,
and specifically the introduction of color, special effects and experiments with wide
screens for features (Jewell, 2007, p. 99-112).

141

The rise of television in the late 1940s media landscape also disrupted the
existing dynamics of the industry, with its then revolutionary capacity to broadcast
live images across the nation, providing news, information and entertainment. The
advent and success of the new medium was initially received with mixed reactions
by Hollywood, and oftentimes with antagonism if not open hostility. Some of the top
Hollywood moguls went so far to even advise their producers not to include images
of TV sets, the antagonistic medium, in their movies (Anderson, 1994, p 2).
From their perspective, there were reasons to be concerned about: As a result
of the arrival of television sets in American households movie attendances in theatres
showed the first signs of a significant and irreversible decline
2
at a time when the
new regulations enacted by the Paramount consent decree in 1948 were forcing the
studios to dismiss their interests in the exhibition business, preventing them from
taking advantage of the synergies provided by vertically integrated structures as in
the golden era of the two preceding decades. Once the relevance and permanence of
television in the entertainment landscape became apparent, the studios actively
pursued different strategies
For example, in the 1950s Paramount attempted to appropriate the new
medium or in alternative develop non-broadcast uses of television, as theater
television and originated the first pay TV experiments (White, 1990). Ultimately
though, and not without hesitations, Hollywood studios decided to establish specific
divisions to produce original television programming, as in the case of Warner Bros.
142

in 1955 (Anderson, 1994, p. 157) and eventually licensed their feature-length motion
picture libraries to the TV networks (Balio, 1990). The slow and tardive adoption
from the Hollywood studios of the new medium TV has been identified by Levitt
(1975, p. 3) as a classic example of “marketing myopia” on Hollywood studios’ part,
not understanding the specific business they were in.
Their fundamental misunderstandings of the competitive landscape were
based on wrong perceptions of the needs of the entertainment market on the one
hand and the specific resources and know-how they had already developed over the
years in the motion picture business and their applicability in the new medium
environment. In other words Hollywood studios were too product-oriented,
considering themselves only as movies makers, as opposed to customer-oriented and
realizing that the TV was poised to offer similar products to the same audiences and
therefore positioning themselves as 360 degrees entertainment providers.
Other significant changes occurred two decades later, when the new
technologies of cable antenna TV and satellite platforms started to show their
potential in the entertainment landscape. In fact, new TV channels as Home Box
Office (HBO) were made available through these platforms in the mid 1970s. Their
initial success signaled the existence of specific interest for TV programming beyond
the offerings of general broadcast networks. Consequently, the studios entered the
arena, albeit a few years later in the early 1980s, establishing a direct presence in the
new medium forming a new pay TV service, Premiere (Hilmes, 1990).
143

Furthermore, when video recording devices became available for
entertainment consumption in the late 1970s, Hollywood studios initially deemed the
device dangerous and responsible for copyright infringement of their intellectual
properties. In 1984 Universal, acting on behalf of all the Hollywood studios against
the producer of Betamax, sued Sony Corporation, the consumer electronics
conglomerate (the Sony vs. Universal case). The studios alleged that the practice
violated existing copyright and would severely damage the entertainment industry,
and as a result the Video Cassette Recording (VCR) devices could not be allowed to
operate in the home entertainment market.
Also, the MPAA presented arguments against the new technology and its
negative impact, on the industry and society at large, in the public arena. MPAA’s
president Jack Valenti told US Congress that this phenomenon would “adversely
impact on the creative community in this country”, pointing out “the devastation on
the after-marketplace caused by the hundreds of millions of tapings” and calling the
video recording industry “the Boston Strangler of the American film industry” (US
Senate, 1982, pp. 459-485).
The legal battle lasted eight years to be finally resolved by the Supreme
Court, reversing the prior decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, and
declaring the consumer electronics companies not liable for the potential copyright
infringement made possible by their products (Lessig, 2004, p. 76-77). This judiciary
decision had an impact on the media and entertainment industry. In fact, more than
144

20 years after the verdict allowing the devices to be sold and utilized in the
entertainment industry, the revenue streams generated by the home entertainment
divisions of the Hollywood studios are among the largest and more profitable within
their existing business models. The impact of this intervention had also other
repercussions: On the one hand it regulated and legitimized the videocassette market
Hollywood studios appeared wanting to stifle in its infancy, while on the other the
battle for the standards became a crucial issue.
It is worth noticing that in a competitive landscape with increasing returns,
the “tendency for that which is ahead to get further ahead, for that which loses
advantages to lose further advantages” (Arthur, 1996, p.100), the early gains of the
standard VHS created the phenomenon of path dependence (David, 1985). In fact,
once a standard is set and locked in, barriers to change automatically arise in a
competitive landscape as a result of the inherent switching costs associated with
eventual modifications of existing standards, even if new competing ones would
deliver better products, services of performances. Consequently the standard VHS,
not necessarily the better one compared to the rival Betamax, became the only
standard, not unlikely the QWERTY keyboard surviving from typewriters to
computer terminals.
3

A similar standard battle has been unfolding at the turn of the 21
st
century in
the high definition Digital Video Disc (DVD) market, with two competing and
incompatible standards, Blu-Ray from Sony and HD DVD from Toshiba. Sony,
145

which lost the previous home entertainment standard battle with its Betamax format,
now owns the Hollywood studio Sony Pictures (including the brand Columbia
Pictures) and in 2008 has officially “won” the high definition standard competition
with the Blu-Ray format this time, having Toshiba decided to withdraw its HD DVD
format, after the majority of the Hollywood studios decided to opt for the competing
standard (Frankel, 2008a).
This represents a major strategic achievement for the Japanese consumer
electronics conglomerate Sony (Fritz, 2008b), which decided to enter the
entertainment business in 1989 through the acquisition of the Hollywood studio
Columbia Pictures with the intent to leverage digital media content and electronic
devices, as the first signs of convergence were appearing at the horizon of the global
media and entertainment landscape.
The historical analysis of the relationship between Hollywood and the
evolving communication technologies in the 20
th
century also provides useful
insights for the entertainment industry landscape affected by the ICT revolution at
the turn of the 21
st
century. Among the different potential strategic courses of action
available, Hollywood studios appear to have adopted historically mixed strategies,
and modified them over time vis-á- vis evolving new communication technologies,
as their effects were unfolding in the media and entertainment landscape as a result
also of regulatory forces, or lack thereof. In general, the past technological advances
applicable to communication and entertainment in particular have ultimately proven
146

beneficial for Hollywood, albeit not without lengthy, painful and costly
reorganizations and adjustments on their part and oftentimes with delayed effects,
due to Hollywood’s initial resistances, when adopting defensive strategies, to the
new technologies as they were unfolding.
Ironically, the revenue streams generated by home entertainment and
television stem from technologies forcibly opposed by the studios as they were
appearing at the horizon of the landscape. Presently these revenue streams are
essential for their profitability and cornerstones of their business models on the one
hand and their strategic global positioning on the other. In fact, each entertainment
product is exploited through a carefully designed shelf-life, including specific
“windows” of exhibition, domestically and internationally, generating a variety of
revenue streams from the same property under copyright, recouping the initial
investment and eventually reaching profits, when successful (Blume, 2004). For
feature-length motion pictures for example, research has shown (Weinberg, 2005),
that the subsequent “windows” of exhibition are essential in generating profits out of
the pictures, as they account for more revenues than the theatrical release (with
generally less costs associated with them).
The ICT revolution is unfolding globally in the 21
st
century society as a
whole and also specifically in the media and entertainment landscape. How will its
disruptive impact affect the landscape, and what is distinctive in this new
technology, compared to the previous technological evolutions?
147

The Impact of the ICT Revolution on the Entertainment Industry
The ICT revolution’s impact on our society is still unfolding. The Center for
the Digital Future at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of
Southern California is at the forefront in the analysis of the different issues
associated with Internet use, monitoring the activities on the Internet, and publishes
an annual report, in 2008 in its seventh year. The longitudinal study surveys and
explores the different trends of this communication revolution as it unfolds in the
US. The findings of their last report to date indicate that the number of hours online
per week spent by Internet users in 2007 is still rising (on average 15.3 hours per
week) and the highest level registered in the research so far (Center for the Digital
Future, 2008, pp. 24, 30). Many of the activities on the Internet can be categorized as
entertainment (pp. 27-29).
In fact, when probed on how frequently Internet users were involved at least
weekly in different activities, they provided the following results for the following
categories, which could be broadly defined as “entertainment”: playing online games
35 per cent, downloading music or listening to online music 31 per cent, searching
for humorous content 25 per cent, and overall Internet surfing without a specific
destination 71 per cent (pp. 27-29). Overall Internet is deemed the most important
media source of information, compared to the other principal media (p. 52). Also, the
access to the Internet occurs increasingly through a broadband connection (p. 36) and
wireless, through both computers and mobile phones (p. 41).
148

The repercussions on the entertainment industry are also unfolding. In an
analog world, content producers, distributors and owners of intellectual property
rights have a clear competitive advantage in determining the timing and to a certain
extent, the nature of the entertainment content proposed to audiences worldwide, as
shown in the analysis of the global competitive advantages, domestically and
globally, of the Hollywood studios in chapter 2.
In the current scenario, as a result of the ICT revolution, the media landscape
is undergoing significant changes as it is poised to become a world of “digital
abundance where any maker of content (films, music, video games) could have
access to the world’s audience through a server based on demand media
environment” (Taplin, 2003, p.1), showing increasing signs of potential disruptive
changes to the existing dynamics of the landscape, which have been regulating the
industry in the last decades, affecting key aspects and dimensions of the
entertainment sector (Benson 2007; Berman, Duffy & Shipnuck, 2006; Eliashberg,
2005; El Sawy, 2005; Ravid, 2005).
In fact, the ICT revolution is facilitating the creation of a landscape where the
role of distribution intermediaries could be lessened and at the same time global
distribution is available to entertainment content producers worldwide. This on going
revolution is beginning to show its impact on the entertainment industry in different
and distinct ways, and calls for an analysis comprising the different facets of the
landscape, jointly and severally. Specifically, the changes in the industry ushered in
149

by this new technology can be analyzed in three key distinct areas of the
entertainment industry: content, conduits, and business models.
These areas represent the cornerstone of the entertainment industry, situated
at the intersection between art and commerce, as they involve the production and
distribution of content by profit oriented entities in a competitive market. The
following analysis will focus on these three aspects, exploring on the one hand the
evolutions of the technology and on the other its specific impact on the entertainment
landscape, with the challenges and opportunities stemming from the unfolding
changes.
Digital Content
The ICT revolution has specifically impacted the entertainment landscape, by
making it possible to produce and reproduce content digitally. In digital format the
entertainment experience can be enhanced through sound and visual effects in ways
virtually impossible in an analog world (Ochiva, 2004). For example, the 3-D
technology (the possibility to show three-dimensional images) is experiencing a
renaissance in the current digital landscape. Also, the possibility to create Computer
Generated Images (CGI), with their enhanced visual impact, has proven instrumental
in the rise in popularity of feature length animation pictures, as the success of Pixar
has shown.
Pixar Animation Studios was founded in 1986 by Steve Jobs and has been at
the forefront of the wave of the commercial and critical success of CGI animated
150

feature films worldwide in the last decade. Their movies have in fact won both
Academy awards and topped worldwide box office charts, as estimated by the trade
journal Variety, with movies like Finding Nemo ($864 M gross revenue worldwide
and Academy award winner for best animated feature in 2003) and The Incredibles
($631M gross revenue worldwide and Academy award winner for best animated
feature in 2004).
Also, a specific unique feature of digital content is its capability to be
interactive, allowing therefore an active audience to engage in the creation of the
piece of entertainment being generated, unlike traditional, analog transmission from
one to many. Specifically, within the entertainment industry, interactive
entertainment is gaining importance: US computer and video game software sales
grew to a record $ 7.3 B in 2004, more than double their sales since 1996 (The
Entertainment Software Association ESA, 2005), while a similar amount of revenues
is generated by theatrical exploitation of feature length motion pictures on an annual
basis, but without the dramatic increase in the last decade. Also, the same report of
the ESA sheds light on the phenomenon and its potential future developments: 75%
of heads of households play computer or video games, the average game player age
is 30, 43% of the players are women, 47% of Americans have purchased or plan to
purchase one or more games in 2005, 53% of game players expect to be playing as
much or more 10 years from now as they do today.

151

In addition to enhancing the entertainment value of the content proposed by
established profit oriented media and entertainment entities, digital technology lends
itself to different and alternative uses. In fact, also the rise of user-generated content
is traceable to the availability of new digital technologies. The phenomenon can be
linked to the what has been defined the rise of a convergence and participatory
culture on a global scale, where fans, bloggers and gamers meet and generate,
modify and appropriate content to share (Jenkins, 2006). The 2006 acquisition of
YouTube by Google, and the magnitude of the price paid for the transaction ($1.67B
for a corporation of 67 employees founded from scratch only one year earlier),
brought to the fore the relevance of this phenomenon in today’s media landscape (La
Monica, 2006). The interaction of fans via YouTube identifies and amplifies the
diffusion of content that matters to specific audiences, who render it more visible in
the process. Phenomena like YouTube appear to bridge the gap between local and
global fans, effectively allowing creative interactions among individuals from
different cultures within an environment of evolving hybridity (Kraidy, 2005).
There are a multitude of different players involved in the process of
aggregating content in the user-generated arena, beyond YouTube, with their specific
and distinct features and competitive positioning. Blinkx (www.blinkx.com) for
example is a San Francisco based company whose goal is to become the world’s
most comprehensive video search engine, including user-generated content. Another
San Francisco based company, Your Truman Show (www.yourtrumanshow.com)
152

attracts personal stories and content from its users. Other companies, as blip.tv
(www.blip.tv) encourage audiences to create their own shows, providing distribution
via Internet, while other entertainment entities are entering the arena, as in the
example of the Canadian Zip.tv (www.zip.tv) originally an internet distributor of
copyrighted entertainment, whose offering now also includes “members’ videos”.
As this phenomenon unfolds, its repercussions on the 21
st
century societies
globally are being analyzed. Specifically, Jenkins identifies the rise of pop
cosmopolitanism, which he defines as “the ways that the transcultural flows of
popular culture inspires the forms of global consciousness and cultural competency”
(2006a, p.156). Considering media convergence as an “ongoing process occurring at
various intersections between media technologies, industries, content and audiences”
(2006a, p.154), Jenkins specifically focuses on the interaction between two forces:
corporate convergence and grassroots convergence dictating the dynamics of the
evolving media landscape on the one hand and the texts and meanings generated on
the other (2006a, p.155). In his view, corporate convergence leads to concentration
of media ownership, whereas grassroots convergence provides empowerment to the
audiences that actively produce, distribute and consume media content. The dynamic
relations between these two forces, one top-down and the other bottom-up, would
lead to global convergence shaping a new kind of pop cosmopolitanism (2006a,
p.156).

153

Digital technology affects not only the content of entertainment, but also its
distribution, as the digital format lends itself to a variety of new distribution
platforms, unimaginable only a few decades ago. In fact, digital content can be
access to and retrieved by users living in different digital environments: work, home
and mobile. It allows a potentially “always connected” digital lifestyle for
individuals, which can utilize the connection with the outside world for many aspects
of human life, including entertainment.
Specifically, entertainment content in this landscape is usually referred to as
rich digital media, as it incorporates large amounts of digital data, increasing from
music to videos and ultimately to high quality feature length motion pictures. In
addition to digital discs, entertainment content can be transferred, without the
support of any physical product, to audiences’ terminals through the processes of
streaming and downloads over digital networks.
4
The costs associated with the
activities of retrieving and storing digital entertainment content have significantly
diminished in the last decade and forecasts from industry analysts envision further
declines in the foreseeable future, as technological advancements unfold (Berman,
Duffy & Shipnuck, 2006, p. 18). The changes in the delivery of entertainment have
the potential to alter existing industry dynamics, as distribution has been a key
strategic element in the 20
th
century landscape and an essential global competitive
advantage of Hollywood studios analyzed in Chapter 2.

154

Conduits: Changes in the Delivery
The digital revolution is starting to impact the delivery of entertainment
content, and it is poised to determine larger changes in the industry in the following
aspects. First, on the exhibition side of the business, theatres are exploring the shift
to digital projectors (as opposed to the current 35mm analog film projectors)
allowing the associated shift in the content shown to movie goers from analog to
digital. The potential saving for the industry are significant (Culkin, Morawetz, &
Randle, 2006), stemming basically from the abolition of the cost of prints. At this
stage, it is still unclear who will bear the costs associated with the full transition,
between the exhibitors (theatres owners) and the distributors (Hollywood studios).
Considering the costs of the roll out and the periodical upgrade of digital
projectors in the exhibition of movies on one hand, and the box office revenues
generated from the exhibition on the other, the new technology has the potential to
increase the profitability of the industry. In fact it should increase the value of the
entertainment experience of the audience, which could translate into higher ticket
prices. Moreover, the digitalization of movie theatres could generate new advertising
possibilities and new flexible programming opportunities, such as screening live
events for example (Eliashberg, 2005, p. 152). Even if this increase should not
produce additional revenues for the distributors and exhibitors, savings stemming
from this transition should benefit the industry. In other words, this change could
have a positive economic effect even if customers will prove not to be willing and
155

able to whether pay more for the digital experience, or be more inclined to go to the
movie theatres as a result, and the resulting box office won’t change. In fact, digital
projectors do not call for the costly analog distribution of prints, lowering the
distribution costs (Eliashberg, 2005; Culkin, Morawetz, & Randle, 2006).
As a result of falling distribution costs due to savings generated by digital
delivery, profit should rise, even should revenues remain virtually unchanged. As
mentioned, to this day it still remains to be seen who (between the distributors and
the exhibitors) will ultimately bear the costs associated with the transition from an
analog to a digital exhibition. Tensions over this issue have in the meantime slowed
down the digital rollout in the exhibition side of the business (Fritz & McClintock,
2008).
5

Industry leaders and experts have been trying to identify the changes and
impacts of the ICT revolution as it appeared and still unfolds on the media and
entertainment landscape as a whole, beyond the theatrical exhibition of films in
movie theatres, which represent only a fraction of the revenues generated by the
industry. Technically, the combined action of three distinct forces appears to be the
driver of the most significant and potentially disruptive evolutions: the openness of
digital standards, the roll out of broadband services and the rise of many-to-many
networks (Benson 2007, pp. 3-6).
Open standards refer to the nature of protocols in the digital landscape (as
TCP/IP, MP3, JPEG, HTML), which are typically license-free and allow different
156

users to distribute and share digital content on the different available platforms. This
is a novelty compared to previous technologies, as in TV for example, where
different countries would adopt different standards, usually within the protection of
intellectual property rights, creating barriers to entry for new comers and rendering
more difficult for foreign entities, and virtually impossible for singular individuals,
to interact at a global level. Open standards create the preexisting conditions of
global communication at the individual level on the one hand, and of a global market
in the media and entertainment landscape for profit oriented entities on the other.
Broadband services on the Internet are in general defined by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) as “data transmission speeds exceeding 200
kilobits per second (Kbps) […] in at least one direction” (FCC, p.1), other sources,
as the Gartner Inc., a research and advisory firm, consider that “true broadband” is
reached at a level of 10 megabits per second (Mbps), as reported by Moyers (2006,
p.3) and consistent with the evaluations of Baya & Berg at the Global Technology
Center of PricewaterhouseCooper (2003). Between these two extremes, a level of 1.5
Mbps is deemed the minimum level to reach near DVD quality by industry standards
(Baya & Berg, 2003, p.13).
The roll out of broadband has specific consequences in media fruition. In
fact, rich digital content can be delivered in a faster way through broadband,
depending on its level. High network speeds widen the range of applications: While
IP telephony, basic Web surfing and e-mails require only 130 Kbps per second, MP3
157

audio streaming and online PC games call for at least double the amount of speed
(Baya & Berg, 2003, p.13). The music file sharing phenomenon rendered possible by
the deployment of broadband for example has already shown its disruptive effect on
the music industry, with revenues stemming from consumer purchase of music now
in decline and poised to face significant challenges in the foreseeable future, as
pointed out by industry analysts (Amobi & Donald, 2007b).
The delivery of digital entertainment content, including feature length motion
pictures, is also clearly linked to the broadband roll out to guarantee to the audiences
an experience similar to DVDs. In fact, a slow Internet connection renders the
processes of streaming entertainment content not feasible
6
and downloading
painstakingly slow (Ochiva, 2004). As a result, the rise of broadband services has a
direct impact on the consumption of entertainment on the one hand and on the media
and entertainment industry on the other. As Benson puts it (2007, p. 4) the advent of
broadband is for the media industry “as gargantuan in its eventual impact as the shift
from horse and buggy to the automobile.” Its global diffusion is occurring at an
uneven pace at the beginning of the 21
st
century, with some countries in the Far East,
as Japan and South Korea, and Western Europe surpassing the US in this regard,
both in broadband penetration
7
and average speed available
8
(Baya & Berg, 2003,
p.14; Benson 2007, p. 5).
The structure of the Internet itself has shown to lend itself to specific
appropriations by audiences, with a clear impact on entertainment creation and
158

consumption. In stark contrast with previous one-to-many mass communication
technologies, as broadcast TV, the Internet provides an environment where many-to-
many networks thrive. These networks comprise different communities sharing
specific common interests, such as eBay, MySpace, and Facebook. Specifically, the
aforementioned YouTube has over 60 million users globally, offering more than 100
million video streams a day, exceeding the viewership of all the TV networks in the
US combined (Benson 2007, p. 6).
Social networks develop over the available digital platforms, allowing
individual users to share content and experiences related to many human nuances
and niches, oftentimes through user-generated content, whose reach is now
potentially global. Peer-to-peer technologies (P2P) provide the technical support for
many of these activities involving the sharing of media and entertainment content.
These technologies are still evolving. Currently advanced protocols are being
developed increasing networks’ efficiencies in the delivery of digital content.
Specifically the Distributing Computing Industry Association (DCIA) promoted the
creation of the P4P Working Group, involving many of its affiliates and academic
institutions globally, with the goal of improving and optimizing these technologies.
Another specific impact on the global entertainment and media landscape is
the phenomenon of different, Internet based, delivery channels in addition to the
existing “windows” of exhibition described on chapter 2, made possible by the
digital nature of the content and the distribution channels. The phenomenon of TV
159

content available through Internet platforms is usually referred to as Internet Protocol
TV (IPTV), made possible by broadband connections, when they are available. IPTV
potentially disrupts national and cultural boundaries, as it creates a global medium
based on the Internet. Through interactivity, IPTV provides a personalized TV
experience, allowing users to access and save content and potentially modify, create
and share new content, and ultimately altering the user experience with the medium.
Also the development of broadband services for mobile phones allow what has been
defined as “Mobile TV”, providing video and interactive content to mobile users.
Apple’s iTunes platform is emerging as a major player in the digital release
of entertainment content and it is making inroads in the segment of movie digital
downloads, having sold reportedly more than 2 million movies in a landscape where
both Movielink (a joint venture funded by every Hollywood studios except Disney)
and CinemaNow (owned mostly by Lionsgate Entertainment) have so far failed to
take off (Kirsner, 2007). The competitive landscape of digital distribution also
includes many other different start up companies, which can be generally categorized
as video aggregators of entertainment content, whether professionally produced or
user-generated.
Among the new entities in the landscape Joost (www.joost.com) and
Babelgum (www.babelgum.com) have been founded by professionals with previous
successes in the digital environment.
9
They both provide access to, at the time of this
writing, more than 20,000 free shows available through multiple, customizable
160

channels and they also provide their audiences the possibility of participating in
interactive communities: They represent a global alternative to local TV
broadcasters, whenever a broadband connection is available. Furthermore, in the
evolving “video aggregators” landscape, numerous players are appearing at the
horizon: Among the new entities Azureus (www.vuze.com), provides another open
entertainment platform, specifically betting on the high resolution of the content
provided as their competitive advantage.
In addition, Hollywood players are exploring the landscape: NBC Universal
and News Corporation’s have backed the online video joint venture Hulu
(www.hulu.com) and Warner Bros. has developed the WB online platform (Garrett,
2008). Also Hollywood former executives are oftentimes involved in these ventures
as in the case of the video hosting and sharing site Veoh (www.veoh.com), whose
board comprises Michael Eisner, the former chairman of Disney as one of the
investors along with Time Warner.
In an overcrowded profit oriented landscape where few players, if any, are
reaching a profit in distributing entertainment though digital platforms, access to
financing appears to be a key success factor to operate until a future break even point
will be reached, when market conditions and dimensions allow. At that point in fact
an established competitive advantage (and market share) could prove particularly
profitable, should significant portions of the “old” media have migrated to the new
digital platforms.
161

As a result, entities able to raise funds in the global financial markets (or
backed by entertainment conglomerates) have more chances to survive the transition.
In addition, access to entertainment content through strategic partnerships with
content providers, technological advantages (especially if codified in patents), and
attractive and clearly identifiable brands appear to be strategically important to create
a competitive advantage in a fast paced evolving market.
The above mentioned entities appear to have some of these features to
leverage with offensive strategies aimed at testing the boundaries of the field as the
landscape evolves and the changes in the mediascape unfold. Moreover, in addition
to the above mentioned entities, new players are continuously appearing at the
horizon of landscape in the first decade of the 21
st
century, trying to carve out a
space in the evolving industry. The emerging market, with its distinct features
involving both the content and its global distribution, also calls for specific business
models able to capture the value of the entertainment proposed and delivered to the
audiences.
New Business Models
For profit oriented entities, as the media and entertainment conglomerates,
the central question is how to create, deliver, and capture value in the evolving
landscape shaped by the ICT revolution. The strategic decisions involving the
competitive positioning of these companies within the evolving industry value chain
(figure 2, p. 47) determine the business models of these entities, which incorporate
162

the operational structure of their competitive strategies indicating the different
sources of revenue and the costs with them associated. The specific issue for profit
oriented companies operating in the media and entertainment industry is therefore to
determine to what extent the existing business models, which have been regulating
the industry in the last decades are still applicable successfully in the 21
st
century.
In fact, the new digital landscape is ushering in new, particular issues. On the
one hand, digital technology vastly improves the quality of the copies reproduced
and, on the other, the potential speed and reach of their distribution (Ravid, 2005).
Digital copies have the potential of reproducing the original piece of entertainment
without any loss in quality, unlike analog technologies, which diminish it at every
step of the reproduction chain.
10
For example, the quality of the entertainment
experience, both visual and auditory, provided by DVDs available for home
entertainment is vastly superior to the one provided by their analog predecessors (the
VHS cassettes) and it is poised to increase with the diffusion of high definition
DVDs, now that the industry standard has been established (Sony’s Blu-Ray),
providing movie theatre-like experience at home.
Entertainment products are information goods as defined by Shapiro &
Varian: “Anything that can be digitized—encoded as stream of bits—is information”
(1999, p. 3). As such, they are costly to produce, but cheap to reproduce: In fact,
while the cost of producing the first copy can be substantial, the costs associated with
its reproduction are negligible (Shapiro & Varian, 1999, p. 3). Therefore the
163

relevance of the issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and their protection, has
significantly increased as the entertainment content under copyright faces a
potentially global distribution outlet, the Internet. One general approach, suggested
by Price Waterhouse Cooper (Price Waterhouse Cooper, 2005, p.2) is to implement a
corporate strategy of IP value management, as opposed to a traditional approach of
IPR protection, in redefining IP value.
The specific aspects of the entertainment business suggest a different
approach, and call for a specific flexibility from the Hollywood studios, which have
been operating successfully in an analog media and entertainment landscape. A
suggested strategy is “the long tail” approach (Anderson, 2004), shifting the
distribution of entertainment content from mass markets to millions of niches, made
possible, and economically viable, by digital delivery. In fact, the new technology of
delivery allows a more accurate distribution to the individual customers.
It is argued then that “as the costs of production and distribution fall,
especially on line, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-
size-fits-all containers” (Anderson, 2004, p. 2). This move attempts to follow and
capture the interests of a more and more media savvy, active audience, in control of
their entertainment decisions, as the surge also of Digital Video Recording (DVR)
devices, allowing customers to select their content, shows. It is worth noticing
however that Anderson’s intuition of the “long tail” phenomenon in the
entertainment sector has not been confirmed by empirical studies. In fact, a recent
164

longitudinal study by Elberse on movies and music sales data shows no evidence of
any “long tail” trends occurring in the industries analyzed (Elbersee, 2008).
Also, advertising based business models have been widely utilized for
decades in different media (Alexander et al., 2004), not only by “old” media, as
terrestrial broadcasters, radio, television, and print, but also by “new” media. For
example Universal is backing a start-up “Spiral frogs”, whose business model is
based on allowing customers to download songs under copyright for free, and relying
solely on advertising for their revenue (Chaffin & Van Duyn 2006), not to mention
the successful business model of Google, arguably the current most profitable “new
media” company, setting the standards for the market, which is almost entirely based
on advertising sales related to its search engine. Under these business models,
viewers of the medium are offered to advertisers, who in exchange provide a
significant revenue stream to the media outlet to reach the viewers.
The Google case history shows the potential of the impact of the ICT
revolution in the media and entertainment landscape. Founded in 1998 by Stanford’s
PhD students Larry Paige and Sergey Brin, a decade later it is one of the largest
media company in the world and still growing, with revenues of $16.5 B in 2007, vs.
$10.6 B in 2006 (Google Inc., 2008), and a market capitalization, an estimate of its
value based on its stock price and the number of its outstanding shares, of
approximately $179 B as of May 9, 2008 (data from the Yahoo! Finance website,
retrieved on May 9, 2008 from: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=Goog).
165

The articulation of a business model in Information Technology-intensive
sectors calls for specific theoretical frameworks, adapting existing models to the
specific elements ushered in by rapidly evolving and potentially disrupting
technologies. The Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM) at
the Marshall Business School of the University of Southern California utilizes the
VISOR’s business model framework to evaluate opportunities and “unlock the
hidden value in the Networked Digital Industry marketplace”, providing a exhaustive
and comprehensive framework of the key success elements to factor in the digital
economy landscape. VISOR is the acronym of the following components, deemed
essential elements in a networked digital industry: Value proposition, Interface
experience, Service platform, Organizing model and Revenue/cost sharing (El Sawy,
2005).
The model combines the different aspect of a corporate strategy in a digital
marketplace and comprises five elements: the marketing component, identifying the
value proposition for targeted customer segments, the specific internet component,
providing the “wow” interface experience, the technological component, identifying
the appropriate service platforms to enable delivery, the organizational component,
identifying the processes and relationships and the finance component, identifying
the revenue/cost model calculations (El Sawy, 2005). Successful examples, beyond
the aforementioned Google, include the iPod or the RIM Blackberry devices, which

166

implement business models creating a competitive advantage in the digital media
landscape successfully incorporating the five aforementioned elements.
In an analog world the exploitation of intellectual properties under copyright
stems from a carefully planned distribution through subsequent, oftentimes exclusive
windows of exhibition through price discrimination, allowing the content owners to
capture the largest and most diversified revenue streams from the same properties.
The new digital channels available in the 21
st
centuries however have the potential to
alter if not disrupt this mechanism, which represents the cornerstone of the
profitability of the entities operating in the industry. In fact, the distribution on
different digital platforms has the capacity to replicate the timing of the release of the
windows of exhibition, from theatres to Free TV networks.
The digital distribution therefore provides a parallel shelf life for
entertainment content, generating potentially new revenue streams from the same
properties under copyright. Figure 4 illustrates graphically how the digital
distribution channels provide the parallel shelf life for entertainment content
compared to the traditional and planned sequence of the different windows of
exhibition. The duration of the different “windows” of exhibition is in constant
evolution over time. The data reported in the figure, detailing the different windows
and their average duration, stem from Blume’s analysis (2004) and are reported as a
point of reference of the mechanism.

167

Figure 4: The potential impact of the digital distribution channels on the
“windows” of exhibition
Windows of exhibition
Time from the release
• Initial release, usually lasts 3-6 months
• Reference for the other windows success and negotiations
Theaters Theaters
• 4-6 months after theater release (it can last 10 years)
• Purchase and rental of DVDs and tapes
• 8 months after theater release, lasting 2 months
• Provided by cable and satellite carriers in exchange for fee per viewer
• 12 months after theater release, lasting up to 18 months
• Pay-TV networks buy rights to broadcast through cable and satellite
• Approx. 30 months after theater release, lasting 30 months
• TV networks buy rights to broadcast via free TV
Home
Entertainment
Home
Entertainment
VOD/PPV VOD/PPV
Pay-TV Pay-TV
Free TV
Networks
Free TV
Networks
Digital Distribution: Digital Distribution: capacity to replicate most media capacity to replicate most media

At the same time, however, the digital sources of additional revenues impact
the size of the existing ones, not to mention the increased risk posed by the global
increase of non-authorized use and consumption of entertainment content facilitated
by its digital nature and new available digital distribution channels. The media
landscape emerging from the ICT revolution appears to lend itself to a new, digital
shelf life for entertainment content. Entertainment is more and more utilized by
audiences as soon as it is released by its distributors. As a result, distribution
“windows” tend to be shortened by the process or accompanied by a parallel
distribution via different digital platforms, authorized and non-authorized.

168

Therefore, different ways of capturing value from entertainment content are
being explored, some shared with existing business models of “old media” adapted
to the modified digital scenario, others proposing and implementing different
approaches. Advertising appears to remain a key element in the business models of
media companies, new or old. In a digital environment it is a different kind of
advertising compared to the old one-to-many broadcasting media, allowing a more
precise, potentially one-on-one and interactive communication with audiences.
Still, it represents the fundamental connecting link between private entities
through their corporate marketing strategies, both profit and non-profit, and their
constituencies, and as a result the destination of some of their most relevant budgets.
As a consequence, it still constitutes at the same time a vital revenue stream for
media companies. Google’s revenues for example stem 99% from advertising: 64%
from Google websites and 35% from Google network websites, through its AdSense
Programs, while only 1% of their revenues are generated by licensing and other
activities (Google Inc., 2008). Advertising revenues however face specific
challenges in the new landscape, as active audiences utilized new devices as Digital
Video Recording, as TiVo for example, to access their preferred entertainment
content at a time of their choosing. These devices allow audiences to eliminate
advertising from their entertainment experience, and as a result their diffusion
combined with existing devices, as remote controls, have the potential to impact
these revenue streams.
169

The rise of these devices, while the need of consumer oriented companies to
communicate with their customers remains vital, has been generating different ideas
to communicate with the public. Generally, a new impulse to integrate commercial
messages within entertainment content has lead to revitalize corporate sponsorships
of programs or to insert commercial products within the plot of the content proposed
through what is defined as “product placement” both in feature-length motion
pictures and in TV content (Sim, 2007).
In addition, other revenue streams for media and entertainment entities are
explored. They mainly stem from the subscription fees collected from consumers
willing and able to pay directly for entertainment content from different platforms,
whether on-demand or through subscription to premium packages, usually without
advertising interruptions. Oftentimes, a mixed business model is utilized, combining
advertising revenues with subscription fees, as in the case of cable or satellite TV
channels benefiting from this dual revenue streams.
11

In this evolving landscape, industry executives from different corners of the
sector foresee different relevance of these components in their future revenue
streams, as the convergence of the telecom and media industries is unfolding. A
survey of executives conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit within the IBM
institute for Business Value in 2006 reveals that on demand subscription and
entertainment content rental are deemed the most significant revenue streams in the
future by both telecom, network and Multiple System Operators (MSO) executives,
170

while advertising will still play a pivotal role according to network executives. There
are many possible operating ways to implement these different business models, as
shown for example by the report “The end of television as we know it” (Berman,
Duffy & Shipnuck, 2006, p. 9). Their differences depend on the device utilized by
the consumer, ranging from traditional TV sets to PC or mobile devices as iPods, to
the different ways media and entertainment companies attempt to capture and share
revenues as audiences access entertainment content through different platforms.
Generally, subscription or user fees are utilized, usually on a monthly basis, or on-
demand fees, whenever consumers pay for the specific content they demand access
to, with or without advertising.
Also, network executives envision as their main competitive challenges in
the foreseeable future heightened competition from current competitors, but also the
competition from Internet portals and major content owners reaching directly their
consumers (Berman, Duffy & Shipnuck, 2006).
The current business model of the entertainment industry based on the
different “windows” of exploitation is in peril: Hollywood veteran David Weitzner,
former president, Worldwide Marketing at 20
th
Century Fox and Universal Pictures,
predict that the existing “windows” of exhibition, already altered by the ICT
revolution, will ultimately cease to exist, as content providers are bound to consider
the worldwide simultaneous release of entertainment content via multiple platforms,

171

in theatres, at home or through mobile devices as the most effective strategy to
capture value in the digital landscape (Weitzner, 2008).
12

The offensive or defensive strategies of profit oriented entities help shape the
landscape in evolution as a result of technological change. At the same time,
however, other social forces contribute to define the contours of the field, by
determining the regulatory environment modified by new technologies, at a national
and global level. In fact, the regulatory environment also contributes to shape the
global entertainment landscape, as it evolves.
The Regulatory Environment and Issues in the
Digital Media and Entertainment Industry
The regulatory environment and its evolution overtime play a pivotal role in
the media and entertainment landscape. An analysis of relevant historical laws and
regulations and deregulations enacted by US administrations in the sector has helped
us identify, in chapter 2, the impact and the consequences of media policies on the
entertainment industry in the largest world market. Historically, regulations of the
industry (as the Paramount consent decree and the FinSyn rules) appear to have
helped shape the industry usually increasing competition and the diversity and
variety in the production and distribution of entertainment, whereas deregulations (as
the abolition of FinSyn rules and the Telecommunication Act of 1996) seem to have
had the opposite consequences of reducing competition in the relevant markets and
voices in the arena.
172

As result of changes within the regulatory environment, Hollywood’s
landscape have evolved from the studio system of the 1920s to the “merger mania”
of media and entertainment conglomerates at the turn of the 21
st
century. Hollywood
has been ambivalent about regulations; but just as it fought to keep profits threatened
by other technological revolutions, so it appears to do so with the issues generated in
the regulatory digital entertainment environment.
In the current landscape the ICT revolution’s impact on the industry is still
unfolding, affecting the content, the delivery and the business models in
entertainment, and the issue of net neutrality represents the new frontier within the
regulatory environment. In fact, the roll out of broadband is a key feature in
transforming the media industry from an analog scenario to the digital world. It
becomes therefore even more relevant the way our society is structuring the new,
key, delivery channels, in what could be defined a “constitutive moment” (Starr,
2004, p.1) for the society as a whole. In fact, as the telecommunications industry is
experiencing consolidation (Rosenbluth, 2007, p.1), intellectual voices, coming from
different sectors of the society are entering the US public discourse pointing out the
importance of the issue, and the risks associated with a private, corporate, profit
oriented approach to the phenomenon, which could prove painfully shortsighted for
the society as a whole (Peha, Lehr & Wilkie, 2007).
Faulhaber (2007, p. 683) specifically identities three components in the
network neutrality debate: The first is the argument that all Internet “pipes” should
173

transmit all the bits transiting through their delivery systems “without discrimination
or management”, the second involves the application providers, which should not
have to pay broadband Internet Service Providers (ISP) to deliver their services to
the ISP’s customers, and finally the “vertical foreclosure”, that is the magnitude of
the power in the hands of the “broadband ISP incumbents (telcos and cable)”
potentially harming “customers, application providers and innovators” (Faulhaber,
2007, p. 683).
The main issue arising within the debate on “net neutrality” appears to be the
concern that the owners of the delivery pipes might decide not to maintain a neutral
approach when dealing with different customers and different content. The issue
becomes a central aspect to guarantee that the public interest dictates the future path
of this key industry for the 21
st
century economy and society at this crucial juncture,
brought about by technological change. Furthermore, the processes of deregulation
and privatization in the international telecommunications sectors, as illustrated for
example by Thussu in his analysis of the global satellite industry (2006, pp. 81-92),
have raised the dimension of the issue to a planetary scale, with potential significant
impacts on the whole international communication landscape.
The regulatory environment on net neutrality is developing: On August 1,
2008 the FCC has ordered that the cable operator Comcast end what have been ruled
”discriminatory network management practices” (FCC, 2008). In a written statement,
Chairman Kevin J. Martin explained the rational of the ruling in the following way:
174

“Would you be OK with the post office opening your mail, deciding they didn’t want
to bother delivering it, and hiding that fact by sending it back to you stamped
“address unknown – return to sender”? Or if they opened letters mailed to you,
decided that because the mail truck is full sometimes, letters to you could wait, and
then hid both that they read your letters and delayed them? Unfortunately, that is
exactly what Comcast was doing with their subscribers’ Internet traffic” (FCC,
2008).
The relevance of this ruling and its consequences, potentially on a global
level, have not go unnoticed: As the FCC commissioner Michael J. Copps put it
“This is a landmark decision for the FCC- a meaningful stride forward on the road to
guaranteed openness of the Internet”. At the same time the ruling reinstated that it is
in FCC’s interest to protect consumers’ access to lawful content and “blocking
unlawful content such as child pornography or pirated music or video would be
consistent with federal Internet policy” (FCC, 2008, p. 3). The debate on net
neutrality however is far from over: It is worth noticing that in this ruling the FCC
was sharply divided (three commissioners in favor and two against, providing
opposite arguments in their written statements following the ruling) and Comcast is
considering appealing the ruling (Triplett, 2008b).
While court cases were responses to domestic uses of technology, the stakes
are much bigger and the issue changed as the new threat to Hollywood. Interestingly,
the Hollywood system does not appear to have a unified front on the issue. In fact,
175

entertainment labor representatives as the Writers Guild of America publicly
supported net neutrality before the US Senate Commerce Committee, arguing that
Internet represents a key market for independent creators and it should remain such.
On the other hand the MPAA on behalf of the Hollywood studios appears to
have adopted a defensive strategy on the issue, as they oppose attempts to enforce
net neutrality, raising concerns that it might encourage or foster the unauthorized
diffusion of their entertainment content under copyright (Triplett, 2008a). In fact, the
phenomenon of non-authorized diffusion of content is on the rise in the 21
st
century
entertainment environment, rendered more effective and pervasive by digital
technology, which not only vastly improves the production and global reach of
entertainment content, but also facilitates its ubiquitous diffusion even when the
distribution is not authorized by its IPR holders.
The Rise of Non-authorized Diffusion of Entertainment Content
In a Digital Environment
The defense of intellectual property is a major concern for Hollywood
studios, whose business models are based upon the systematic exploitation over time
of entertainment products under copyright. The MPAA, the advocate of the major
Hollywood studios, claims that each infringement constitutes a direct loss of
revenues for these units of profit oriented and publicly traded conglomerates. As a
consequence, the defense of copyright is a cornerstone of the entertainment industry
and in their view of legitimate global trade in general, with every breach encouraging
176

illegal entities and businesses, while jeopardizing authorized and legal future revenue
streams (Sigismondi, 2009). Their basic arguments in their “who piracy hurts”
analysis are that entertainment content is similar to any other manufactured product
and, as such, the owners should be protected accordingly (MPAA 2006b). The issue
becomes more relevant in today’s digital world, which allows significant
improvement in the quality and the speed of the distribution of a copy of
entertainment content, as opposed to previous technologies (from used books to
recorded materials on tape).
MPAA claims that the economic losses incurred by Hollywood studios as a
result of this practice are significant, and social consequences of these illegal
activities are also significant. In fact, their arguments go on pointing out that
“piracy”, as they define each unauthorized copy of entertainment content under
copyright, hurts the society as a whole, whereas, it is suggested, a strong protection
of IPR will encourage innovation and develop better technologies for the society as a
whole (MPAA 2006c). The US administration has been, so far, responsive to the
requests of the media and entertainment sectors in general and the MPAA in
particular. Domestically, more stringent laws have been passed in defining
unauthorized copies as piracy and as federal offenses, in establishing the extension of
the length of the existing copyright protections, and in their enforcement.
Internationally also, the US administration has not taken the issue lightly: A
comprehensive set of actions under the Strategic Targeting Organized Piracy
177

(STOP!) have been taken to prevent counterfeit and pirated goods from circulating,
regardless of their country of origin. It is also a major point in international, and
bilateral, treaties for the US administrations in their foreign trade policies and
agreements (Sigismondi, 2009).
MPAA points out that piracy takes place in the different stages of the
distribution of an entertainment product under copyright, as a result of the new
digital landscape: When the movie is released in theaters, it can immediately illegally
be recorded there with regular camcorders (in what is defined as “camcorder
piracy”). Later in the exploitation chain of the movie it can be illegally copied and
distributed while it enters the Home Video or DVD “windows” of distribution
through optical disc piracy. Furthermore, when the beginning of the television
distribution takes place (typically through the Video on Demand or Pay Per View
format) a satellite theft might occur (MPAA 2004, p. 1). Significant efforts are being
put in place by MPAA, on behalf of its members, to prevent this practice, by
investing in security throughout the process of production and distribution of
entertainment, fostering public education and training, and establishing a hotline for
the US and Canada and to press legislators to act decisively against it.
13
In fact, the
increased diffusion of non-authorized entertainment content by virtue of the new
digital environment in the global entertainment landscape is deemed a major threat
for the leaders of the industry and their overall competitive advantage.

178

The new digital technology, its diffusion and appropriation by the different
societal elements, is ushering in new challenges and opportunities for the profit
oriented entities involved in the creation, production and distribution of
entertainment. As the historical analysis of the development and diffusion of the
different communication technologies of the 20
th
century has illustrated, within the
evolving regulatory environments, Hollywood can decide its course of action vis-à-
vis the emerging technologies and adopt defensive or offensive strategies. In a
similar way, digital entertainment is posing the same question to the entities, new
and old, operating in the landscape and facing the specific threats and opportunities
generated in a digital entertainment environment, so far illustrated.
Digital Entertainment: Threat or Opportunity?
The NBC 2008 Olympics Coverage as Digital Glocalization of Entertainment
As the ICT revolution unfolds and its effects on the entertainment industry
appear to become more and more pervasive, the different entities operating in the
landscape face new, different challenges and opportunities. In the situation analysis
the individual components of the industry face, they attempt to assess their role and
potential interaction with the surrounding environment, and to identify what are the
most effective strategic moves they can adopt to create and sustain a competitive
advantage in the evolving landscape. Corporate and business strategy theoretical
frameworks provide specific analytical tools, as their goal is to successfully create “a
link between the firm and its environment” (Grant, 2002, p. 15).
179

The corporate and business strategy academic conversation is significantly
indebted to military strategies and draws specifically on military terms and literature
(as for instance the corporate strategy revitalization and adaptation of the classic Sun
Tzu’s The Art of War, with the notion of “knowing yourself and your enemies” as
the cornerstone of the successful preparation of a battle). In corporate and business
strategy parlance this translates into the analysis focusing on the internal factors and
external factors as key dimensions to monitor on a regular basis.
A widely utilized tool in the corporate world to conduct a situation analysis is
the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis (Grant,
2002, p. 15-16). This two-step analysis focuses on the internal features (strengths and
weakness of the entity being evaluated) and the external features (opportunities and
threats provided by the environment) and their linkages. The analysis of the internal
features reveals the core competencies of the entity (their specific “know-how”) and
their potential successful adaptability to the evolving environment. At the same time,
the assessment of the external features attempts to shed light on the evolution of the
competitive landscape in the foreseeable future, focusing on the opportunities and
threats the entity operating in the industry faces. As a result of the situation
assessment stemming from the SWOT analysis, the individual entities can establish
their future strategic course of action and positioning in the landscape, linking their
internal strengths to the external opportunities, and/or defending their weaknesses
from the external threats of the environment.
180

Applying the SWOT analysis to the entertainment industry facing the
challenges of the ICT revolution at the turn of the 21
st
century, each entity can adopt
a different strategy, stemming from their assessment of their internal strengths and
weaknesses. In fact, following their internal and external analysis they can determine
two completely different courses of action to create and maintain a competitive
advantage in the evolving landscape, which can be defined as “defensive” strategies
or “offensive” strategies. The defensive strategies focus on the threats posed by the
environment and attempt to minimize their effects on the weaknesses of the entity.
In the entertainment industry new digital environment, these strategies
translate for example into antagonism to net neutrality or into a strict enforcement of
IPR, as illustrated in the previous sections of this chapter analyzing the actions of the
MPAA on behalf of the Hollywood studios. In fact, the strategy of establishing and
enforcing tight regulations, at a global level, on the use of intellectual properties
under copyright attempts to curb the phenomenon of the diffusion of non-authorized
copies of content rendered more effective and pervasive by the digitalization of
entertainment content and its global distribution. The rise of non-authorized
consumption of entertainment, or “piracy” as it is defined by the Hollywood studios,
is perceived as a major threat for the industry leaders, and therefore the MPAA
devotes a large portion of its attention and resources to prevent the diffusion and
development of the phenomenon.

181

The entities operating in the entertainment industry, however, can adopt
“offensive” strategies, focusing on the opportunities provided by the ICT revolution,
and specifically on the potential offered by the digital environment to expand the
boundaries of the 20
th
century analog mass media at a global level. Specifically, they
can take advantage of different features available in the new digital landscape: the
stylistic and aesthetic superiority, the interactive potential, the ubiquitous distribution
capacity, and the spectacular nature of events proposed live in a digital environment.
A specific example of this strategy was offered by the 2008 National Broadcasting
Company (NBC) coverage in the US of the Olympic Games in Beijing. In fact, the
decision of the network to utilize fully the available communication technology to
propose the event to its 21
st
century audience explored and expanded the boundaries
and contours of the media and entertainment landscape. In so doing, network
executives intentionally tested the potentiality of the new media landscape, as they
provided a research lab experiment (Gough, 2008) on an unprecedented scale on the
one hand, while potentially setting the standards for future endeavors in media digital
entertainment on the other.
The modern Olympic Games originated in the late 19
th
century from the ideas
and the efforts of Pierre de Coubertin, who envisioned international sports as a
vehicle to promote international peace (Lucas, 1992). It did not take long for profit-
oriented entities however to envision the commercial potential of the event as a
vehicle to generate business at an international level, creating or expanding markets
182

for a variety of commodities. As early as the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games in fact,
de Coubertin explicitly warned athletes and officials involved in the event to refrain
from associating their activities with profit-oriented entities, one of the first signs of
the rise of Olympic commercialism (Barney, Wenn & Martyn, 2002).
Media coverage plays a pivotal role in the representation of the event itself
and in its commercialization. Originally broadcast only domestically in 1936 in
Germany, due to technical limitations (Barney, Wenn & Martyn, 2002), the Olympic
Games eventually became an internationally televised event. Only in the 1960
Winter and Summer editions (in Squaw Valley, California and Rome, Italy
respectively) however did US TV networks begun to purchase broadcasting rights.
14

Furthermore, starting from the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, US networks
commenced to broadcast portions of the event live (initially limited to the opening
ceremony, only for the East coast of the US), and have been presenting American
audiences live and tape-delayed coverage ever since, treating the Olympics “more as
entertainment than as news” and reserving for them the more lucrative prime time
slots (Moretti, 2005, p. 230).
The rights fees have been increasing on a regular basis, reaching $613 million
and $893 million paid by NBC for the 2006 Winter Games and 2008 Summer Games
respectively (Real, 1998), altering “the shape of the Olympics” (Rader, 1984, p.
159). For the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) reports a total $1.47 B revenues generated by the global broadcasting rights
183

fees. In the magnitude of rights fees paid NBC leads with $793 million, followed by
the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) with $394 million and the Athens Olympic
Japan Consortium (AOJC) with $155 million (IOC, 2004, p. 89), reflecting the
different potentials of their relative domestic advertising and media markets.
The distribution medium itself has become an integral part of the event,
attracting on the one hand large audiences and on the other significant advertising
investments. The magnitude of global audience watching the Olympic Games is
impressive and positions the event close to the soccer FIFA world cup. In fact, the
audience estimates for the opening ceremonies range between 700 million to 1
billion viewers (DeMoragas Spa, Rivenburgh, & Larson, 1995). Furthermore, the
IOC reports that the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics established global records,
reaching an estimated unduplicated audience of 3.9 billion viewers in 220 countries
and territories, compared to the previous Olympic Games in Sidney in 2000, watched
by 3.6 billion viewers. Also, each worldwide television viewer is estimated to have
watched on average 12 hours of the Games over the 17 days of the event (IOC, 2004,
pp. 77-79).
Analyzing the ongoing debate on the relationship between media and sports
in general, and TV and Olympics in particular, Moretti (2005, p. 222) points out the
different existing approaches, which identify the linkages among the two as signs of
either a parasitic or symbiotic relationship. In fact on the one hand media in general
and TV in particular could be seen as parasites of the event, tapping into the
184

spectacle without any significant contributions (Rader, 1984). On the other however,
pointing out the mutual beneficial relationship between TV and sports, other voices
suggest that a symbiotic relationship best describes the dynamics, as they both
benefit from each other, enhancing the media value of the event on the one hand, and
improving the image and increasing the revenues of the media on the other (Boyle &
Haynes, 2000).
NBC’s approach to the 2008 Beijing Olympic appears to have followed a
well-defined offensive strategy, testing the possibilities of the new digital media
environment while at the same time investing resources and efforts to capture value
from the broadcast event stemming from multiple sources and leveraging the
conglomerate’s different media assets. In fact, NBC decided to broadcast 3,600
hours of the Olympic Games across its TV networks in the US (NBC, USA,
MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Telemundo, Bravo and Universal HD) and through the
Internet via the portal NBCOlympics.com (featuring approximately 2,200 hours of
live streaming video), the first live online Olympic coverage in the US, available also
on VOD and on mobile platforms. The move was considered “the most ambitious
single media project in history”, where the live component played a pivotal role
providing “more live coverage from a single Olympics than the total of all previous
summer Olympics combined”, as Dick Ebersol, executive producer of NBC
Olympics coverage and chairman of NBCU (NBC Universal) sports and Olympics,
pointed out (Benzine, 2008c).
185

This strategy fully involves and takes advantage of the available features in
the new digital entertainment environment. Stylistically and aesthetically, through
the its HD channels
15
, the images presented to the American audiences had high
definition digital quality
16
, enhancing the viewing experience of the competitions
presented in an unprecedented way by providing a participation to the event at home
even richer than the one available at the actual location, through replays and multiple
cameras broadcast. Also, through multiple media outlets including the mobile
platform, NBC offered to its audience access to the events from their home, from the
office or “on the go”, fully taking advantage of the digital entertainment ubiquitous
capability to reach viewers.
At the same time audiences could experience the interactive potential of the
digital delivery platforms, by selecting to access one among the approximately 300
events in 28 different sports, ranging from athletics to volleyball (IOC, 2008) at a
time and via the platform of their choosing. Furthermore, the spectacular nature of
the events was enhanced by the live component of many of the competitions
proposed, as NBC strategically decided to provide 2,900 hours of live coverage of
the Olympics (Benzine, 2008c).
The different platforms utilized combined with the diversity of content
stemming from the 2008 Olympic Games provided NBC tools not only to explore,
but also to test the boundaries of the new digital entertainment landscape, as they
combined “old” analog media coverage to “new” digital platforms for the same
186

events. The research possibility of this experiment did not go unnoticed. Alan
Wurtzel, NBC Universal research chief, pointed out the intention of the network to
utilize the different available delivery platforms “in a way they’ve never been used
before” and the fact that “there’s no event that can match this from a research
perspective”, as the conglomerate planned to monitor on a continuous basis who was
having access to what content via which platform throughout the length of the
Olympics (Gough, 2008).
In fact, working with Nielsen Media research, NBC had access to daily
metrics of viewership as the Total Audience Measurement Index (TAMI), combined
with daily surveys of audiences (500 individuals) and a single-source panel of 40-50
people monitored by a passive measurement device owned by the research firm
Integrated Media Measurement to track their exposure to the event, plus an online
survey and two focus groups about the different platforms (Gough, 2008).
Similarly to non-scripted entertainment programmes combining global
formats with local adaptations to generate glocalization of entertainment, NBC
coverage of the 2008 Olympics combined global factors with local adaptations,
taking advantage of the possibilities of the new digital media environment, both in
the content and the delivery of entertainment. In fact, the Olympic Games represent a
truly global event, with virtually every nation or territory in the world in attendance
(and watching): It has been estimated that the grandiose opening ceremony of the
2008 Beijing Olympiad, involving more than 10,000 performers, was watched by
187

approximately 15% of the world population. Estimates of global TV audience varied,
given the fractured nature of the global audience, and relative measures in different
countries. However, a conservative “poll of polls” conducted by Reuters (Goldsmith,
2008) estimated at 1 billion individuals (15% of the world population) the global
audience for the event.
The event proposed by NBC to the American public was adapted to the local
mores and expectations, and specific demographics:
17
The hosts and the content
proposed (all major US athletes’ competitions were covered) reproduced images and
themes familiar to the American public. Also, the TV schedule was designed having
the local audiences in mind, presenting in the US prime time the most significant
events, with tape-delayed coverage, especially for the West coast of the US,
whenever they took place at different times, given the existing time zone difference
with Beijing.
The events proposed varied from the global, as the opening ceremony,
watched in the US by an estimated 35 million viewers or the American swimmer
Michael Phelps’ and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s record setting performances, to
more specific events covering US athletes, whose stories and performances could
resonate more with American audiences, as in the case of the 41 year old swimmer
Dana Torres’ silver medal, or the US gymnastic teams. The events proposed
attracting the most attention, mainly swimming and gymnastics (Triplett, 2008e),
appear to have been those where cultural proximity (Straubhaar, 1991; Trepte, 2003)
188

on the one hand, and national pride (Cohen, 2008) on the other involved local
audiences the most.
The NBC coverage of the 2008 Olympics provides an effective example of
glocalization of entertainment, as the global and local elements were incorporated in
the content proposed. Furthermore, in addition to the classic analog mass media
coverage, NBC fully explored the possibilities available in a digital environment
(interactivity and ubiquity of the delivery), adding a digital dimension to the
glocalization of content, as they allowed a more personal fruition of the events
selected. In fact, audiences could pick their favorite events out of the multitude
proposed and have access to it via a platform of their choosing (at home, office, or
mobile) with interactive capability. The end result could be defined as “digital
glocalization of entertainment”: The content proposed incorporates global and local
elements, enriched by customized elements made possible by the digital media
environment.
NBC’s strategy appears to have paid off: The 2008 Beijing Olympics were
the most watched event in US television history, with approximately 214 million
viewers watching a least a portion of the Games (Levine, 2008). Audiences increased
about 11% compared to the second most watched event, the Atlanta Olympics of
1996. Moreover, the average prime time audience in the US was 27.7 million
viewers, a truly remarkable result especially given the timing of the event, helping
also promote NBC’s fall schedule in the process (Schneider, 2008e). As a result of
189

the record audiences, the network’s advertising revenues stemming from the
Olympics have reportedly exceeded $1B (Levine, 2008).
Evaluating the multiplatform coverage leveraging the different media assets,
NBC president Jeff Zucker pointed out that “the event shows the pipes work”
(Lowry, 2008b), as the different delivery channels appear on the one hand to have
enhanced the primary network coverage, instead of cannibalizing viewers, and on the
other to have provided viewers with different options to access and retrieve content.
By utilizing an offensive strategy in the new evolving digital landscape,
NBC’s 2008 Olympic coverage is facilitating the rise of a new paradigm in the
landscape: the digital glocalization of entertainment. Non-scripted entertainment in
general (including sports events, especially if they are proposed live to their
audiences) appears to lend itself better to an offensive strategy in the new digital
environment, as analyzed also in the previous chapter with the successful global
distribution of Endemol’s “reality TV” show Big Brother, another example of digital
glocalization of entertainment, adapted locally from global formats and delivered via
multiple platforms. Specifically, non-scripted entertainment appears to be more able,
compared to the classic scripted entertainment, to create, deliver and capture value in
the landscape, taking advantage of the possibilities made available by digital
technologies.
In fact, on the one hand non-scripted entertainment shares with classic
scripted entertainment the possibility to tap into the stylistic superiority of digital
190

high definition images (and sound) and the ubiquitous distribution potential of
multiple platforms.

It is worth pointing out though that mobile platforms appear to
provide a better media outlet for short, non-scripted entertainment than for classic
scripted entertainment, as feature-length motion pictures, due to the intrinsic
technical limitations of the platform.
On the other, however, non-scripted entertainment appears to take more
advantage of the new digital entertainment landscape, whose features are the limited,
if any at all, “windows” of subsequent exploitation of content (reducing as a result its
non-authorized diffusion), the possibility to present live spectacular events (worth
watching as they unfold as opposed to a delayed fruition potentially without
advertising with DVR devices) and the interactive capacity provided by a digital
environment.
An Evolving Digital Entertainment Landscape
In an attempt to answer the question posed on page 125 in the introduction of
this chapter about the possibility of the next big earthquake shaking the
entertainment landscape, industry analysts generally appear to concur that “the next
great “earthquake” is coming (but not today)” (Berman, Duffy & Shipnuck, 2006, p.
10), especially for the TV landscape, as a result of two specific drivers of change. On
the one hand from an era of limited content access the landscape is evolving into an
open access environment, and on the other the consumers’ media control has evolved
increasing the shift from passive individuals to more involved agents, or as they put
191

it, from “lean back consumers” to “lean forward consumers” of entertainment
(Berman, Duffy & Shipnuck, 2006, p. 15). As a result of these two combined forces
the landscape is poised to experience long-term disruption of the existing market
dynamics. The end result, however, will depend on the combined actions of the
different players of the landscape, which is evolving as the ICT changes unfold, as
Williams (1975) pointed out.
Their actions and counteractions will help determine the results and the ultimate
structure of the industry at a global level, while new entities are entering the arena
from different angles. The industry leaders can adopt a defensive strategy, focusing
their attention and resources on the threats posed by the new digital environment, as
in the defense of their intellectual properties under copyright or opposing net
neutrality. Or they could decide on a different course of action, fully exploring the
opportunities available in a digital entertainment environment while leveraging their
core competencies developed in an analog media environment, as in the example of
the NBC’s coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, ushering in the new
paradigm of the digital glocalization of entertainment.
At the same time however, new players are emerging in the global entertainment
landscape, building their competitive advantage as they successfully leverage the
possibilities provided by the new environment, with offensive strategies disrupting
the existing status quo. From the distribution side, new media entities are increasing
their relevance, by providing new entertainment experiences to their customers on
192

the one hand and providing potentially interactive customers to advertisers on the
other (and in so doing challenging the existing advertising based media).
From the production side of the industry, non-scripted entertainment
providers, coming mainly from outside the Hollywood system (and specifically from
Europe), compete globally in the TV market and in the new emerging digital markets
and platforms, as IPTV or mobile TV for example, providing potentially interactive
shows, which lend themselves better to be exploited in the 21
st
century media
landscape, where the new paradigm of the digital glocalization of entertainment is
increasingly relevant, as illustrated by the examples of Endemol’s “reality TV”
show Big Brother and NBC coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The
combination of the two institutional trajectories analyzed in the chapters 3 and 4, the
rise of non-scripted entertainment and technological change, has the potential to
threaten the existing Hollywood’s global primacy, illustrated in chapter 2.
Furthermore, the relevance of the changes ushered in by the ICT revolution
on the media landscape has elevated the conversation beyond the economic analysis
of its impact and consequences. In fact, concerns have been raised on the potential
damages for the society as a whole ushered in by technological change in general,
and by the ICT revolution in particular, under the disguise of a more democratic
access to media and the through the potentially misleading promises of audience
participation.

193

The Contradictions and Complexity of the ICT Revolution
In the 21
st
Century Media Landscape
The role of technology in society in general and specifically through the
evolutions of available media has been the topic of different scholarly conversations
and theoretical frameworks, leading some media scholars, as McLuhan, to identify
technology as the key dimension of the landscape (1994). Historically, new
technologies impacting information and communication have ignited expectations
and claims of their potentials in fostering democracy and emancipation, while their
ex-post analysis have usually shown that human design technologies and use had
different purpose and yielded diverse societal results.
Analyzing the theme of technology and society, as it is rendered visible by
media evolutions, some scholars have focused on the potential democratic impact
and consequences of technological change, helping audience / citizens contribute to
media content, and in so doing increasing the freedom and choices of citizens as they
access the available media (de Sola Pool, 1983). On the other hand, other scholarly
voices have pointed out, analyzing specific cases, the role of media technologies, as
satellite television and VCRs, in expanding the primacy of US entertainment around
the globe, and specifically in Latin America, stifling alternative entities and voices
more than providing the freedom of choice envisioned by the aforementioned
scholarly conversations (Mattelart & Schmucler, 1985).

194

The ICT revolution is no exception, raising expectations of a new era in
media participation, as shown for example by the selection of the 2006 Time person
of the year: You (the media user), as “you control the Information Age” since you
can have “your web, your way (Howe, 2007), or by the renewed potential of
alternative media to carve out a specific space in the local / global dimensions of
media landscapes around the globe (Dowining, 2001).
At the same time, however, it has been pointed out in the critique of the
participatory potential of the Internet that it is a “medium rife with contradictions”,
as it can be also considered “one of the drivers of the present hypercapitalistic
system.” Specifically, there appear to be phenomena undermining the participatory
character of the Internet both at the structural – organizational level and at the
individual or citizen level (Cammaerts, 2008, p. 372).
At the structural level, the appropriation of participatory tendencies from the
audience by profit oriented media entities might occur, as in the case of American
Idol illustrated in the previous chapter (Kjus, I. (2009), where audience participation
generates another revenue stream for the programme. At the individual level also,
there is the issue of new surveillance made possible by new communication
technologies, especially related to non-scripted entertainment (Andrejevic, 2009).
Overall, the diffusion of innovations ushered in by changes in communication
technology appears to generate concerns of a media environment with potentially

195

more corporate control, effectively networking the global market system (Shiller,
1999).
Following Straubhaar’s theoretical framework, this study “sees both these trends
at work in a complex, contradictory process” (2007, p. 112). Technology is identified
as a structuring force, and its evolution as an institutional trajectory, impacting
global media flows in key features: production, distribution and business models.
This trajectory brings about change in access to media and provides new choices for
audiences around the globe, while at the same time the economic dimensions
involved in the diffusion of technology have an impact on the structures operating in
the landscape on the one hand and on the final audiences on the other.
The global entertainment landscape is evolving modifying its boundaries and
contours at the turn of a new millennium and it is at a crucial crossroads. New
players are entering the landscape and Hollywood’s global primacy is being
threatened by the two institutional trajectories analyzed in this study, the rise of non-
scripted entertainment and changes ushered in by the ICT revolution, as the rise of
the digital glocalization of entertainment emerges. A global economic downturn is
also unfolding and impacting the global mediascape. The evolving challenges of the
global media landscape are analyzed in the following, and final, Chapter 5, which
illustrates the conclusions of this study.

196

Chapter 4 Endnotes
1
This chapter greatly benefits from my participation to the following events: P2P Advertising
Upfront L.A. DCIA Conference, organized by the Distributed Computing Industry Association (Los
Angeles, October 29, 2007), the Digital Hollywood conference (Los Angeles, October 29-November
1, 2007), the Southern California Information System Researchers Workshop “SC-WISRD Version
2.0” at the Marshall School of Business of the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, June
13, 2008), the “IT, Technology, Telecom, IT Strategy and Consulting” session of the IBEAR 30
th

reunion conference at the Marshall School of Business of the University of Southern California (Los
Angeles, July 18, 2008), and the Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM)
Workshop Series - Understanding the Networked Digital Industry “Disruptive Forces in the
Interactive Digital Media Market Place: Opportunities or Threats?” at the Marshall School of
Business of the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, July 31 - August 1, 2008).
I thank Omar El Sawy, former director of research at the Institute for Communication
Technology Management of the Marshall School of Business; Michael Suman, research director at the
Center for the Digital Future of the University of Southern California; and Martin Lafferty, chief
executive officer of the Distributed Computing Industry Association for sharing with me their data
and research on the topics analyzed in the chapter. Furthermore, I thank Gaspare Benso, senior vice
president finance and planning Home Entertainment International at Paramount Pictures; Jianguo Lin,
director of carrier sales, China Telecom (Americas) Corporation; James Person, chief operating
officer, CDG (CDMA-Code Division Multiple Access-Development Group); and David Weitzner,
former president, worldwide marketing at 20
th
Century Fox and Universal Pictures.

2
These concerns proved correct and foresighted: In fact, between 1946 and 1962 attendances
in movie theatres dropped a staggering 73.4 per cent (Balio, 1990, p. 24).

3
The current keyboard standard is known as QWERTY (from the first letters at the upper left
hand side of the keyboard). This keyboard layout was originated and designed with mechanical
typewriters in mind (involving a set of raised types which would strike a piece of paper through an
inked ribbon). Once the layout became the standard, it remained the standard as a result of the
phenomenon of path dependence, regardless of its effectiveness compared to other competing possible
standards (in fact the following Dvorak Simplified Keyboard or DSK proved to be faster and more
accurate). Also, the QWERTY standard still remains today irrespective of all the new technological
advances which took place in the meantime, leading to computer terminals as opposed to mechanical
typewriters (David, 1985).

4
Streaming occurs when content is transferred across a network without the need of any
local data storage in the users’ terminals, whereas downloads are stored locally.

5
The slow digital rollout of movie theatres is particularly affecting the 3-D animation
segment (Fritz & McClintock, 2008), which greatly benefits from digital theatres, as they enhance the
entertainment experience provided.

6
This is due to mechanism of sending data over the Internet in “packages” to be reassembled
at the receiving end. In a slow Internet environment video and audio would “drop out” randomly and
the movie would not play smoothly (Ochiva, 2004).

7
In 2002 for example, broadband penetration in South Korea was 21.28% compared to
6.89% in the US (Baya & Berg, 2003, p.14).

8
In fact, broadband’s average speed in the US in 2007 was around 400 Kbps to 1 Mbps,
while in South Korea was 10 Mbps and 2-5 Mbps are common in Europe (Benson, 2007, p. 5).
197

9
In particular, Joost was founded by Nicklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the founders of
Skype, then sold to eBay, and the P2P platform Kazaa, while Babelgum was founded by Silvio
Scaglia, one of the founders of Fastweb, the telecom company which launched broadband services
over optic fibers in Italy.

10
As Ochiva points out (2004, pp. 506-507), “analog technology attempts to mimic--or create
an analogy of” images or sounds originated in nature, while digital technology converts them into bits
of information, which can be reproduced ad infinitum exactly as in the original first copy.

11
The value of TV advertising in the US is estimated at $74 billion by Standard & Poor in
2007, (Amobi & Donald, 2007, p. 3) whereas the subscription revenue streams are estimated at $75
billion by Standard & Poor in 2007 (Amobi & Donald, 2007, p. 15).

12
Personal interview with David Weitzner, former president, Worldwide Marketing for 20th
Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Embassy Pictures and Palomar Pictures, conducted on June 26,
2008.

13
The increased awareness of the phenomenon has eventually lead to the Family
Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which made recording with a camcorder in a theater a
federal offense.

14
$50,000 was the amount of the rights fee for the Winter Olympics and $394,000 for the
Summer Olympics paid by CBS (Moretti, 2005, p. 229).

15
NBC decided to deliver 756 hours of HD in its coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games
through its channels NBC HD, Universal HD and USA HD, with many events broadcast live
(Frankel, 2008b).

16
The images in HD were accompanied by simultaneous 5.1 stereo discrete channels of
audio, providing also an unprecedented sound quality (BroadcastingEngineering, 2008).

17
For example the prime time coverage of female beach volley and gymnastics events
intentionally targeted female audiences (Lowry, 2008b), unlike other traditional sports.
198

CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION: THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY AT A CROSSROADS
AMIDST A GLOBAL ECONOMIC RECESSION
Does Hollywood Still Rule the World?
This is the question the trade journal Variety poses to its audience, composed
mainly of Hollywood’s professional community, at the beginning of a report
analyzing the current evolutions of the global motion picture industry (McNary,
2008). The report focuses on the rise of local production of entertainment globally in
the last decade pointing out that the surge of local productions have challenged
Hollywood’s economic leadership in many relevant territories. As a result,
Hollywood studios have increased local production of feature length motion pictures,
expanding their presence in some lucrative markets.
The rise of local productions of entertainment in the global landscape however
reveals only the tip of the iceberg of challenges Hollywood’s global primacy faces at
the turn of the 21
st
century. In fact, in addition to the specific threats posed to
Hollywood’s primacy in the global motion picture business by local productions
worldwide, there are definitely signs that the global entertainment landscape is
evolving: New global players outside the Hollywood system are emerging within the
global entertainment landscape, non-scripted entertainment is increasing its
relevance in the global TV marketplace, and the ICT revolution is unfolding,
specifically impacting the entertainment sector in its content, distribution and
199

business models. These new elements in the global landscape pose specific
challenges to Hollywood’s global primacy in the entertainment business, raising
concerns in the Hollywood community that the global TV production center of
gravity could be poised to shift from the US to new international centers based in
London, Amsterdam, Mumbai and Hong Kong (Clarke, 2007a).
A 2008 report by the investment bank Lehman Brothers, also promptly reported
by Variety, captures the lingering fears affecting Hollywood as it is pointed out that
“the structural shift created by ubiquitous technological change … could also disrupt
the core economic models of the creators of the majority of film and TV content”
(Littleton, 2008). In fact, the technological shifts, and their impact on the
entertainment landscape, constitute a major concern for all the players involved both
in the entertainment sector and the financial community on the East and West coast
of the US, from Hollywood Boulevard to Wall Street.
Hollywood studios have long discovered, not without painful restructuring
processes, to operate not in the narrow “movie business”, but in the larger
“entertainment business”, providing experience, non-excludable, public goods
destined to entertain global audiences. As players, and leaders, of the global
entertainment landscape, Hollywood studios cannot afford a 21
st
century version of
the “marketing myopias” they were affected by in the 1950s, when they ignored, if
not opposed the then upcoming new medium television, or in the 1980s when they
fiercely contested the rise of VCR devices, which ultimately expanded the
200

entertainment market broadening the home entertainment sector. Their course of
actions vis-à-vis the new challenges in the next decade though will prove essential.
An evolving body of scholarly literature on global entertainment has focused on
the various issues generated when entertainment content crosses national borders and
meets locally situated audiences worldwide. Many contributions grounded in
political economy have analyzed the profit oriented entities operating in the
mediascape and specifically the Hollywood system as the global economic leader in
the production and distribution of entertainment, the impact and consequences of this
primacy / hegemony. The goal of the dissertation is to join and contribute to the
scholarly conversation, by utilizing analytical tools drawn from industrial economics,
Porter’s (1980, 1990) “five forces” and “national diamond”, enriched by
contributions from an interdisciplinary approach to assess the drivers of Hollywood’s
global competitive advantage and, within this framework, analyze two specific
institutional trajectories: the rise of non-scripted entertainment and select features
shaping the boundaries and contours of the new, digital landscape of entertainment,
ushered in by the ICT revolution. The analysis draws on primary and secondary
sources and relevant data have been collected, and analyzed for the purpose of this
study. Specifically, a systematic analysis of relevant trade journals, information from
existing secondary sources, and personal interactions with industry professionals,
including unstructured interviews with media and entertainment executives, were
conducted focusing on these two themes.
201

Hollywood’s worldwide primacy in the entertainment sector has relevant
economic, political, cultural, and social consequences on a global scale, as illustrated
by the evolving body of literature on global entertainment. A shift within the market
dynamics impacting Hollywood’s competitive advantages could affect diverse key
dimensions within the evolving global landscape. The dissertation analyzes specific
potential threats to Hollywood within the “old media” paradigm, the rise of the new
wave of non-scripted entertainment, and select aspects ushered in by the ICT
revolution with their challenges and opportunities, while at the same time
acknowledging the potential negative impacts of these institutional trajectories (as
the issues of surveillance, labor disputes, monetization of audience participation,
etc.). This final chapter illustrates the conclusions of the study and its limitations,
suggesting future research trajectories as the global entertainment landscape evolves.
The global entertainment industry is at a critical crossroads, as the global economy is
experiencing a recession: The actions and reactions of the profit oriented entities will
shape the boundaries and contours of the entertainment landscape impacted by
technological change.
New Challenges and Opportunities Unfolding in the
Global Entertainment Landscape
The Drivers of Hollywood’s Global Competitive Advantage
For the purpose of this dissertation, Hollywood is defined as the system of
the US entertainment industry revolving around six major companies (the
202

Hollywood studios) associated in the Motion Picture Association of America
(MPAA), and at the turn of the 21
st
century all part of large, vertically integrated,
media and entertainment conglomerates. The US entertainment industry has the
global primacy in the sector, providing leisure time products and services for
audiences around the globe.
This study draws on theoretical frameworks from industrial economics to
analyze first the structure of the US entertainment sector, and subsequently its global
competitive advantage. Specifically, drawing on Porter’s (1980) “five forces of
competition” theoretical framework the following dimensions have been analyzed
within the US entertainment sector: the competition and rivalry among the existing
firms within the industry, the bargaining power of the suppliers, the bargaining
power of the buyers, the threats posed by new entrants, and threats posed by
potential substitutes (Figure 1, p. 42). Utilizing this framework, the structure of the
US entertainment industry emerges as a cluster of competing firms: an oligopoly of
six entities, the Hollywood studios, which solidly share the economic leadership in
the domestic competitive landscape focusing mainly on the financing and
distribution aspects within the entertainment industry value chain.
Moreover, to determine the drivers of Hollywood’s global competitive
advantage, and drawing on Porter’s “national diamond” theoretical framework
(1990), four specific conditions have been analyzed, jointly and severally in the
entertainment landscape: factor conditions, demand conditions,
203

strategy/structure/rivalry conditions and relating / supporting industry conditions.
The combination of these elements explicates Hollywood’s global competitive
advantage. As shown, the “national diamond” mechanism (Figure 3, p. 56) generates
a virtuous cycle among the four conditions analyzed where each element contributes
to build and maintain the economic leadership of the industry vis-à-vis external
competitive factors and entities.
New challenges and opportunities are unfolding in the global mediascape at
the turn of the 21
st
century however, driven by multifaceted changes taking place,
potentially affecting Hollywood’s global competitive advantage previously analyzed.
Within these challenges and opportunities generated in the evolving global
entertainment industry, the dissertation analyzes two specific institutional trajectories
affecting the global mediascape with the potential of altering the existing status quo
and in particular Hollywood’s global primacy: the rise of the new wave of non-
scripted entertainment and select features shaping the boundaries and contours of the
new, digital landscape of entertainment, ushered in by the ICT revolution.
The Global Rise of the New Wave of Non-scripted Entertainment
The rise of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment in the prime time
schedules of TV networks worldwide constitutes a disruptive change in the global
entertainment landscape, dominated in the last decades by the Hollywood system.
The success of non-scripted entertainment stems from a variety of factors, which
operate jointly and separately. Non-scripted shows are extremely adaptable locally
204

and they follow the proven success of the formula “think globally, act locally”
utilized by marketers of various categories of products distributed internationally by
transnational corporations. An example of this phenomenon is shown in the analysis
of the successful local adaptations of the “reality TV” global format Big Brother, one
of the most relevant programmes within the new wave of non-scripted entertainment.
As in this case, there are three levels of factors activated by the successful
adaptation of global shows: global, local and “glocal” factors (Cooper-Chen, 2005).
In so doing, the new global players (in this case, the Dutch-based global media
conglomerate Endemol) appear to adopt international marketing techniques
developed over the last decades, as pointed out by Iwabuchi (2007) and Straubhaar
(2007), who situate the phenomenon of glocalization, the local adaptations of global
entertainment content, within the successful Japanese international marketing
tradition of adapting their consumer products to the different local markets,
whenever possible and economically viable.
As a result, compared to foreign-generated scripted entertainment, non-
scripted programmes appear to be the ones with potential higher cultural proximity
and linguistic affinity (Straubhaar, 1991; Trepte, 2003), narrative transparency
(Olson, 1999) for local audiences, and they can be preferred to foreign fare even
activating national pride (Cohen, 2008), as the process of adaptation to local
audiences is an intrinsic element of their media texts. Furthermore, these are
nowadays accessible globally just like any Hollywood production, being distributed
205

by global conglomerates, while being “psychologically accessible” (Kats & Liebes,
1990, p.5). Also, these programmes have more interactive potential than scripted
entertainment, potentially contributing to participatory culture phenomena (Jenkins,
2006a), as they oftentimes allow audience to participate in determining the outcome
of the show as it unfolds: In so doing they are better able to capture value from
participative audience activities, whenever they occur, as illustrated in the analysis of
the business models of the global new players, the European conglomerates Endemol
and FremantleMedia.
Furthermore, non-scripted programmes can be offered “live” to audiences
(especially by network TV), and as a result they can create a “TV event” to be
experienced as it unfolds, even in the age of TiVo and DVRs. They also provide in
general a better vehicle for advertising, which remains a significant revenue stream
in the 21
st
century business models of profit oriented media conglomerates. In fact,
they can successfully incorporate product placement and sponsorship of the
programmes on the one hand and they lend themselves to networks’ cross promotion
communication strategies on the other. They can do so far better than scripted
entertainment, which is based on closed and predetermined narrative structures.
Also, in the inherently risky business of creating and distributing
entertainment content to diverse audiences, adapting locally successful global shows
diminishes the uncertainty and increases the chances of replicating their success in
markets where the demand is volatile and difficult to predict. Industry executives
206

also attribute their success mainly to their versatility and adaptability from a business
point of view on the one hand (Moran & Malbon, 2006, p. 9) and their unpredictable
nature while reproducing familiar narrative mechanisms to attract large audiences on
the other (Littleton, 2004). As a result, television formats can be defined as the
“television new engines” and an effective “response to the challenge of globalization
and a consequence of fractured demand for finished programming” (Keane &
Moran, 2008, p. 167).
In fact, television formats allow glocalization, as “television is
simultaneously global and national, shaped by globalization of media economics and
the pull of local and national cultures” (Waisbord, 2004, p. 359). They also have
economic availability (Katz and Liebes, 1990) in the age of globalization: As
analyzed, the global leaders of this new wave of non-scripted entertainment are
European based global entities operating within large media and entertainment
conglomerates, as Endemol and FremantleMedia, operating with subsidiaries and/or
joint ventures in the most relevant international markets.
The new global entertainment entities challenge Hollywood in the US and
globally, with the formula of global formats adapted locally, with a better chance to
capture value of their properties in the digital environment. In Porter’s “five forces”
theoretical framework (Figure 1, p. 42) they represent a major threat posed by new
entrants and substitutes of entertainment, as Hollywood studios’ presence in non-
scripted entertainment is marginal, within global TV markets including the US. In so
207

doing, under Porter’s “national diamond” theoretical framework (Figure 3, p. 56), the
new entities undermine the drivers of global competitive advantage, specifically
impacting the demand condition (as they successfully have made inroads in the US
TV market).
Within this framework, the successful distribution of non-scripted entertainment
impedes the mutually reinforcing system of the national diamond conditions in the
marketplace, which would amplify Hollywood’s global competitive advantage, and
the new entities effectively compete with Hollywood productions in prime time
schedules of broadcasters around the world.
Overall, the rise of non-scripted entertainment appears to be an aspect of a larger
trend affecting many consumer oriented industries at the turn of the 21
st
century.
More sophisticated and savvy consumers appear to be increasingly inclined toward
and motivated by a quest for authenticity as they make their selection among
different products to satisfy diverse needs (Gilmore & Pine, 2007). To try and
capture this demand for authenticity arising from consumers, marketers are
increasingly proposing products or services providing “real experiences”, made with
“real fruit”, based on “real Italian recipes”, etc. (Gilmore & Pine, 2007). The
“commercially sold reality”, as this phenomenon unfolding in many consumers’
markets can be defined, is an attempt from profit oriented entities to paradoxically
render “commerce less commercial” (Gilmore & Pine, 2007, pp. 10-12) in order to
attract audiences born and raised in a media environment characterized by aggressive
208

and ubiquitous marketing campaigns, and therefore less receptive of or permeable by
classical marketing communication techniques. The success of the diffusion of non-
scripted entertainment therefore could represent another facet of consumers’
reactions to what is perceived to be commercial entertainment.
In fact, the quest for authenticity appears to have extended also to the demand for
entertainment, once mainly the destination landscape for fantasy, mood management
or escapism in our society. The narrative elements however appear to remain
essential in non-scripted entertainment, albeit delivered differently through editing
and a combination of formats, casting of non-professional individuals and local
adaptations. This element is clearly perceived by industry professionals: As Lisa
Vebber, senior vice president program planning and scheduling NBC Entertainment,
puts it “people are interested in stories, scripted or non-scripted” (Vebber, 2008).
1

There is a specific Achilles’ heel for non-scripted entertainment however: The
cornerstone of the appeal of these productions lies in their perceived authenticity,
which makes the unpredictability of the outcome of the events presented potentially
riveting as in live sports event and the emotions and social interactions of the
protagonists interesting. These shows generate a spectacle audiences can relate to
and feel compelled to emotionally participate in. Absent this element, there would be
a diminished interest in watching non-professional individuals perform a badly
conceived script.

209

In addition, some of these shows allow interactivity with their audiences, also
enhanced by the digital environment: Audiences therefore have their say in selecting
who wins the competition, as in American Idol, or they can participate in the events
as they unfold, as in the case of 2007 US season’ Big Brother where a contestant, the
so called “American player” secretly followed the instructions of the audience in his
behavior and actions in the competition. A loss of perceived authenticity therefore
could significantly undermine the appeal of non-scripted entertainment and could
even reproduce a 21
st
century version of the “Van Doren” effect, similar to the quick
and sudden distaste for the genre, which occurred as a result of the quiz scandals of
the 1950s in the US.
Also, another issue at the horizon for the non-scripted entertainment players
is the applicability of copyright laws and enforcement for TV formats. Scripted
entertainment as well is facing significant challenges in a digital environment, where
copies of entertainment content can be duplicated by unauthorized users without any
loss of quality, and without producing any revenue stream for its owner. In non-
scripted entertainment however, the issue appears to lie in the definition of the
product “format”, its boundaries and potential legal protection for the owners
(entities like the aforementioned Endemol and FremantleMedia) and licensees (as the
TV broadcasters) towards third parties.
As illustrated in Chapter 3, many scholarly voices have raised concerns
regarding the “dark side” of non-scripted entertainment, and specifically the
210

dangerous allure and risks of “reality” and of audience participation, as it is proposed
by non-scripted entertainment to its audiences (Murray & Ouellette, 2009; Kjus,
2009), and labor issues associated with the new genre (McMurria, 2009).
The Impact of the ICT Revolution on the Global Entertainment Industry
The dissertation analyzes the unfolding impact of the ICT revolution on the
global entertainment industry as an institutional trajectory impacting the mediascape.
First it provides a historical background of Hollywood’s complex and oftentimes
ambivalent reactions to the major technological changes of the 20
th
century, which
have helped shape the contours and boundaries of the global entertainment
landscape. Subsequently, the analysis focuses on a trajectory of the ICT revolution
and its specific unfolding impact on three select key dimensions within the media
and entertainment industry: content, conduits, and business models.
This technological revolution is ushering in significant changes, modifying the
existing business paradigms of the industry, which have been operating on a
carefully designed “shelf-life” of entertainment in the last decades. Hollywood’s
reactions to the unfolding threats and opportunities stemming from the new
technology, within the evolving regulatory environment, constitute an essential
component of the evolving landscape, which is shaped by the technological
evolutions and the actions of key players, the profit oriented media and entertainment
entities.

211

Within this framework, the ICT revolution appears to be the last chapter of a
century long complex and ambivalent relationship between Hollywood and new
communication technologies applicable to the entertainment landscape, as they are
made available. In general, defensive strategies vis-à-vis new technologies have
proven historically shortsighted, as in the cases of the introduction of sound, TV or
videocassette recording for example. In fact, these new technologies initially fiercely
opposed by key elements within the Hollywood system, turned out to provide
subsequently essential revenue streams for the entertainment industry and to
represent pivotal components of its global competitive advantage.
The uniqueness of the ICT revolution’s impact on the entertainment landscape,
compared to previous technological changes, is that it affects the industry at a global
level on three key aspects: the content of the entertainment proposed, its conduits
through multiple delivery platforms, and it raises the necessity for new business
models to capture value in a digital environment where the shelf-life of
entertainment is significantly altered.
In fact, as a result of digital technology, the quality in the entertainment
experience is enhanced both in movie theatres (through standards as THX, Dolby,
Special Effects, Digital projectors, etc.) and at home (with Digital TV – DTV, High
Definition DVD, etc.), adding also a potentially interactive dimension between the
audience and the entertainment content proposed. In addition, new, ubiquitous digital
distribution channels (reaching audiences at work, at home, or “on the go”) increase
212

the need for entertainment content, utilized potentially in different, on demand, ways
by individuals.
2

The new distribution platforms are introducing disruptive elements to the
existing industry paradigms. Potentially they can eliminate distribution bottlenecks,
providing global distribution outlets to multiple content providers. Also, the digital
revolution transforms and redefines the relationships between the consumer, the
advertisers and the media platforms, key element in the media business models of the
20
th
century and at the turn of the 21
st
century.
3
Advertising plays a pivotal role in
the new platforms, allowing the fusion of entertainment, marketing and content, as in
the phenomenon of product placement. Non-scripted entertainment appears to lend
itself more to these fusions, some originating from the past and adapted to the new
medium (as in the case of product placement), whereas others are innovative and
specific to the new environment.
4

Historically, Hollywood as a system has always emerged reinvigorated, not
without painful internal restructuring processes, from the technological changes of
the 20
th
century. In the evolving landscape, Hollywood has the capacity to constantly
provide new content and to draw from vast libraries to satisfy global entertainment
demands, once it figures out specific ways to create, deliver and capture value in the
digital environment.
New business models appear necessary though, combined with effective
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection. In fact, ownership of entertainment
213

content remains a strategic asset insofar the copyright owners are protected, in an
environment where a duplicated copy has potentially the exact quality of the original.
As a result, it becomes central the issue of “piracy” and Digital Rights Management
(DRM) to protect content under copyright from unauthorized uses and competing
with free available content, unauthorized or user-generated.
5

As Anderson (2006) suggests, large size distribution structures might not be
the only way to operate in the entertainment landscape, as the “long tail effect”
would determine the rise of new niches in complex market ecosystems. Overall, the
system of subsequent, mostly exclusive “windows” of exhibition to present
entertainment content to audiences worldwide appears to be in peril, as the new
digital environment determines a new digital shelf-life for entertainment content on a
global scale (Figure 4, p. 152).
This study situates its analysis within the complexity and contradictions of
the ICT revolution in the 21
st
century media landscape following Straubhaar’s (2007)
“complexity theory” approach. On the one hand this technological change has
ignited expectations and claims of its potentials in fostering democracy and
emancipation, as historically other emerging technologies. On the other, there are
signs undermining the participatory character of the new technology and potential
new risks, as surveillance (Andrejevic, 2009) and more corporate, profit-oriented,
control (Schiller, 1999; Cammaerts, 2008).

214

Overall, affecting content, conduits and business models of the entertainment
industry, the ICT revolution appears to be a game changer for the global
entertainment landscape, affecting the existing drivers of competitive advantage
analyzed within the theoretical frameworks of “five forces” and “national diamond”,
while its impact is unfolding at the turn of the 21
st
century.
Limitations of This Study and Future Research Trajectories
The issues originating in the evolution of the 21
st
century global
entertainment landscape are multifaceted and complex, unveiling a mosaic of
different themes in a contested media space. The dissertation’s goal is to join the
ongoing scholarly conversations by contributing to the understanding of select issues
unfolding in the global mediascape. The limitations of this study involve both the
objects of the analysis and its research foci within the global entertainment
landscape, and as a result the methods utilized. In fact, the dissertation analyzes only
two institutional trajectories at a specific moment in time, tracking their evolutions
mainly over the last decade and, when deemed relevant, a brief historical background
is provided. The two institutional trajectories analyzed, the rise of the new wave of
non-scripted entertainment and the unfolding impact of the ICT revolution, expose
potentially relevant threats to Hollywood’s global competitive advantage, which
constitutes a key aspect in the global mediascape.
Other threats to Hollywood’s primacy are developing though, as new
substitute products of entertainment are emerging in the global landscape. Among
215

these substitutes for example, there has been an increase in relevance of user-
generated content, made available globally by digital channels of distribution. This
phenomenon is also changing the paradigms of the industry, as it facilitates the rise
of the prosumer (producer +consumer) of entertainment, altering the previous
distributor-consumer dynamics, which have regulated the industry in the 20
th

century.
Furthermore, as a result of the ICT revolution, the interactive media industry
has rapidly expanded and occupies a significant position in the shares of audiences’
time and wallets, showing also signs that audiences are willing and able to pay to
have interactive access to entertainment content. These phenomena, the rise of user-
generated content and interactive media in the global mediascape, have also
introduced new profit oriented entities, situated outside of the Hollywood system, at
the forefront of the global entertainment landscape, with their distinct specific
competitive advantages.
6

In addition, as pointed out by Thussu (2007), the global landscape is
witnessing the rise of other contra-flows of entertainment within the scripted
entertainment landscape above and beyond the Atlantic corridor. At the turn of the
new millennium, many of the international flows of entertainment content are being
increasingly originated outside the main US-Europe axis. Some of these flows
originate from the South of the world (as in the phenomenon of the

216

transnationalization of telenovelas, distributed internationally and oftentimes adapted
locally, as in the case of Ugly Betty).
Originating as local adaptations of the US soap opera developed by consumer
products giants Procter & Gamble or Colgate-Palmolive, telenovelas have evolved
into a distinct genre produced and distributed internationally by Central and South
American media and entertainment conglomerates like the Brazilian TV Globo.
(Rêgo & La Pastina, 2007). The export of these entertainment artifacts to the
Western hemisphere constitutes a contra-flow of entertainment, contributing also to a
“reverse colonization”, as in the example of the Brazilian telenovela Gabriela
distributed successfully in the former colonial power Portugal (Lopez, 1995). Other
relevant phenomena originate from the Middle East (as the Qatar-based pan Arabic
channel Al-Jazeera or the Tunisia-based Nessma TV) taking advantage of new
regional distribution platforms, as satellites. The distribution via satellite platforms
allows other entities to reach pan Arabic audiences across national borders, as for
example Abu Dhabi TV and the Dubai-based network al-Arabiya.
The East of the world has been increasingly active in the last decade in the
production and distribution of entertainment content in the global audio-visual
sector. The flow of entertainment generated in Asia is increasingly posing
significant, distinct challenges to Hollywood’s global leadership. Specifically, Japan
has been the origin of different global entertainment phenomena, ranging from
animation (as the TV series Sailor Moon, Pokémon and the feature-length movie
217

Spirited Away) to global TV formats (as Ryouri no Tetsujin, adapted in the US as
Iron Chef) expanding well beyond the East Asian regional media markets (Iwabuchi,
2007). South Korean exports of entertainment have increased, generating what has
been referred to as Hallyu (Korean wave), including TV dramas, films, games and
recorded music distributed regionally and globally (Kim, 2007). The transnational
mobility of South Korea TV drama especially is remarkable: In fact TV series are
successfully distributed regionally in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and even
North Korea, and globally in the Middle East and in the Americas (Kim, 2007).
The Indian entertainment industry’s global relevance has increased in recent
years: In fact “Bollywood”, as it is oftentimes referred to, produces the highest
number of feature-length pictures in the world, distributed locally and regionally, in
the Middle East for example, and in other places with a hostile disposition toward
Hollywood and the US in general (Govil, 2007).
Also, the “peaceful rising” of the PRC in the global communication agora in
the last decade (Thussu, 2006) is clearly poised to impact the global entertainment
landscape. Films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hero (2003) shot
in the China have projected abroad on the one hand images of the rising economic
and political power and on the other are contributed to increase the relevance of the
emerging Chinese entertainment industry.
7
As a result, Asia in general and China in
particular pose potential challenges to Hollywood’s global leadership (Taplin, 2004).

218

Moreover, the increased rate of migrations in the global ethnoscape
(Appadurai, 1990) has given rise to culture of diaspora worldwide on the one hand
and diasporic media on the other. Migrations of people crossing national and cultural
borders have been recorded since Biblical times. The extent and relevance of these
migrations however have increased significantly over the last decades and constitute
a key dimension of the 21
st
century global landscape. The movements of individuals
in search for a better life outside their original cultural milieu have increased the
number of people living between cultures, their original ones and the adopted ones.
As a result, diasporic media also is on the rise, as for example with Zee TV and
Phoenix TV reaching respectively Indian and Chinese audiences outside their
countries. These transnational channels aiming at specific diasporic cultures also
contribute to the contra-flows of entertainment content (Georgiou & Silverstone,
2007).
They all generate other potential threats to Hollywood’s global diffusion. In
fact, in addition to local and regional distribution, these contra-flows of
entertainment are available globally in the 21
st
century through multiple platforms.
The dissertation leads up to investigating the breadth of additional relevant
phenomena unfolding in the global entertainment landscape and challenging
Hollywood’s global leadership, above and beyond the rise of non-scripted
entertainment and the impact of the ICT revolution.

219

Media content studies would enrich understanding the content proposed by
non-scripted entertainment, or generated uniquely within the digital environment,
and could provide an analysis of how these media texts portray the 21
st
century
society or which aspects of contemporary culture are rendered invisible by them. For
example, these studies could investigate to what extent the content of non-scripted
entertainment differs from scripted Hollywood productions in terms of representation
of gender, race, ethnicity, class or social issues, or if the local adaptations of global
formats provide alternative images and embedded values compared to regular
scripted fare, due to their non-scripted nature, with a narrative intrinsically less
structured and with an unfolding, not predetermined plot. Also, reception studies
could focus on audiences’ reactions to the digital glocalization of entertainment as it
is proposed by media entities, to analyze how the increased number of audiences
having access to media content through new digital platforms specifically interact
with the media texts proposed.
Moreover, the global media and entertainment landscape is in constant
evolution, driven by technological change and the complex interactions among
transnational profit and non-profit oriented entities and local governments and
audiences, while the dissertation analysis is intrinsically confined to a specific
temporal horizon. Therefore, it is essential to continue to analyze the landscape as it
evolves, and specifically the impact of the ICT revolution on the industry.

220

Future research studies might focus their analysis on the evolving Hollywood
studios’ actions and ongoing reactions to non-scripted entertainment and the ICT
revolution. These should monitor the new entities appearing at the horizon of the
landscape, their strengths and weaknesses and their nature (as they can be part of the
Hollywood system, European conglomerates, or from other emerging areas).
Specifically, in the evolution of the global entertainment landscape, the relevance of
Asia is increasing and should command future analyses of its roles vis-à-vis the
Western media and entertainment conglomerates, both within the Hollywood system
and its European based competitors. Also, as new and old profit oriented entities
operate in an environment impacted by the ICT revolution and interact with national
governments and international NGOs in shaping the global entertainment landscape,
it is key to analyze the evolving regulatory frameworks at a global and local level,
(contributing to determine the issue of net neutrality at a global level for example).
Furthermore, future research trajectories need to keep quantifying the
changes, as they unfold. For example, it is important to monitor the export-import
data in cultural goods to identify over a larger number of years the new trend or
contra-flow of entertainment between the US and Europe, whose first signs are
pointed out in this study (Table 4, p. 65), while it remains key to analyze the players’
reactions to the new digital environment and also examine and bring to the fore other
examples of digital glocalization of entertainment. The contours and boundaries of

221

the global entertainment landscape are being shaped by the moves and contra-moves
of the relevant players and their interactions.
On the one hand, the profit oriented entities furnish a key piece of the landscape,
in their quest to create, deliver and capture value in the new digital entertainment
landscape utilizing different offensive or defensive strategies in the evolving
landscape, within the new paradigm of digital glocalization of entertainment (taking
advantage for example of the participatory tendencies of audiences, made possible
by the digital environment). In particular, the Hollywood studios, the talent agencies,
the TV network and entertainment conglomerates (from the US and overseas),
“reality TV” new players, advertisers (through old media and new media paradigms
to reach their potential customers) continue to play a pivotal role. The evolution of
these strategies and actions over time remains a central focus for future research
efforts.
On the other, nation states and international NGO’s continue to shape regulatory
frameworks at a global level impacting key aspects of the landscape (from the issue
of net neutrality to the definition of “piracy” by enacting and enforcing rules to curb
or facilitate the phenomena, etc.). At the same time, worldwide, culturally situated
audiences play the ultimate role within the landscape, in their selection and
acceptance (or lack thereof) of the programmes proposed, and in their appropriation
and remix of entertainment content.

222

The two institutional trajectories analyzed in this study have the potential to
challenge, jointly and severally, Hollywood’s global primacy at the turn of the 21
st

century. Furthermore, the global mediascape is being shaken by the effects of a
global economic recession, whose impact has reached the media and entertainment
industry. The economic recession impacts the media and entertainment industry in
different aspects of its value chain, both the production and distribution of
entertainment, and the delivery platforms. In this scenario all the different
institutional trajectories are being impacted: These however appear to be facing
distinct challenges.
The Global Entertainment Industry at a Crossroads
Amidst a Global Economic Recession
The economic recession, driven by a financial crisis stemming from the
collapse of major financial institutions involved in the sub-prime lending practices,
began in December 2007, ending an expansion lasting 73 months, according to the
US National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER, 2008). The economic downturn
experienced by the US since then qualifies as a recession, defined as “a significant
decline in economic activity spreading across the economy, lasting more than a few
months, normally visible in production, employment, real income, and other
indicators” (NBER, 2008, p. 1).
As a result of globalization processes, worldwide financial markets are at the
turn of the 21
st
century connected and intertwined as never before, constituting what
223

Appadurai defines as “financescape” (1990, p. 41). Consequently, this recession has
turned out to be “the most synchronized in historical memory” (Bovino, 2009, p. 1).
In fact, through multiple channels the financial turmoil has reached the different
sectors of the economy on the one hand, while expanding globally on the other
generating what has been deemed as “the worst global recession in decades as the
fallout of the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression” (Roubini,
2009, p. 1).
As the global economy is experiencing a severe recession, an analysis of the
potential effects of the unfolding global economic downturn on the media and
entertainment industry gains center stage and constitutes the next step of inquiry for
further studies analyzing the evolutions of the global medisacape. Connecting these
research efforts to the findings of this study, the analysis should focus specifically on
the evolving institutional trajectories of scripted and non-scripted entertainment and
the ICT revolution, illustrated in the previous chapters of the dissertation vis-à-vis
the economic downturn.
A preliminary analysis can be conducted drawing on trade journals’
conversations on the effects of the unfolding economic crisis on the media and
entertainment industry, and based upon the economic and business analyses
conducted in this study, illustrating Hollywood’s global primacy and the institutional
trajectories of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment and the ICT revolution.
The economic downturn is impacting all the different sectors of the media and
224

entertainment industry, from theatrical exhibition (Graser, 2009a), to the TV sector
(Schneider, 2009b) and the licensing business (Graser, 2009b), domestically and
internationally (Swart & Keslassy, 2009).
On the one hand consumer spending in general is impacted by the economic
recession, as the average disposable incomes of families and individual across the
globe diminish: This phenomenon leads to the contraction of resources specifically
destined to the entertainment industry from a consumer standpoint, overall driving
down the revenue streams generated by entertainment products, whose exploitation
benefits from multiple ancillary revenues, as described in chapter 3. On the other the
drastic economic downturns occurring in many consumer markets has a direct impact
on the advertising investments of many consumer-oriented sectors.
With fewer resources available, and a diminished pool of consumers willing
and able to buy new products, some key advertising markets, as the financial services
and automobile sectors have significantly reduced their investments in advertising.
As a result, the revenue streams generated by advertising are diminishing for the
media and entertainment sector: For the existing advertising driven business models
adopted by different media platforms, as free TV broadcasting for example, this
represents a significant issue. At the same time the different sectors of the
entertainment value chain are intrinsically interconnected (as shown in Figure 2, p.
47) and difficulties experienced by one sector are bound to impact others in the
overall media and entertainment landscape. Therefore, the combination of these two
225

elements, diminished disposable income for consumers on the one hand and
diminished advertising spending as a consequence on the other, is impacting the
entities competing in the global mediascape.
Generally, the media and entertainment industry is deemed by practitioners as
“recession proof”, as audiences look for entertainment regardless of changes taking
place in the economy: During economic downturns people appear to look for escape
in entertainment, during prosperity for increase in well-being. As a result
Powdermaker’s (1950) “dream factory” never seems to falter, whereas other
economic sectors appear to be more inclined to suffer as a result of financial or
economic woes. While this is still true and the entertainment industry does not incur
in dramatic immediate economic downturns as a result of recessions as other sectors
(as the real estate and automobile sectors for example), it is still experiencing
difficulties. In fact, major revenue streams appear to have been impacted, as for
example those generated from movie and TV show merchandise (Graser, 2009b).
Also, while all the entertainment sectors are to a certain extent being
impacted by the economic recession, some appear to be under more pressure than
others, as the signs of the recession unfold: For example TV viewing does not appear
to be impacted significantly, while DVD sales are significantly down, whereas box
office receipts appear stable. Therefore, the sector overall is experiencing the effects
of the economic recession, as the entertainment industry has long evolved from just
offering feature-length motion pictures in movie theatres to a multitude of products
226

destined to reach consumers worldwide through a variety of distribution platforms
and generating multiple revenue streams, as illustrated in chapter 2. As a result,
diminishing numbers on some of the revenue streams, if not compensated by new
emergent ones, drive downwards the results of the profit-oriented entities operating
in the media and entertainment landscape.
In terms of the content proposed, and specifically scripted vs. non-scripted
entertainment, there appear to be recession vulnerabilities of both sides, but distinct
challenges and opportunities. In fact, scripted entertainment could benefit from the
increased desire to escape offered by fictional entertainment, but it could suffer
because a major revenue stream, DVD sales, is diminishing. In general, due to the
“windows” structure of its business model, the investment in scripted entertainment
is recouped later (compared to “reality TV” shows), as scripted shows reach a profit
only when a critical mass of episodes is reached and ancillary revenues (as those
stemming from licensing in the syndication circuits) are generated. Furthermore,
uncertainty and more risks are associated with new scripted shows: As a result, fewer
pilots are being developed, with less resources being allocated to these programmes
(Schnider, 2009b).
The impact of the recession on non-scripted entertainment could be not as
damaging because TV ratings are generally stable, and investment in these
programmes are recouped immediately (without significant subsequent “windows”
of exhibition), while other immediate revenue streams for the broadcaster and the
227

producer/distributor (as SMS, product placement, etc.) are being generated. Although
“reality TV”, as the trade journal Variety puts it, “offers ads on immunity” (Debruge,
2009), it appears to be more effective in product placement, as illustrated in Chapter
3, in an evolving advertising environment where the 30-second spot impact is being
questioned. Furthermore, non-scripted entertainment programmes, especially when
distributed by established players, are deemed to have usually fewer risks associated
with their distribution, as they are generally less expensive to develop and distribute:
In fact these programmes are typically local adaptations of global formats, already
tested in other markets. Also, they are not too affected by decline in DVD sales, as
this revenue stream is marginal for their business models, contrary to scripted
entertainment.
In terms of the analysis of the specific sub-genres in the non-scripted
entertainment galaxy, it depends on the shows and how they capture, in the words of
Endemol USA’s executive David Goldberg, what is “topical and timely in the
zeitgeist” (Schneider, 2009a). For example the programme Extreme Makeover deals
with adversities and how to overcome them, while Someone’s Gotta Go picked up by
Fox in 2009 deals with the reality of people losing jobs, by giving employees, as
participants and contestants of the programme, the power to decide which one of
them will be terminated in the event of a lay off (Schneider, 2009a). Therefore, the
success (or lack thereof) of non-scripted entertainment programmes in times of
economic downturn has to be analyzed on a case by case basis: The landscape of
228

non-scripted entertainment is constantly evolving, as the genre is very flexible and
lends itself to multiple possible narrative structures and environments (Hill, 2007).
All in all, the current economics of the entertainment and media business
appear to point into the direction of an increased presence of established non-scripted
shows in periods of economic downturns, specifically due to their business models
and practices analyzed in the preceding chapters (3-4). Their flexibility and
adaptability, and generally more economic nature in their production and
distribution, appear to be attractive factors for media decision makers in a landscape
increasingly risk adverse and eager to recoup the investments associated with
programming without waiting for the lengthy life-shelf of scripted entertainment
programmes.
The profit oriented entities operating in the global entertainment industry
have a clear role in how the landscape evolves, including the changes driven by new
technological systems. In the evolving 21
st
century global entertainment landscape,
profit oriented entities are at a critical historical juncture as they face new, unfolding
challenges and opportunities. The global entertainment industry is at a crossroads:
Future landscapes will be shaped by the strategic actions and reactions of the major
players (the Hollywood studios), the new entities emerged in the last decade (from
Google to the non-scripted entertainment leaders, as Endemol and FremantleMedia)
and other new players emerging as the landscape evolves.

229

As illustrated with the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats analysis), each entity may implement a different strategy,
stemming from their assessment and comparison of their internal strengths and
weaknesses to the external threats and opportunities. Specifically, following their
internal and external analyses each can determine completely different courses of
action, pursuing a mix of “defensive” strategies and “offensive” strategies that
generate and/or sustain a competitive advantage in the evolving landscape. The
defensive strategies focus on the threats posed by the environment and attempt to
minimize their effects on the weaknesses of the entity. The offensive strategies
attempt to capture the opportunities provided by the ICT revolution, and specifically
on the potential offered by the digital environment to expand the boundaries of the
20
th
century analog mass media at a global level
The non-scripted programme Big Brother on the one hand and the NBC
coverage of the 2008 Olympics on the other provide examples of offensive strategies
in the new global media landscape and have been defined as examples of digital
glocalization of entertainment. In fact, the content proposed by these two
programmes incorporates global, glocal and local elements, enriched by customized
elements made possible by the digital media environment. Digital glocalization of
entertainment appears to provide a new paradigm to successfully create and capture
value in the global entertainment sector.

230

For the historical economic leaders of the sectors, the Hollywood system, a
significant issue arises after the acknowledgment that the scenario has evolved and
calls for different paradigms: The transition from one landscape (with well
established business practices as the carefully designed “shelf-life” of entertainment)
to the new, uncertain one, where the drivers of competitive advantage remain to be
determined, as the landscape evolves, is indeed a complex and difficult one.
Analyzing the impact of new technologies on existing competitive advantages across
different consumer products sectors, Tellis (2006) points out that the disruption of
incumbents in a sector affected by technological change, when and if it happens, “is
not due to technological innovation per se but rather to the incumbents’ lack of
vision of the mass market and unwillingness to cannibalize assets to serve that
market” (2006, p. 34).
As a result, the course of action taken in a turbulent environment affected by
technological change rests on the vision, or lack thereof, of the leaders of the
industry. Leaders successfully transitioning technological change, by maintaining or
expanding their existing competitive advantages, appear to be willing and able to
cannibalize their more successful assets in pursuit of future potential gains, whereas
leaders unwilling to do so appear to succumb to technological change. Research
conducted on different sectors impacted by technological innovations (Tellis, 2006)
specifically points out the successful examples of innovative leaders in consumer
products sector (as Procter & Gamble) and in the hardware sector (Intel), which have
231

consistently innovated their offering by replacing their successful products with new
and technologically improved products (or versions). In so doing, these leaders were
able to sustain and expand their competitive advantages in the process. In contrast,
the entities unable to do so have experienced drawbacks as a result of technological
evolutions, as for example Xerox in the 1970s and 1980s, unwilling to modify its
strategic positioning in an evolving scenario and as a result unable to successfully
transition from the old landscape to the new one, with its new challenges and
opportunities.
Transporting and adapting these findings to the uniqueness of the entertainment
sector, Hollywood studios in order to maintain their existing competitive advantages,
would appear to be better off embracing the digital revolution, even should this
change cannibalize some existing revenue streams (the VHS and DVD share of the
home entertainment market for example), in pursuit of future digital revenue streams.
As analyzed previously, this is not the first technological change experienced by the
industry in its centennial run. Historically, those who pursued the strategy of
innovation, as Warner Bros. with the introduction of sound in the 1920s, willing to
cannibalize existing products (silent movies) for new ones (the “talkies”) were able
to establish as a consequence new, and more robust, competitive advantages in the
evolving landscape.
8

Porter’s theoretical framework provides tools to analyze the potential threats to
Hollywood’s global leadership. In the 21
st
century, as the competitive landscape
232

faces turbulent environments, a successful strategy for the current leaders could be to
turn the existing competitive advantages into a different kind of advantage, a
“keystone advantage”: Acting in their best long term interest, leaders should not play
the role of “dominators”, but of “keystone” players, driving the changes in the
landscape facing shifting, potentially disruptive paradigms. In fact, comparing the
different entities operating in a competitive landscape to individual species in a
biological ecosystem, the competitive strategy scholars Iansiti and Levien (2004)
identify and bring to the fore the keystone advantage as the long term successful
sustainable approach to be adopted by the entities playing a crucial role in the
business ecosystem in turbulent times.
Specifically, Iansiti and Levien (2004) expand Porter’s competitive advantage
and national diamond’s theoretical frameworks and define the competitive landscape
as an “ecosystem”, where they identify three main strategies available for its entities:
keystone, physical dominator or niche. These different strategies appear to be
effective under different circumstances. In an industry characterized by a “complex
network of external assets”, the niche strategy does not appear to be the optimal
course of action. In a mature industry, physical dominance is usually the most
successful strategy, absorbing the complex network of interindependencies between
different entities and eventually creating its own ecosystem. That was the case for
instance in the Hollywood studios’ golden age of the 1920s, but the landscape has

233

dramatically changed since then and it is experiencing the effects of the ICT
revolution.
In a turbulent environment affected by changes in technology, a keystone
strategy appears to be the most effective. Keystones operate in two ways: On the one
hand they create a platform that offers solutions to others in the ecosystem and on the
other they share throughout the ecosystem much of the value they have created
(Iansiti and Levien, 2004, p. 82). In other words, when the leaders operate as
“keystones”, they work in the industry’s best interest by increasing its ecology and as
a result they build long term competitive advantages in an evolving, yet healthy
landscape.
Should Hollywood studios adopt this course of action to facilitate the wealth
of the whole landscape sharing the value created throughout the system, this strategy
could have very significant consequences on how the business operates. In fact,
Hollywood could change its current stands on issues like net neutrality and diffusion
of non-authorized content, while at the same time share the rewards of the value
generated with the system developed in the industry.
9
Also, the boundaries and
contours of the industry keep expanding, within the unfolding phenomena of
globalization, reaching more local and culturally situated audiences worldwide. In
this scenario the Hollywood system appears to have a vested interest in the overall
global media and entertainment ecology.

234

From the Catalina Bison to the Digital Glocalization of Entertainment:
A New Ecology of the Global Mediascape?
The Catalina bison have been roaming the island since they were left behind
by the Hollywood crew shooting the movie The Vanishing American in 1924. In so
doing, they have been altering ever since the ecosystem of the small island, situated
22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, impacting the preexisting flora and fauna of
the landscape. The Hollywood system has maintained a primacy in the global
entertainment landscape over the last decades, as explicated by the national diamond
and five forces theoretical frameworks drawn from the field of industrial economics.
As a result, intellectual and political voices worldwide have been raising continued
concerns that the US originated international flow of entertainment, providing
images and sets of values embedded within their media texts, has been producing an
effect similar to the Catalina bison’s on worldwide audiences, altering local cultural
developments and dynamics.
Local audiences have been reached and impacted over last decades by the
increasing flow of global entertainment content, devised and produced by entities
physically and culturally situated far from their cultural milieu. Hollywood has
played a pivotal leadership role within this increasing global and apparently seamless
flow of entertainment content reaching distant audiences in virtually every corner of
the globe. Through the analysis of the rise of non-scripted content, globally created
and locally produced and adapted, and the unfolding impact of the ICT revolution on
235

the global entertainment landscape the dissertation brings to the fore a new paradigm
in the landscape: the digital glocalization of entertainment. Successfully meeting
audiences’ expectations, entertainment content is increasingly globally created and
locally produced / adapted, and actively takes advantage of the new media
environment adding digital dimensions to the content proposed.
Profit oriented entities play a pivotal role, in the creation and distribution of
global media text reaching global audiences. The landscape is changing though: New
entities are entering the arena, challenging Hollywood’s global primacy. As the
paradigms change, so do the drivers of competitive advantage. While the distribution
appears to remain a key strategic element, the adaptability of entertainment content
to locally situated audiences emerges as an essential element, especially when
combined with the possibilities offered by digital technology.
As the landscape evolves, its new boundaries and contours are unfolding, shaped
by the interactions of profit oriented entities, governmental institutions, NGOs and
global audiences, locally situated. New paradigms are taking shape, delineating the
need for a new “ecology” of the landscape, and dictating future paths for courses of
strategic actions to profit oriented entities. The transition from the “Catalina bison”
impact to the digital glocalization of entertainment calls for the dominant leaders to
turn into keystone players, as the long term health of all the players of the industry
should constitute a main concern for its leaders. Furthermore, the interest for the

236

ecology of the system should expand to the ecology of the overall landscape, which
is increasingly global, as a result of the phenomena of globalization.
In fact, the ecology of the landscape extends beyond the Hollywood system
previously defined, as the processes of globalization involve more and more local
cultures in processes of digital glocalizations across the globe. From an era of
unidirectional export of entertainment content from the West to the Rest, and
Hollywood’s leadership within the West, dictating the pace and the content of the
transnational flow of the global mediascape, the 21
st
century is witnessing the
emergence of different phenomena in the more complex mosaic of the global
entertainment landscape. In fact, as the analysis of the global rise of non-scripted
entertainment content has shown, local adaptation provides a key element in the
success of entertainment content, regardless of its origin. In addition, the ICT
revolution is ushering in specific dimensions to the landscape, altering globally the
creation, production, and distribution of entertainment for the foreseeable future.
Profit oriented entities maintain a key relevance in the international flow of
entertainment crossing the globe via new, multiple distribution platforms, albeit new
entities are emerging, challenging Hollywood’s global competitive advantage. The
paradigms of the global mediascape and its image-centered, narrative-based accounts
of strips of reality are shifting though, as the digital glocalization of entertainment
rises in the global entertainment landscape.

237

Chapter 5 Endnotes
1
Personal interview conducted on April 11, 2008.

2
As for example through Video On Demand (VOD), Near Video On Demand (NVOD) and
Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD).

3
As illustrated for example by Google’s business model, which is based almost solely on
advertising, individual, personalized, as made possible by the interactive technology: marketing to
one.

4
As in the case of the “widgets”, miniature application or website in the user’s internet
platform, PC or mobile, providing connections to particular information or websites (stock markets,
weather, social networks), or “cookies”, which track past searches and purchases to provide individual
marketing.

5
There is an ongoing debate regarding the issue of IPR, their protection through copyright
and the evolutions and continuous challenges provided by evolving technologies of communication
and distribution, and specifically the digital transformation of entertainment content. Within this
debate different positions have been proposed. On the one hand the Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA) has a very extensive notion of what constitutes violation of intellectual property
rights in the new digital scenario, and the US administration has accepted most of their concerns. On
the other, scholars (Lessig, 2004) and activists have pointed out how the issue affects societies and the
very fabric of our lives and have raised concerns about restrictive stands regarding unregulated use of
entertainment content under copyright and its time limits.

6
For example, in this evolving landscape two entities headquartered in Northern California,
YouTube and Electronic Arts, have established specific competitive advantages, in the user-generated
content arena and in the gaming industry respectively.

7
For example, the movie Hero was shot at the Zhejiang Hengdian World studios, the largest
in the world, which has also hosted Hollywood productions like Mission Impossible 3.

8
In contrast, other players opposed the technological change and initially did not produce
“talking pictures” deeming them, as United Artists’ president Joseph Schenck put it, “not more than
public curiosity in a novelty” (Jewell, 2007, p. 93), losing existing competitive advantages in the
transition.

9
It is worth noticing the ongoing prolonged negotiations between Hollywood studios and the
different talent and labor guilds seem to point into the opposite direction.
238

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adalian, J. (2002, March 19). Next thing for Fox: “Pop Idol” from Blighty. Variety.
Retrieved April 14, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117864206.html.

Adalian, J. (2007a, February 7). ICM creates new overseas unit. Variety.
Retrieved November 30, 2007 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117958838.html.

Adalian, J. (2007b, June 22). “Brother “ bigger than ever. Variety. Retrieved
April 14, 2008 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117967489.html.

Adalian, J. (2007c, November 6). CBS leans on “Brother” during strike. Variety.
Retrieved April 2, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117975459.html.

Adalian, J. & Schneider M. (2007, October 30). Writers’ strike: Reality sets in.
Variety. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117975066.html.

Adorno, T. & Horkheimer, M. (1979). Dialectic of enlightenment. London: Verso.

Aft, R. (2004). The global markets. In Squire, J. E. (Eds.) The movie business
book. New York: Fireside. Pp. 458-482.

Amobi, T.N. & Donald, W. (2007a, July 14). Broadcasting, Cable and Satellite.
Standard & Poors Industry Surveys. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Amobi, T.N. & Donald, W. (2007b, March 29). Movies & Home Entertainment.
Standard & Poors Industry Surveys. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Anderson, C. (1994). Hollywood TV: The studio system in the Fifties. Austin, TX:
University of Texas Press.

Anderson, C. (2004, October) The long tail. Wired Magazine.

Anderson, C. (2006) The long tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more.
New York: Hyperion.

Andrejevic, M. (2004). Reality TV: The work of being watched. Lanham, MA:
Rowman & Littlefield.
239

Andrejevic, M. (2009). Visceral literacy: Reality TV, savvy viewers, and auto-spies.
In S. Murray, & L. Ouellette, (Ed.) (2009) Reality TV: Remaking TV culture
(2
nd
edition), pp. 301-320.

Ang, I. (1985). Watching Dallas. London: Methuen.

Anonymous (2008, April 2). The price is right for Glu Mobile. C21 Media.
Retrieved April 16, 2008 from:
http://www.c21media.net/resources/detail.asp?area=89&article=40838.

Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy.
Public Culture, 2(2).

Arndt, R. T. (2005) The First Resort of Kings: American Cultural Diplomacy in the
Twentieth Century. Washington, D. C.: Potomac Books.

Arthur, W.B. (1996). Increasing returns and the new world of business. Harvard
Business Review. 74(4), pp.100-110.

Austin, B. A. (1990). Home Video: The second-run “theatre” of the 1990s. In T.
Balio (Eds.), Hollywood in the age of Television, pp. 319-350. Boston:
Unwin Hyman.

Balio, T. (Eds.) (1990). Hollywood in the age of Television. Boston: Unwin Hyman.

Barney, R. K., Wenn, S. R. & Martyn, S. G. (2002). Selling the five rings: The
International Olympic Committee and the rise of Olympic commercialism.
Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.

Barnouw, E. (1990). Tube of plenty: The evolution of American television. New
York: Oxford University Press.

Barraclough, L. (2007, July 23). Schouwenaar returns as Endemol CEO. Variety.
Retrieved April 11, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117968999.html.

Bart, P. (2001, January 17). Media moments of 2000 worth forgetting. Variety.
Retrieved November 30, 2007 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117791851.html.

240

Baya, V. & Berg, E. M. (2003). The broadband future: Interactive, networked, and
personalized. PriceWaterhouseCooper. Retrieved November 10, 2006, from:
http://www.pwc.com/extweb/pwcpublications.nsf/docid/3AA6C798B1E7B9
1A85256E30006B6DA2.

Bazalgette, P. (2005). Billion dollar game: How three men risked it all and changed
the face of television. London: Time Warner Books.

BBC (2007). Annual reports and accounts 2006/2007- Part I and II. Retrieved on
February 7 from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/annualreport.

Benson, B. (2007). Couch potato famine: Prospering through an era of disruptive
change in media. New York: FTI Consulting.

Benzine, A. (2008a, March 25). Fremantle downloads with BlinkBox. C21 Media.
Retrieved April 16, 2008 from:
http://www.c21media.net/resources/detail.asp?area=89&article=40683.

Benzine, A. (2008b, May 12). Bebo, Endemol prepare for Gap Year. C21 Media.
Retrieved May 14, 2008 from:
http://www.c21media.net/resources/detail.asp?area=100&article=41721.

Benzine, A. (2008c, July 9). NBCU goes for gold with Olympic coverage. C21
Media. Retrieved July 10, 2008 from:
http://www.c21media.net/resources/detail.asp?area=100&article=42949.

Benzine, A. (2009, March 20). Fremantle faces “sweatshop” claims. C21
Media. Retrieved April 2, 2009 from:
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=48370.

Berman, S. J., Duffy, N. & Shipnuck, L. A. (2006). The end of television as we know
it: A future industry perspective. Somers, NY: IBM Institute for Business
Value. Retrieved on November 30, 2007 from: http://www-
935.ibm.com/services/us/imc/pdf/ge510-6248-end-of-tv-full.pdf.

Bertelsmann A.G. (2007). Annual Report 2006. Retrieved on February 7, 2008
from:http://www.bertelsmann.de/bertelsmann_corp/wms41//customer/bmcor
p/pdf/GB_english.pdf.

Bielby, D. D. & Harrington, C. L. (2008). Global TV: Exporting television and
culture in the world market. New York: New York University Press.

241

Bignell, J. (2005). Big brother: Reality TV in the twenty-first century. New York:
Palgrave MacMillan.

Biressi, A. & Nunn, H. (2005). Reality TV: Realism and revelation. London:
Wallflower Press.

Blume, S. (2004). The revenue streams: An overview. In Squire, J. E. (Eds.)
The movie business book. New York: Fireside. Pp. 333-359.

Bovino, B. A. (2009, March 10). The economy: A scorecard for the global
slowdown. BusinessWeek. Retrieved June 11, 2009 from:
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/mar2009/pi2009039_260372.
htm

Boyle, R. & Haynes, R. (2000). Power play: Sport, the media, and popular culture.
London: Longman.

Brenton, S. & Cohen, R. (2003). Shooting people: Adventures in Reality TV.
London: Verso.

BroadcastingEngineering (2008, April 8). NBC Olympics plans for simultaneous 5.1,
stereo broadcasting. Retrieved July 11, 2008 from:
http://www.broadcastingengeneering.com/news/nbc_olympics_plans_simulta
neous_0408/index.html.

Burgelman, R. & Meza, P. (2003). A look at three regulatory forces influencing
content and distribution in the motion picture and television industry. Case
study # SM-105: Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Cammaerts, B. (2008). Critique on the participatory potentials of Web 2.0.
Communication, Culture & Critique 1(4), pp. 358-377.

Caves, R. (2000). Creative industries: Contracts between art and commerce.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Center for the Digital Future (2008). The 2008 Digital future report: Surveying the
digital future, year seven. Los Angeles, CA: Annenberg School for
Communication, University of Southern California.
Chalaby, J. K. (2002). Transnational television in Europe: The role of pan-European
channels. European Journal of Communication, 17(2), 183-203.

242

Chalaby, J. K. (2006). American cultural primacy in a new media order: A
European perspective. International Communication Gazette, 68 (33): pp. 33-
51.

Christensen, C. M. (1997). The innovator’s dilemma. Boston: Harvard Business
School Press.

Christensen, C. M. & Raynor M. E. (2003). The innovator’s solution: Creating and
sustaining successful growth. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Clarke, S. (2001, July 11). Parsons is reality TV’s original survivor. Variety.
Retrieved March 8, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117802626.html.

Clarke, S. (2007a, October 14). Global TV production shifts. Variety. Retrieved
April 8, 2008 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117974018.html.

Clarke, S. (2007b, November 27). Endemol looks to profit from strike: WGA action
will benefit Euro company. Variety. Retrieved April 2, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117976583.html.

Clarke, S. (2007c, December 28). UK leads format business. Variety. Retrieved
April 8, 2008 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117978226.html.

Clarke, S. (2008, March 11). ITV winds up Granada. Variety. Retrieved April 8,
2008 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982203.html.

Clarke, S. (2009, June 1, 2009). 'Talent' gets 69% share for finale: Susan Boyle lose
contest to dance troupe. Variety. Retrieved April 8, from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118004364.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

Cohen, J. (2008). What I watch and who I am: National pride and the viewing of
local and foreign television in Israel. Journal of Communication, 58, 149-
167.

Collette, L. (1998). The wages of synergy. Integration into broadcast networking by
Warner Brothers, Disney, and Paramount. In B. Litman, The motion picture
mega industry. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon (pp. 122-143).

Compaine, B. & Gomery, D. (2000). Who owns the media?: Competition and
concentration in the mass media industry. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
243

Consoli, J. (2008, July 9). CBS offers multiple platforms for Big Brother.
Mediaweek. Retrieved July 10, 2008 from:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/digital-
downloads/broadband/e3i3a02b4b8960ca28aa8e8dd9f31000bac

Cooper-Chen, A. (2005). A world of “millionaires”: Global, local, and “glocal” TV
game shows. In A. Cooper-Chen, Global entertainment media. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (pp. 237-251).

Culkin, N., Morawetz, N. & Randle, K. (2006). Digital cinema as disruptive
technology: Exploring new business models in the age of digital distribution.
In S. van der Graaf & Y. Wahida, (Eds.), Information Communication
Technologies and emerging business strategies. Hershey, PA: Idea Group.

Daniels, B., Leedy, D. & Sills, S. D. (1998). Understanding Hollywood’s (creative)
accounting practices. Beverly Hills, CA: Silman-James Press.

David, P.A. (1985). Clio and the economics of QWERTY. The American Economic
Review 75(2): 332-38.

Debruge, P. (2009, April 22). Reality TV offers ads no immunity: Future of 30-
second spots questioned. Variety. Retrieved June 10, 2009 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002755.html.

de Grazia, V. (1989). Mass culture and sovereignty: The American challenge to
European cinemas, 1920–1960. The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 61, No.
1 (Mar. 1989), pp. 53-87.

Demers, D. (2002). Global Media: Menace of messiah?. Cresskill: NJ. Hampton
Press.

DeMorganas Spa, M., Rivenburgh, N. K., & Larson, J. F. (1995). Television in the
Olympics. London: John Libbey.

Dempsey, J. & Garrett, D. (2008, August 13). Olympics go for web gold: 17.7 mil
users streamed games video. Variety. Retrieved August 18, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117990523.html.

De Pablos, E. & Hopewell, J. (2007, May 14). De Mol, Berlusconi buy Endemol. .
Variety. Retrieved April 14, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117964866.html.

244

de Sola Pool (1983). Technologies of freedom. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Downing, J. D. H., with Villareal, T., Ford, G. G., & Stein, L. (2001). Radical
media: Rebellious communication and social movements. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.

Edmunds, M. (2005, November 10). Telefonica to float Endemol. Variety. Retrieved
April 14, 2008 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117932757.html.

Elberse, A. (2008). Should you invest in the long tail? Harvard Business Review
(July-August 2008). Retrieved July 22, 2008 from:
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?ml
_subscriber=true&ml_action=getarticle&ml_issueid=BR0807&articleID=R0
807H&pageNumber=1
Eliashberg, J. (2005). The film exhibition business: Critical issues, practice and
research. In C. C. Moul (Ed.), A concise handbook of movie industry
economics (pp. 138-162). New York: Cambridge University Press.

El Sawy, O. (2005). The VISOR framework: Business model definition for new
marketspaces in the networked digital industry. Center for Telecom
Management, University of Southern California. Retrieved November 15,
2007 from: http://dblab.usc.edu/csci599/CTMVISORFramework.pdf.

Endemol N. V. (2007). Annual report 2006. Retrieved February 7, 2008 from:
http://www.endemol.com/Uploads_com/def-endemol%20-compleet.pdf.

Endemol N.V. (2008a, March 18 press release). Endemol UK acquires stake in Pure
Glass films). Retrieved March 14 from:
http://www.endemol.com/Press%20center/Default.aspx?fID=7107.

Endemol N. V. (2008b, April 2 press release). Endemol acquires controlling share of
51 Minds Entertainment. Retrieved March 14 from:
http://www.endemol.com/Press%20center/Default.aspx?fID=7107.

Entertainment Software Association (ESA). (2005). Essential facts about the
computer and video game industry. Retrieved April, 20, 2006 from
http://www.theesa.com.

Epstein, E. J. (2005). The Big Picture: The new logic of money and power in
Hollywood. New York: Random House.

245

European Broadcasting Union (EBU). (2008). Trading TV formats: The EBU guide
to the international television format trade. Grand-Saconnex, Switzerland:
Eurovision TV.

Ewing, J. & Rossant, J. (2004, July 5). Will the big wheels walk away from
Formula 1? Business Week. Retrieved June 30, 2008 from:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_27/b3890059_mz054.ht
m

Ewing, J. (2008, February 11). From reality TV to big-screen dreams. Business
Week. Pp. 64-65.

Faulhaber, G. R. (2007). Network neutrality: The debate evolves. International
Journal of Communication, 1(2007), pp. 680-700.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) (2006). What is Broadband?.
Retrieved November 30, 2006, from:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/broadband.html.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) (2008, August 1). Commission orders
Comcast to end discriminatory network management practices. [News
release] Retrieved August 5 2008, from: http://www.fcc.gov.

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) (2006). No. 1 sports event.
Retrieved June 30, 2008 from:
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/ffprojects/ip401_06e_tv_2658.p
df

Feigenbaum, H.B. (2001). Globalization and cultural diplomacy. Center for Arts and
Culture. Available at: http://www.culturalpolicy.org/pdf/globalization.pdf.

Fetveit, A. (2004). Reality TV in the digital era: A paradox in visual culture? In
R. C. H. Allen & A. Hill (Eds.), The Television Studies reader. New York:
Routledge. Pp. 543-556.

Fiske, J. (1987). Television Culture. London: Routledge.

Fligstein, N. (1996). Markets as politics: A political-cultural approach to market
institutions. American Sociological Review, 61(4).

246

Frankel, D. (2008a, March 3). Home video format war just beginning: Blue-ray's
next battle is against standard DVDs. Variety. Retrieved April 14, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117981786.html.

Frankel, D. (2008b, April 10). Olympics offer HDTV showcase: NBC coverage
provides coveted platform. Variety. Retrieved July 11, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117983854.html.

FremantleMedia (2008a). Our purpose and strategy. Retrieved April 16, 2008 from:
http://www.fremantlemedia.com/about-us/purpose--strategy.

FremantleMedia (2008b, March 5). Press release: Willing to travel: New global
formats boost FremantleMedia’s financial performance. Retrieved April 16,
2008 from: http://www.fremantlemedia.com/virtual-press-office/press-
releases/page/4.

Fritz, B. (2008a, February 25). Endemol USA goes gaming online. Variety.
Retrieved April 14, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117981441.html.

Fritz, B. (2008b, March 3). Sony’s Blu-Ray gamble pays off: Conglom is united
behind hi-def DVD format. Variety. Retrieved April 14, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117981781.html.

Fritz, B. & McClintock, P. (2008, April 29). Jeffrey Katzenberg urges action:
Tensions mount over slow digital rollout. Variety. Retrieved July 11, 2008
from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117984844.html.

Gabler, N. (1988). An empire of their own: How the Jews invented Hollywood. New
York: Crown Publishers.

Gabler, N. (1998). Life the movie: How entertainment conquered reality. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Galbraith, J. K. (1959, 1998). The dependence effect. In J. B. Schor & D. B. Holt
(Eds.). The consumer society (2000). New York: The New Press.

Galtung, J. (1971). A structural theory of imperialism. Journal of Peace Research, 8,
2, pp. 81-117.

Garcia Canclini, N. (1995). Hybrid cultures: Strategies for entering and leaving
modernity. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
247

Garrett, D. (2008, April 28). WB revived as online platform: TV unit unveils The
WB.com. Variety. Retrieved April 30, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117984772.html.

Georgiou, M. & Silverstone, R. (2007). Diaspora and contra-flows beyond nation-
centrism. In Thussu, D.K. (Eds.). Media on the move: Global flow and
contra-flow. New York: Routledge. (Chapter 2: pp. 33-48).

Gerse, S. (2004). Overseas tax incentives and governments subsidies. In J. E.
Squire, (Eds.) The movie business book. New York: Fireside. Pp. 483-497.

Gershon, R.A. (2005). The transnationals. In Cooper-Chen, A. (2005). Global
entertainment media: Content, Audiences, Issues. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.

Gilmore, J. H. & Pine, B. J. II (2007). Authenticity: What consumers really want.
Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Goldsmith, B. (2008, August 11). Beijing opening night lures 15 percent of the
world. Reuters. Retrieved on August 18, 2008 from:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSPEK15134720080811

Gomery, D. (2000). The Hollywood film industry: Theatrical exhibition, pay TV,
and home video. In B. M. Compaine & D. Gomery, (Eds.), Who owns the
media? Competition and concentration in the mass media industry. Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Goodfellow, M. (2007, February 14). Telefonica readies Endemol for sale. Variety.
Retrieved April 14, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117959470.html.

Google Inc. (2008). Financial release 2007. Retrieved May 9, 2008 from:
http://investor.google.com/releases/2007Q4.html.

Govil, N. (2007). Bollywood and the frictions of global mobility. In D. K. Thussu
(Eds.). Media on the move: Global flow and contra-flow. London: Routledge.

Gough, P. J. (2008, July 6). Olympian research effort at NBC: Anticipating the largest
amount of coverage in history. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 8 2008
from:
http://hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i9a3650f4bf2de299f7
a1f691136964cd
248

Gramsci, A. (1971). Selection from the prison notebook. Edited and translated by Q.
Hoare & G. Nowell-Smith. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Grant, R. M. (2002). Contemporary strategy analysis: Concepts, techniques,
applications (4
th
ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Grant, J. (2007, November 14). Endemol moves into movies, scripted. C21 Media.
Retrieved December 8, 2007 from:
http://c21media.net/detail.asp?area=1&article=38599.

Graser, M. (2009a, May 16). Hollywood’s hard sell: Studio’s summer blitz aims to
do more with less. Variety. Retrieved June 10, 2009 from
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118003908.html.

Graser, M. (2009b, June 2). Hollywood’s hard sell: Studio’s summer blitz aims to
do more with less. Variety. Retrieved June 10, 2009 from
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118004406.html.

Griffin, L. M. (1984). When dreams collide: Rhetorical trajectories in the assassination
of President Kennedy. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70(2), pp. 111-131.

Guback, T. (1969). The international film industry: Western Europe and America since
1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Hall, A. D. & Fagan, R. E. (1968). Definition of system. In W. Buckley (Eds.)
Modern systems research for the behavioral science (pp. 81-92). Chicago:
Aldine.

Hall, S. (1980). Encoding / decoding. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P. Willis
(Eds.), Culture, media, language, (pp.128-138). London, UK: Hutchinson.

Havens, T. (2006). Global television marketplace. London: BFI Publishing.

Healey, J., & Philips, C. (2005). Piracy spins a global web. Los Angeles Times,
9 October, pp. C1-4.

Hendershot, H. (2009). Belabored reality: Making it work on The Simple Life and
Project Runway. In S. Murray, & L. Ouellette, (Ed.) (2009) Reality TV:
Remaking TV culture (2
nd
edition), pp. 243-259.

Herman, E. & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent: The political economy of
the mass media. New York: Pantheon.
249

Herman, E. & McChesney, R. (1997). The global media: The new missionaries of
corporate capitalism. London: Cassell.

Hill, A. & Palmer, G. (2002). Special issue on Big Brother. Television and New
Media. 3(3), pp. 251-254.

Hill, A. (2002). Big brother: The real audience. Television and New Media. 3(3), pp.
323-340.

Hill, A. (2005). Reality TV: Audiences and popular factual television. Oxford:
Routledge.

Hill, A. (2007). Restyling Factual TV: Audiences and news, documentary and reality
genres. New York: Routledge.

Hilmes, M. (1990). Pay television: Breaking the broadcast bottleneck. In T. Balio
(Eds.), Hollywood in the age of Television, pp. 297-318. Boston: Unwin
Hyman.

Hollifield, C.A. (2004). The economics of international media. In Alexander, A.,
Carveth, R., Hollifield, C. A., Greco, A. N., & Owers, J. (Ed.).Media
economics: Theory and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Pp. 85-
106.

Holmwood, L. & Gibson, O. (2007, October 29). New channels galore as BBC aims
to rule the world – with help from Doctor Who and Teletubbies. The
Guardian. Retrieved November 30 2007 from:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/oct/29/uknews.bbc.

Howe, J. (2007, January 1). Your web, your way. Time, pp. 60-61.

Iansiti, M. & Levien, R. (2004). The keystone advantage: What the new dynamics of
business ecosystems mean for strategy, innovation, and sustainability.
Boston: Harvard Business Press.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) (2004). Athens Olympic broadcast report.
Retrieved July 10, 2008 from:
http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_899.pdf

250

International Olympic Committee (IOC) (2008). Programme of the games of the
XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2008 from:
http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_1056.pdf

International TV & Video Almanac (1998-2007). Groton, MA: Quigley Publishing
Company.

ITV plc (2007). ITV plc reports and accounts 2006. Retrieved on February 7, 2008
from: http://www.itvplc.com/itv/fininfo/reports.

Iwabuchi, K. (2007). Contra-flows or the cultural logic of an uneven globalization?
Japanese media in the global agora. In D. K. Thussu (Eds.). Media on the
move: Global flow and contra-flow. London: Routledge.

Jarvie, I. (1992). Hollywood’s overseas campaign: The North Atlantic movie trade,
1920-1950. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jenkins, H. (1992). Textual poachers: Television and participatory culture. New
York: Routledge.

Jenkins, H. (2006a). Fans, bloggers, and gamers: Exploring participatory culture.
New York: New York University Press.

Jenkins, H. (2006b). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New
York: New York University Press.

Jewell, R. B. (2007). The golden age of cinema: Hollywood 1929-1945. Malden,
MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Katz, E. & Liebes, T. (1990). The export of meaning: Cross-cultural readings of
Dallas. New York: Oxford University Press.

Keane, M. & Moran, A. (2008). Television’s new engines. Television and New
Media. 9(2), pp. 155-169.

Ketels, C. M. H. (2006). Michael Porter’s competitive framework: Recent learnings
and new research priorities. Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade 6(2),
pp. 115-136.

Kim, Y. (2007). The rising East Asian “wave”: Korean media go global. In D. K.
Thussu (Eds.). Media on the move: Global flow and contra-flow. London:
Routledge.

251

King, G. (Ed.) (2005). The spectacle of the real: From Hollywood to reality TV and
beyond. Bristol, UK: Intellect Books.

Kirsner, S. (2007, November 2). Studios’ digital dilemma: Apple calling shots as biz
tries to control market. Variety. Retrieved March 10, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117975284.html.

Kissel, R. (2008a, April 16). “Loser” finale a winner for NBC. Variety. Retrieved
April 17, 2008 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117984116.html.

Kissel, R. (2008b, June 25). “Wipeout” sweeps over competition: ABC show
premieres to top numbers. Variety. Retrieved June 27, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117988061.html.

Kjus, I. (2009). Idolizing and monetizing the public: The production of celebrity
and fans, representatives and citizens in reality TV. International Journal of
Communication. pp. 277-300.

Koopes, C. R. & Black, G. D. (1977). What to Show the World: The OWI and
Hollywood, 1942-45, Journal of American History 64: 87-105.

Kraidy, M. M. (2003). Glocalization as an international communication framework?
Journal of International Communication 3(3), pp. 29-49.

Kraidy, M. M. (2005). Hybridity, or the cultural logic of globalization. Philadelphia,
PA: Temple University Press.

Kraidy, M. M. (2006). Reality Television and politics in the Arab World
(Preliminary observations). Transnational Broadcasting Studies, 2(1), pp. 7-
28.

Kraidy, M. M. & Murphy, P. D. (2008). Shifting Geertz: Toward a theory of
translocalism in global communication studies. Communication Theory
18(3), pp. 335-355.

Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press.

252

La Monica, P.R. (2006, October 10). After YouTube: The beginning of the end?
CnnMoney.com. Retrieved November 10, 2006 from:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/10/technology/googleyoutube_reaction/index.
htm?cnn=yes

Lessig, L. (2004). Free culture: How big media uses technology and the law to lock
down culture and control creativity. New York: The Penguin Press.

Levine, S. & Schreiber, D. (2008, June 4). Sony Pictures acquires 2waytraffic: Dutch
co. to offer studio gameshows, reality TV. Variety. Retrieved June 10, 2008
from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117986861.html.

Levine, S. (2008, August 25). Olympics garb huge ratings for NBC. Variety.
Retrieved August 25, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117991102.html.

Levitt, T. (1975). Marketing myopia. Harvard Business Review. (September-October
1975), pp. 1-14.

Liebes, T., & Katz, E. (1990). The export of meaning: Cross-cultural readings of
Dallas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Litman, B. & Hoag, A. M. (1998). Merger madness. In B. Litman (Eds.) The motion
picture mega industry. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 122-143.

Littlejohn, S. W. (2005). Theories of human communication. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.

Littleton, C. (2004, May 26). Dialogue with producer Mark Burnett. The Hollywood
Reporter.

Littleton, C. (2008, July 7). Stocks wilt in Wall Street heat: Lehman report affects
the entertainment sector. Variety. Retrieved July 29, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117988570.html.
Lopez, A. (1995). Our welcome guests: Telenovelas in Latin America. In R. Allen
(Eds.). To be continued…New York: Routledge.

Lowry, B. (2008a, June 25). I survived a Japanese game show/Wipeout. Variety.
Retrieved June 27, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/story.asp?=story&r=VE1117937508&c=32

253

Lowry, B. (2008b, August 21). NBC thriving with 24/7 Olympics. Network benefits
from multiplatform coverage. Variety. Retrieved August 25, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117990933.html.

Lucas, J. (1992). The future of the Olympic Games. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics
Books.

MacBride Report (1980). Many voices, one world: Communication and society today
and tomorrow. International Communication for the Study of
Communication Problem. Paris: UNESCO.

Mattelart, A. (1979). Multinational corporations and the control of culture: The
ideological apparatuses of imperialism. Brighton: Harverster Press.

Mattelart, A., & Schmucler, H. (1985). Communication and information
technologies: Freedom of choice for Latin America?. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

McClellan, S. (2004, January 5). Idol moments ahead for advertisers. Broadcasting
& Cable. Retrieved January 5, 2008 from:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA372643.html.

McLuhan, M. (1994). Understanding media: The extensions of man.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

McMurria, J. (2009). Global TV realities: International markets, geopolitics, and the
transcultural contexts of reality TV. In S. Murray, & L. Ouellette, (Ed.)
(2009) Reality TV: Remaking TV culture (2
nd
edition), pp. 179-202.

McNary, D. (2001, June 28). How SAG and producers got to this point. Variety.
Retrieved November 14, 2007 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117802125.html.

McNary, D. (2008, May 2). Local films loosen studios’ global grip: Foreign fare
trumps Hollywood at the int’l box office. Variety. Retrieved May 5, 2008
from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117985028.html.

Miller, T., Govin, N., McMurria, J., Maxwell, R. & Wang, T. (2005). Global
Hollywood 2. London: British Film Institute.

Miller, T. (2007). Global Hollywood 2010. International Journal of Communication,
1(2007), Feature 1-4.

254

Moran, A. (2004). Television formats in the world/the world of television formats. In
A. Moran & M. Keene (eds.), Television across Asia: Television industries,
programme formats, and globalization. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

Moran, A. & Malbon, J. (2006). Understanding global TV format. Bristol: Intellect
Books.

Moretti, A. (2005). The Olympics. In A. Cooper-Chen, Global entertainment media.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (pp. 221-236).

Morley, D. (1986). Family Television: Cultural power and domestic leisure. London:
Comedia.

Morley, D. (1993). When the global meets the local: Notes from the sitting room.
In Parks, L. & Kumar, S. (Eds.). Planet TV: A global Television reader.
New York, NY: New York University Press pp. 286-301.

Mosco, V. (2008). Knowledge workers of the world! Unite? Communication,
Culture & Critique 1(1), pp. 105-115.
Moul, C. C. (Ed.). A concise handbook of movie industry economics. New York:
Cambridge University Press.

Moyers, W. (2006). The net at risk. The new digital divide. Retrieved November
10, 2006, from:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/print/new/digitaldivideclass
_print.html.

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). (2004) Piracy fact sheet, US
overview. Retrieved June 10, 2006 from:
http://www.mpaa.org/USPiracyFactsheet/pdf.

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). (2006a). 2005 Theatrical market
statistics. Retrieved November 30, 2006, from:
http://www.mpaa.org/researchStatistics.asp.

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). (2006b) Who piracy hurts. Retrieved
November 30, 2006, from: http://www.mpaa.org/piracy.asp

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). (2006c, March 29) MPAA says
strong content protection will lead to more innovation in movie delivery,
press release. Retrieved November 30, 2006, from:
http://www.mpaa.org/press_releases/2006_03_29_jf.pdf.
255

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). (2008a, January 17). MPAA’s LA
office finds new home in Sherman Oaks Galleria, press release. Retrieved
February 25, 2008, from:
http://www.mpaa.org/press_releases/move%20announcement%201.16.pdf

MPA (2008b, February 15).MPA member companies sue P2P file sharing network
operator for infringing copyrights, press release. Retrieved February 25,
2008 from:
http://www.mpaa.org/press_releases/chinacivillitigation_xunlei.pdf.
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). (2008c). Theatrical market
statistics: 2007. Retrieved June 17, 2008, from: http://www.mpaa.org/2007-
Theatrical-Market-Statistics.pdf

Murray, S. & Ouellette, L. (Ed.) (2009) Reality TV: Remaking TV culture (2
nd

edition).

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (2008, December 11).
Determination of the December 2007 peak in economic activity. Retrieved
June 11, 2009 from: http://www.nber.org/cycles/dec2008.pdf

Network Schedules for 2007-2008 (May 17, 2007). Variety. Retrieved March 31,
2008 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117965146.html.

Nordenstreng, K. & Varis, T. (1974). Television traffic – A one way street? A survey
and analysis of the international flow of television programme material.
Paris: UNESCO.

Nye, J. (1990). Soft power. Foreign Policy, 80, pp. 153-171.

Ochiva, D. (2004). Entertainment technologies: Past, present and future. In J. E.
Squire, (Eds.) The movie business book. New York: Fireside. Pp. 498-529.

Olson, S. R. (1999). Hollywood planet: Global media and the competitive advantage of
narrative transparency. In R. C. H. Allen & A. Hill (Eds.), The Television Studies
reader. New York: Routledge. Pp. 111-129.

Ouellette, L. (2009). “Take responsibility for yourself”: Judge Judy and the
neoliberal citizen. In S. Murray, & L. Ouellette, (Ed.) (2009) Reality TV:
Remaking TV culture (2
nd
edition), pp. 223-242.

Overholt, A. (1962). The Catalina story. Avalon, CA: Catalina Island Museum
Society Inc.
256

Parks, L. & Kumar, S. (Eds.) (2003). Planet TV: A global Television reader.
New York, NY: New York University Press. Pp. 1-17 (Chapter 1:
Introduction).

Peha, J. M., Lehr, W. H. & Wilkie, S. (2007). The state of the debate on net
neutrality. International Journal of Communication, 1(2007), pp. 709-716.

Porter, M. (1980). Competitive strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and
competitors. New York: Free Press.

Porter, M. (1990). The competitive advantage of nations. New York: Free Press.

Powdermaker, H. (1950). Hollywood: The dream factory. An anthropologist looks at
the movie-making. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

PriceWaterhouseCooper (2005). Redefining Intellectual Property Value: The case
of China. Retrieved November 30, 2006, from:
http://www.pwc.com/extweb/pwcpublications.nsf/docid/73162A9921902A99
852570910073564A

Rader, B. (1984). In its own image: How television has transformed sports. New York:
The Free Press.

Raphael, C. (2009). The political economic origins of reali-TV. In S. Murray, & L.
Ouellette, (Ed.) (2009) Reality TV: Remaking TV culture (2
nd
edition), pp.
123-140.
Ravid, S. A. (2005). Film production in the digital age: What do we know about the
past and the future? In C. C. Moul (Ed.), A concise handbook of movie
industry economics (pp. 32-58). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Real, M. (1998). MediaSport: The technology and commodification of postmodern
sport. In L. Wenner (Ed.), MediaSport (pp. 14-26). New York: Routledge.

Rêgo, C. M. & La Pastina, A. C. (2007). Brazil and the globalization of telenovelas.
In D. K. Thussu (Eds.). Media on the move: Global flow and contra-flow.
London: Routledge.

Ritzer, G. (1993). The McDonaldization of society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Robertson, R. (1995). Glocalization: time-space and homogeneity-heteorgeneity. In M.
Featherstone, S. Lash & R. Robertson (eds.), Global modernities. London: Sage,
pp. 25-44.

257

Roscoe, J. (2004). Big Brother Australia: Performing the “real” twenty-four-seven.
In R. C. H. Allen & A. Hill (Eds.), The Television Studies reader. New York:
Routledge. Pp. 311-312.

Rosenbluth, T (2007, February 8).Telecommunications: Wireline. Standard & Poors
Industry Surveys. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Rosenthal, L. (2003). Catalina in the movies. Sausalito, CA: Windgate Press.

Rothkop, D. (1997). In praise of cultural imperialism? Foreign Policy, Number 107,
Summer 1997, pp.38-53. Available at
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/globcult.htm

Rotili, A. (2008, January). La casa del “Grande fratello”. Prima Comunicazione. 36(1).

Roubini, N. (2009, January 15). A global breakdown of the recession in 2009. Forbes.
Retrieved June 11, 2009 from http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/14/global
-recession-2009-oped-cx_nr_0115roubini.html

Said, E. (1993). Culture and imperialism. London: Chatto and Windus.

Schiller, D. (1999). Digital capitalism: Networking the global market system.
Boston: MIT Press.

Schiller, G. (2008, February 8). Disney getting “Idol” theme park. The Hollywood
Reporter. Retrieved March 5, 2008 from:
http://hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i61954dcc5d766db
3cd0cd3a57a48b47d.

Schiller, H. I. (1989). Culture Inc.: The corporate takeover of public expression.
New York: Oxford University Press.

Schiller, H. I. (1992). Mass communication and American empire. New York:
Wesview Press.

Schneider, M. (2006, April 26). Dose of reality: Low-cost fare on Warner TV
horizon. Variety. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117942132.html.

Schneider, M. (2007, November 29). NBC to push reality shows: Midseason
schedule loaded with non-scripted TV. Variety. Retrieved April 2, 2008
from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117976779.html.
258

Schneider, M. (2008a, January 13). Sponsors return to “American Idol”. Variety.
Retrieved March 31, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117978968.html.

Schneider, M. (2008b, March 7). TV series take a dramatic pause. Variety. Retrieved
March 31, 2008 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982038.html.

Schneider, M. (2008c, March 13). Sony wants to be “Millionaire” owner. Variety.
Retrieved March 31, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982349.html.

Schneider, M. (2008d, June, 29). TV viewers’ average age hits 50. Variety. Retrieved
July 10, 2008 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117988273.html.

Schneider, M. (2008e, August 25). Will games boost NBC’s fall bows? Variety.
Retrieved August 25, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117991116.html.

Schneider, M. (2009a, April 7). Layoffs get the reality TV treatment: Fox picks up
“Someone’s gotta go”. Variety. Retrieved June 10, 2009 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002236.html.

Schneider, M. (2009b, April 10). TV networks revise spending: Economic crisis
brings new business models. Variety. Retrieved June 10, 2009 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002340.html.

Schreiber, D. (2007, August 7). Intrigue for Endemol in Amsterdam: Takeover group
makes offer for remaining shares. Variety. Retrieved April 14, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117969824.html.

Schreiber, D. (2008, March 13). Sony wants to be “Millionaire” owner. Variety.
Retrieved April 14, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982349.html.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography (2006). New Scripps Study Reveals
San Andreas Fault Set for the 'Big One'. Scripps News. Scripps Institution of
Oceanography/University of California San Diego. Available at:
http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=736)

Seiter, E. (1999). Television and new media audiences. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

259

Shapiro, C. & Varian, H. R. (1999) Information rules: A strategic guide to the
network Economy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Shohat, E. & Stam, R. (1994). Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the
media. New York: Routledge.

Sigismondi, P. (2009). Hollywood piracy in China: An accidental case of US
public diplomacy in the globalization age? Chinese Journal of
Communication, 2(3), pp. 273-287.

Sim, G. (2007). Product placement in Hollywood films: A history. Film Quarterly,
61(1), pp.87-89.

Starr, P. (2004). The creation of media: Political origins of modern communication.
New York: Basic Books.

Straubhaar, J. (1991). Beyond media imperialism: Asymmetrical and cultural
proximity. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 8, 39-59.

Straubhaar, J. (2007). World television: From global to local. London: Sage.

Swart, S. & Keslassy, E. (2009, May 14). Mixed messages at Cannes market:
Attendance, acquisitions cause coin confusion. Variety. Retrieved June 10,
2009 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118003644.html.

Taplin, J. (2004). Crouching tigers: Emerging challenges to US entertainment
supremacy. Part 1: The movie business. Retrieved November 10, 2006 from :
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~jtaplin/CrouchingTigers.pdf

Taplin, J. (2005). The IP TV revolution. Presented at the seminar The Network
Society and the Knowledge Economy: Portugal in the Global Context,
Lisbon, Portugal. Retrieved November 10, 2006 from http://www-
rcf.usc.edu/~jtaplin/IPTV.pdf

Taylor, P. M. (1997) Global Communications, International Affairs and the Media
Since 1945. New York, NY: Routledge.

Tellis, G. J. (2006). Disruptive technology or visionary leadership? Journal of
Product Innovation and Management 23(1), pp. 34-38.

260

Thornton, P. H. & Ocasio, W. (1999). Institutional logic and the historical
contingency of power in organizations: Executive succession in the higher
education publishing industry, 1958-1990. The American Journal of
Sociology 105(3).

Thornton, P. H. (2004). Market from culture: Institutional logic and organizational
decision in higher education publishing. Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press.
Thussu, D. K. (2006). International communication: Continuity and change. New
York: Oxford University Press.

Thussu, D. K. (Eds.) (2007). Media on the move: Global flow and contra-flow.
London: Routledge.

Tomlinson, J. (1991). Cultural imperialism. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins
University Press.

Turner, M. (2008, March 27). SPTI invests in start-up UK indie. The Hollywood
Reporter. Retrieved on March 30, 2008 from:
http://hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i9f1cd7
c086ac4e842767713d8ccde664.

Trepte, S. (2003). The intercultural perspective: Cultural proximity as a key factor of
television success. Paper presented at International Communication Conference,
San Diego, CA.

Triplett, W. (2008a, April 22). Hollywood split on net neutrality. Variety. Retrieved
April 22, 2008 from: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117984426.html.

Triplett, W. (2008b, August 1). FCC votes against Comcast policy: Corp under fire
in net neutrality case. Variety. Retrieved August 5, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117989968.html.

Triplett, W. (2008c, August 24). Olympic audiences find focus. Study: Viewers
prefer swimming, gymnastics. Variety. Retrieved August 25, 2008 from:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR11179991066.html.

Trumpbour, J. (2002). Selling Hollywood to the world: US and European struggles for
mastery of the global film industry, 1920-1950. New York: Cambridge
University Press.

261

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.(UNESCO) (2000).
International flow of selected cultural goods 1980-1998. UNESCO
Institute for Statistics. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.(UNESCO) (2005).
International flow of selected cultural goods and services 1983-
2003. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Paris: United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization.

US Government (2007). US International Services: Cross-border trade 1986-2006,
and sales through affiliates, 1986-2005. Washington: US Bureau of Economic
Analysis, October

US Senate (1982). Copyright infringements (audio and video recorders): Hearing on
S. 1758 before the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 97
th
Congress, 1
st

and 2
nd
sess. - testimony of Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association
of America- (pp. 459-485).

Vasey, R. (1997). The world according to Hollywood. Madison, WI: University of
Wisconsin Press.

Véron, L. (1999). The competitive advantage of Hollywood industry. Center for
International Studies, University of Southern California, working paper.
Available at: http://ciaonet.org/wps/vel01.

Vogel, H. L. (2004). Entertainment industry economics: A guide for financial analysis.
New York: Cambridge University Press.

Waisbord, S. & Morris, N. (Eds.) (2001). Media and globalization: Why the state
matters. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield

Waisbord, S. (2004). McTV: Understanding the global popularity of television
formats. Television and New Media. 5(4), pp. 359-383.

Wagnleiter, R., & May, E. T., (Eds.) (2000) Here, There, and Everywhere: The
Foreign Politics of American Popular Culture. University Press of New
England.

Wasko, J. (2001). Understanding Disney: The manufacture of fantasy. Cambridge, MA:
Polity Press.

Wasko, J. (2003). How Hollywood works. London: Sage Publications.
262

Wasko, J. (2005). Critiquing Hollywood: The political economy of motion pictures. .
In C. C. Moul (Ed.), A concise handbook of movie industry economics (pp. 5-
31). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Weinberg, C. B. (2005). Profits out of the picture: Research issues and revenue
sources beyond the North American box office. In C. C. Moul (Ed.), A
concise handbook of movie industry economics (pp. 163-197). New York:
Cambridge University Press.

Wells, A. (1972). Picture tube imperialism? The impact of US television on Latin
America. New York: Orbis.

White, B. (2003). A new era for content: Protection, potential, and profit in the digital
world. PriceWaterhouseCooper. Retrieved November 30, 2006, from:
http://www.pwc.com/images/e&m/a%20new%20era%20for%20content%
202003.pdf.

White, T. R. (1990). Hollywood’s attempt at appropriating television: The case of
Paramount Pictures. In T. Balio (Eds.), Hollywood in the age of Television, pp.
145-164. Boston: Unwin Hyman.

Wildman, S. S. (1995). Trade liberation and policy for media industries: A theoretical
examination of media flows. Canadian Journal of Communication. 20(3).

Williams, R. (1975). Television: Technology and cultural form. London: Routledge.

Wilson, E. J. III (2008). Hard power, soft power, smart power. The Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science 2008 616: pp. 94-109.

Wolf, M. (2003). The Entertainment Economy: How mega-media forces are
transforming our lives. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Woodson, A. (2008, March, 19). Endemol grows stake in Pure Glass. The
Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 20, 2008 from:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ifff588c2bae9
eaff14ea6da473c23398

Young, S. M. & Pinsky, D. (2006). Narcissism and celebrity. Journal of Research in
Personality, 40 (2006), pp. 463-471.

263

APPENDIX

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
UNIVERSITY PARK INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD
FWA 00007099

Determination of NOT Human Subjects Research

Date: Fri Oct 19 10:21:15 2007
To: Paolo Sigismondi
From: Gordon Olacsi
Project Title: Shifting paradigms in the global entertainment landscape
( IIR00000234 )
The Office for the Protection of Research Subjects (OPRS) designee
reviewed the information you submitted pertaining to your study and
concluded that the project does not qualify as Human Subjects Research.*

This project focuses on trends in the entertainment industry. This project is not collecting
information about subjects, but rather information on programming trends. The research
activities as described do not meet the Federal definition of a human subject and are not
subject to the requirements of 45 CFR 46 or continuing review.

This review and opinion is based on the information provided and is not
valid if the proposed project is not exactly as described, or if information
has been withheld. If your project design changes in ways that may affect
this determination, please contact the IRB for guidance.

Sincerely,

Gordon Olacsi, CIP
Office for the Protection of Research Subjects

264

*From 45 CFR 46.102, The Federal Regulations on Human Subjects Research

Human Subject: A living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or
student) conducting research obtains data through intervention or interaction with
the individual, or identifiable private information.

Research : A systematic investigation, including research development, testing, and
evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.

Abstract (if available)

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

The globalization of cultural industries: Nollywood – the view from the South

PDF

Focusing the family: the rhetorical construction of "family values" in contemporary cultural politics

PDF

The pop show: racial performance and transformation in global arts industries

PDF

National transgressions: Representing the mobile, boundary-busting American during periods of major economic crisis

PDF

The share factor: implications of global digital strategy for public relations

PDF

Aftermarkets of empire: South Korean popular music and global logics of race and gender in the U.S. media industries

PDF

Global governance of sport in a digital age: the political economy of sport integrity regulation

PDF

Ready for departure: the role of public relations in boosting tourism from China to the U.S.

PDF

From the EV1 to the Chevy Volt: a re-electrification of the American automobile industry

PDF

The color of laughter: a look at how Black comedians shape race in America

PDF

Screenwriting double function of anonymity for female authors in Hollywood and critical issues of authorship in cinema: two screenplay case studies: Grace of my heart and Edward Scissorhands

Asset Metadata

Creator Sigismondi, Paolo (author)

Core Title Shifting paradigms in the global mediascape: from the Catalina bison to the digital glocalization of entertainment

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Communication

Publication Date 10/01/2011

Defense Date 02/20/2009

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag global entertainment,glocalization,Hollywood,ICT revolution,non-scripted entertainment,OAI-PMH Harvest,reality TV

Place Name USA (countries)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Goodnight, G. Thomas (committee chair), Banet-Weiser, Sarah (committee member), Seiter, Ellen (committee member)

Creator Email sigismon@usc.edu,sigispa@aol.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m2631

Unique identifier UC1197899

Identifier etd-Sigismondi-2625 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-600281 (legacy record id),usctheses-m2631 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Sigismondi-2625.pdf

Dmrecord 600281

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Sigismondi, Paolo

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu