Blog Post 1

Demetri Bryant
9/21/14
Prof Casanueva
Blog Post 1

It has now been revealed that Netflix is trying to expand into Europe. The news article “Netflix invades Europe; Why expansion beyond the U.S. is so critical” by Joan E. Solsman tell us why it is important for this company to expand. Is this the life or death of television ? Netflix already has a core in the U.S. so expanding will move it towards international growth, hoping to become the globes premier internet television network. In the book “Television Studies: The Basics” by Toby Miller, he says “I tell the story both to record the irrationality of capitalism, and to indicate how long people have been burying TV - as long as they have been buying it. This is much clear we are in the midst of major transformation in television. Shifts are underway in wealthy nations from analogue to digital systems, rendering broadcast TV unwatchable by some existing technology”. (Miller 177) The internet has combined with television for gains of profit and are eliminating the aura of traditional television. We can now use television anywhere we choose.  Miller states “ In terms of technology that permits one to shift time and space, DVR’s, which integrate TV’s and computers, and sling boxes, which enable use of digital television anywhere, other than in the U.S. Internet video advertising remains tiny both in absolute terms and its actual growth”. (Miller 177) This is why Netflix is making a push to Europe. Netflix started with streaming by DVDs through mail and has merged with the internet to move with the innovation of technology and internet is almost accustom to everyone in modern day society. We can stream any movie or video with the push of a button. The aura of watching a movie at a theater or threw a tape cassette is no longer present.  The article “Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin tells us the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. (Benjamin 3) The use of traditional television is gone because everything has been copied and duplicated through multiple sources (phones, dvd, computers) but the television is not dead but more advanced. “Television is more diverse, more diffuse, more popular, more powerful, and more innovative than ever”. ( Miller 178) “TV will be finished only when the population as a whole turns instinctively to another medium just to see what’s on”. (Miller 179) The article states the U.S. Netflix subscriber base has grown steadily by about 25 percent every quarter. Investors want growth which correlates to a larger capital. “Whatever happens to TV in the next few years, we must bear in mind that its history is not a tale of visionary inve(n)(s)tors finding means to satisfy the existing curiosity of audiences - consumer- driven market but an uncertain dance of law, the state, capital, labor, performance, and interpretation, that reveals complex shifting power relations.” (Miller 182)