On-demand audiences: understanding the streaming-era viewing practices for audiences in Turkey

This research examines the changing film and television viewing culture with the introduction and proliferation of streaming services such as Netflix from the perspective of the audiences in Turkey. By incorporating the experience of real audiences into the discussion of "on-demand culture" (Tryon, 2018), this research contributes to the theorization of the concept of "internet television" from an experiential point of view. It explores the changing viewing experience, behavior, and habits of audiences with the proliferation of subscription-based video-on-demand services. I focus on audiences in Turkey and gather empirical data from in-depth interviews with 30 participants. Television culture is robust in Turkey, one of the major TV series exporters, and the television industry greatly influences the general media ecosystem. Thereby, examining the emergence and development of the VOD market concerning this strong television culture is necessary to understand the audience's tastes/behavior and make sense of the changing content. Shifting the discussion on choice and taste from the realm of the algorithms to the more direct experience of the audiences - or to the way the audiences talk about these experiences- this dissertation examines how audiences respond to this more direct relationship to the streaming services and diversified content they offer. It follows a multi-method approach that combines audience research with content/narrative analysis and rhetorical analysis. While the first three empirical chapters rely on qualitative audience research based on semi-structured interviews with 30 SVOD viewers in Turkey, the last chapter engages in a narrative analysis of a series commissioned by SVOD services operating in Turkey. Furthermore, all chapters use rhetorical analysis to illustrate the marketing discourse and brand identity of SVOD services such as Netflix and MUBI. This dissertation compares and contrasts the audience's perspective on these services with the ideological underpinnings of the industrial discourse around them. This dissertation is designed as a 'stapler thesis' with separate articles. After the introductory chapter that establishes the theoretical framework and background, the first empirical chapter focuses on the experience of SVOD audiences from Turkey (Netflix in particular). It aims to understand the effect of SVOD technology on viewing habits/behaviors, cultural choices, and tastes. Distinct from more rationalized accounts of choice and taste for SVOD audiences, it mainly argues that contemporary audiences emotionally, intimately, and sensually relate to Netflix. The second chapter focuses on audience experiences with another global SVOD service, MUBI. It explores the ways the audience relates to the imagined audience that MUBI assumes, promotes, and celebrates as a cultural gatekeeper and artistic patron/expert; and how, in turn, being a MUBI user becomes a sign of cultural taste. The dissertation moves on to the taste and habits of the local SVOD audience in the third chapter. It is interested in how SVOD is adopted, negotiated, reformulated, and received in a non-Western context where global and local services compete, substitute, and emulate each other. The fourth chapter asks how the stories told change with the emergence of SVOD norms by analyzing two comedy series commissioned by the Turkish SVOD service, BluTV, and explores their distinction from linear television comedies in Turkey. Following Bucaria and Barra's (2016) conceptualization of "taboo" or "controversial" humor for television, it finds evidence that SVOD services create space for storytellers to challenge culturally or politically taboo issues in Turkey through humor. Finally, the concluding section discusses the thesis's contributions to the field, limitations and suggestions, and possibilities for future research.