THE IMPACT OF STREAMING ON THE FILM INDUSTRY AND SOFT POWER STRATEGIES IN CHINA, SOUTH KOREA AND JAPAN

Abstract

The article aims to examine the impact of the globally popular streaming services (Netflix, etc.) on the film industry and the national soft power strategies in China, Japan and South Korea. The author highlights the specific characteristics and the reasons for the economic success of the streaming services business model. The investigation shows that China cooperates very cautiously with the USbased streaming services, forbids them the access to the national film market and does not promote the home-produced audiovisual contents through the global digital platforms, aiming to preserve the independent decision-making in the cultural industries. South Korean film industry cooperates with Netflix extensively - a tendency in line with the state-supported national strategy aimed to promote the creative goods through the digital media and the social networks. More recently, the Japanese animation industry also intensifies its cooperation with the US-based streaming service in attempt to diversify their revenue sources, which is a crucial task in light of the rapid ageing of the country’s population. However, such cooperation is connected with the risk of compromising the national cultural identity. We conclude the article by discussing the theoretical problems raised by the ongoing transformation of the film industry under the streaming services’ impact and stress that if we attempt to assess a country’s soft power strategy’s outcomes, it is necessary to uncover the specific goals of the strategy.