From Networks to Netflix: A Guide to Changing Channels

Even as the television industry experiences significant transformation and disruption in the face of streaming and online delivery, the television channel itself persists. If anything, the television channel landscape has become more complex to navigate as viewers can now choose between broadcast, cable, streaming, and premium services across a host of different platforms and devices. From Networks to Netflix provides an authoritative answer to that navigational need, helping students, instructors, and scholars understand these industrial changes through the lens of the channel. Through examination of emerging services like Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, investigation of YouTube channels and cable outlets like Freeform and Comedy Central, and critiques of broadcast giants like ABC and PBS, this book offers a concrete, tangible means of exploring the foundations of a changing industry.

Derek Johnson is Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is the author of Media Franchising: Creative License and Collaboration in the Culture Industries, as well as the co-editor of A Companion to Media Authorship, Making Media Work: Cultures of Management in the Entertainment Industries, and the forthcoming Point of Sale: Analyzing Media Retail.