Content Territorialities: a Catalogue-Based Study of ‘Global’ SVOD Platforms in East Asia

Abstract This paper is an exploratory study on major global subscription-based video-on-demand ( SVOD ) platforms (Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney+), which performs a data-driven analysis of each platform’s catalogue in five active Asian markets (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) and examines their contents over time and across space. To support catalogue-based, exhaustive quantitative research, we propose a technical framework and present various results, in particular, those related to overlap between regions and platforms and license duration, as the first step towards a systematic and standardized approach to looking at SVOD platforms that links media studies and digital humanities. Pursuing projects similar to this one and leveraging Semantic Web principles could facilitate similar research in the future; here, we discuss the numerous obstacles that currently hinder it.