Understanding and Documenting the Transformationsof Television Texts in the Streaming Era - Part One

Over the past three decades, the transition from traditional linear broadcasting to video-on-demand (VoD) has been much more than a predictable technological update – it has fundamentally reconfigured the televisual text itself. While we frequently discuss streaming as a global phenomenon, often reducing it to the strategies of dominant and global platforms as Netflix, the actual experience of streaming in Europe is far more complex. Across different national and temporal contexts, we encounter a fractured landscape of local platforms, regional idiosyncrasies, and short-lived media ventures. While the evolving markets, industries, technologies, and audiences have been at the centre of the analysis on audiovisual platforms, the cultural and textual dimensions of these transformations have sometimes been overlooked. This special issue of VIEW is an attempt to bridge that gap, returning our focus to the televisual text, to its formal and narrative dimensions, as it exists in a renewed on-demand environment.