Television in the multi-platform era: challenges and opportunities faced by the audiovisual industry and audiences

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‪The integration of digital technologies by audiovisual media, and in particular by television, has led to substantial changes, one of which is the accelerated growth in video-on-demand (VOD) services which now play a major role in the production, the distribution and the consumption of audiovisual content. This article offers an analysis of the mutations brought about by platformization. While VOD services enable greater access to content and offer more diversity and inclusiveness in terms of formats and representations, the streaming war contributes to the establishment of a VOD oligopoly which challenges the expansion of other services, and could limit content diversity in the coming years. The affordances and discourses of VOD platforms also change the way that viewers search, watch and engage with content, providing audiences with a sense of an increased autonomy. The accelerated availability of content on VOD platforms also encourages faster consumption of audiovisual productions with the result that audiences sometimes experience a feeling of anxiety and a desire for deceleration, to go back to the way we used to watch television. While this nostalgic feeling is clearly exploited by players in the audiovisual sector, particularly by VOD services, it can also provide viewers and actors within the media industry with a more reflexive perspective and an incentive to reconsider the audiovisual sector of tomorrow.‪