Digital Displacement: Online Distribution and the Relocation of Specialised Film

Distribution Evolution: On-Demand and the Relocation of Specialized Film looks beyond the rhetoric and beneath the gleaming surfaces of on-demand to reveal a more complex picture than the narrative of disruption.

Welcome to the age of on-demand. This is a world replete with choice, a world where consumers dictate the terms of their viewing experience, choosing what to watch, when and how, a world devoid of monopoly where the niche and undiscovered stand shoulder to shoulder with the rich and the powerful. These stories of disruption have come to shape the popular perception of on-demand, but does this vision paint an accurate portrait of today’s streaming landscape?

Distribution Evolution assesses whether digital distribution is the democratising force we were promised. Does on-demand disrupt and displace the monopolistic practices and patterns that have long curtailed the wider reach of specialised film? Or does this vision of disruption resemble little more than a fantasy crafted by gifted storytellers and cunning marketeers? To answer these questions, Distribution Evolution looks to the past to form a picture of the present. Whether it be the emergence of new practices or the persistence of old ones, the book reveals how a complex interplay between past and present is shaping the digital future. The resulting work provides a new framework through which to understand the on-demand era as a process of relocation, not transformation - evolution, not revolution.

Elliott W. Nikdel holds a PhD in Film, Digital Media and Communication from the University of Southampton, UK. His research predominantly focuses on digital distribution and on-demand consumption, with a particular interest in the intersection of past and present practices. He has published peer-reviewed work on video-on-demand, cult fandom, and cinema exhibition.