



In the months surrounding Net ix’s arrival on the Italian market, different media outlets presented the platform not only as revolutionary, a game-changer, but also as a threat for established broadcasters. After a long wait, with hype fanned by the news coming from the US, the launch in many other European markets, and the strengths of the rst branded productions, Italian TV audiences have also been able to access Net ix’s library and original series, since 22 October 2015. On the one hand, Net ix has reaped the results of its effort to establish a long-term promotional discourse in Italy. On the other, however, Net ix’s late appearance was also couched in the context of a complex media scenario and an already established national on-demand market. A rhetoric of disintermediation has been carefully constructed at the exact moment when a powerful global intermediary was entering the Italian market, masking its (future, intended) gatekeeping role. Adopting a media-industry and production-studies approach, this essay reconstructs Net ix’s arrival in the Italian landscape, focusing on the promotional discourse and its rhetoric, and on the reactions from the press, to give a deeper, more nuanced view of the phenomenon in the national media arena.




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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
On-Demand Isn’t Built in a Day: Promotional Rhetoric and the Challenges of Net ix’s Arrival in Italy
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2021-10-06
2017-10-01
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Cinéma & Cie
Luca Barra
2017/10/01
Università di Bologna
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On-Demand Isn’t Built in a Day: Promotional Rhetoric and the Challenges of Net ix’s Arrival in Italy
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On-Demand Isn’t Built in a Day: Promotional Rhetoric and the
Challenges of Netflix’s Arrival in Italy
Luca Barra, Università di Bologna




Abstract

   In the months surrounding Netflix’s arrival on the Italian market, different media
   outlets presented the platform not only as revolutionary, a game-changer, but also
   as a threat for established broadcasters. After a long wait, with hype fanned by the
   news coming from the US, the launch in many other European markets, and the
   strengths of the first branded productions, Italian TV audiences have also been
   able to access Netflix’s library and original series, since 22 October 2015. On
   the one hand, Netflix has reaped the results of its effort to establish a long-term
   promotional discourse in Italy. On the other, however, Netflix’s late appearance
   was also couched in the context of a complex media scenario and an already
   established national on-demand market. A rhetoric of disintermediation has been
   carefully constructed at the exact moment when a powerful global intermediary
   was entering the Italian market, masking its (future, intended) gatekeeping
   role. Adopting a media-industry and production-studies approach, this essay
   reconstructs Netflix’s arrival in the Italian landscape, focusing on the promotional
   discourse and its rhetoric, and on the reactions from the press, to give a deeper,
   more nuanced view of the phenomenon in the national media arena.

   In the last decade, the emergence and onward march of subscription video-on-
demand services (SVOD) has often been presented and marketed as a revolution.
After a period of transition, this paradigm shift would destroy the foundations
of ‘traditional’ linear broadcasting, providing unprecedented access to film,
television series, and other content without filters or intermediation. However,
a closer look reveals how, despite the hopes, rhetoric, and expectations, the
transition towards non-linear television has proved more complex, with overlaps
and incongruities, as old habits coexist with original innovations, and with no
stable outcome. To paraphrase a proverb, ‘on-demand isn’t built in a day’ but
requires a long, uncertain gestation.
   Concentrating on a single on-demand platform, Netflix, and a single country,
Italy, this paper examines how the service was launched on the national
market, from announcement to completion. It highlights the challenges of the
inauguration, the company’s promotional efforts, the role of audiences, opinion

                                                    Cinéma & Cie, vol. XVII, no. 29, Fall 2017
                                           Luca Barra


leaders and institutions, the professional routines and approaches involved, the
rhetoric used, and its impact on the public discourse. Italy is a peculiar example
because of the specificity of the national media, but also due to the launch’s
intermediate position, between the early-adopter foreign countries, where the
service entered some years before, and the one-day global launch in (almost) all
the remaining markets in January 2016.
   The analysis focuses on three levels. First is the important, even crucial, role
played by promotional cultures in presenting a technological, editorial, and
commercial innovation that arrived late in the medium-sized Italian market. The
choice of specific timings and tools, the ‘triggers’ used to generate and amplify
discourse, and the building of a relationship with a wide range of cultural
actors show how promotional goals are always complemented by habits, best
practices, and professional logics rooted in screen industries and production
cultures.1 On a second level, from an industrial and professional perspective,
reconstructing the trajectory of Netflix’s beginnings in Italy brings out not only
its distinctive features but also some more general concepts on these services
and their expansion logic. These include an international company’s relationship
between the local and the global, the emergence of a specific model for ‘robust
large television markets’, and the complexities of countries with long histories
and intense competition such as Italy (or France, Spain, and Germany),2 the
inevitable clashes between hype and reality, or the compromises and alliances
that even a powerful, disruptive service such as Netflix has to forge in order
to position itself and be successful. Moreover, on a third level, building on
distribution logic and discourses, the step-by-step narration of Netflix’s entry into
the Italian media circuit highlights the struggle between the disruptive rhetoric
and the original forms of re-intermediation provided by on-demand platforms
and content aggregators.3 In film, television, and digital media, distribution is


1
  On promotional discourses and logic in film, television, and digital media, see Catherine Johnson
and Paul Grainge, Promotional Screen Industries (London: Routledge, 2015) and several articles
in the special ‘Ephemeral TV’ issue of Critical Studies in Television, ed. by Catherine Johnson and
Elke Weissman, 12.2 (2017), 97–205.
2
  For an overview of the slow but continuous growth of video-on-demand markets in Europe and
Netflix’s role, see IT Media Consulting, Il video on demand in Europa: 2015–18, report, June 2015
(and subsequent updates). Other important sources of information are the European Audiovisual
Observatory reports, especially Gilles Fontaine and Patrizia Simone, VOD Distribution and the
Role of Aggregators (Strasbourg: European Audiovisual Observatory, 2017). On the specificities of
the French case history, see Arthur Kanengieser and Olivier Bomsel, Après Netflix. Sensibilité des
obligations de production de la télévision à la pénétration de la SVOD, Chaire ParisTech d’Economie
des Médias et des Marques, September 2014. On the German scenario, see Lothar Mikos, ‘Netflix
– zwischen Mythos und Realität’, tv diskurs, 3 (2016), 84–87; and Christian Stiegler, ‘Invading
Europe: Netflix’s Expansion to the European Market, A German Case Study’, in The Netflix
Effect: Technology and Entertainment in the 21st Century, ed. by Kevin McDonald and Daniel
Smith-Rowsey (New York: Bloomsbury, 2016), pp. 203–18.
3
  On this topic, see Chuck Tryon, On-Demand Culture (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press,
2013); Patrick Vonderau, ‘The Politics of Content Aggregation’, Television and New Media, 16.8
(2015), 717–33. See also The Netflix Effect.

20
                                  On-Demand Isn’t Built in a Day


crucial in shaping media texts and their meaning, in making them available and
accessible to viewers, in framing, connecting, and monetizing otherwise disparate
audio-visual fragments.4 The debut of the most widespread and significant on-
demand subscription platform offers an opportunity to explore both its role in
furthering the spread of content and brands and the discursive space occupied
by opinion leaders, media gatekeepers, and promotional tactics.5
   The research presented here follows an approach grounded in media-
production studies;6 it is mainly interested in professional logics, trade rituals,
and advertising routines, on the one hand, and the creation of informative and
promotional discourses through various professional and amateur players, on
the other. Promotion has a value both in itself, as discourse trying to set the
agenda at carefully planned times, and to generate other discourses, and in
revealing industry strategies and logics, thanks to the public or semi-public role
of some of the main professional actors involved; and this is particularly useful in
a case of Netflix, where the access to first-hand information and data is extremely
limited. Consequently, a complete mapping has been conducted of the articles
on Netflix published on paper and digitally by the main Italian newspapers,
magazines, and trade publications from May to October 2015. Where necessary,
that survey has been supplemented by an analysis of top-down and bottom-up
online discourses about Netflix on social media, singling out a selection of user
accounts and posts/tweets: while the institutional messages are fully part of every
step in the promotional strategy, grassroots ones have been especially important


4
  See Jeff Ulin, The Business of Media Distribution: Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in
an Online World (Boston: Focal Press, 2009); Distribution Revolution: Conversations about the
Digital Future of Film and Television, ed. by Michael Curtin, Jennifer Holt, and Kevin Sanson
(Oakland: University of California Press, 2014); Alisa Perren, ‘Rethinking Distribution for the
Future of Media Industry Studies’, in Cinema Journal, 52.3 (2013), 165–71; on TV scheduling’s
role in creating order in the digital scenario, see also Luca Barra, Palinsesto. Storia e tecnica della
programmazione televisiva (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2015), pp. 156–82.
5
  For an initial analysis of the significance of distribution and promotion in media trends, see Paul
M. Hirsch, ‘Processing Fads and Fashions: An Organization-Set Analysis of Cultural Industry
Systems’, American Journal of Sociology, 77.4 (1972), 639–59. The pyramidal model presented
there — with production connected to distribution and distribution tied to both consumption and
media gatekeepers — is extremely valid for television and digital media, too, and has also shaped
the present study.
6
  See John T. Caldwell, Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film
and Television (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008); Mark Deuze, Media Work (Malden:
Polity Press, 2007); Production Studies: Cultural Studies of Media Industries, ed. by Vicky Mayer,
Miranda J. Banks, and John T. Caldwell (London: Routledge, 2009); Production Studies, The
Sequel! Cultural Studies of Global Media Industries, ed. by Miranda Banks, Bridget Conor, and
Vicky Mayer (London: Routledge, 2015); Behind the Screen: Inside European Production Cultures,
ed. by Petr Szczepanik and Patrick Vonderau (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013); Timothy
Havens, Amanda D. Lotz, Understanding Media Industries (New York: Oxford University Press,
2012); Making Media Work: Cultures of Management in the Entertainment Industries, ed. by
Derek Johnson, Derek Kompare and Avi Santo (New York: NYU Press, 2015); Media Industries:
Perspectives on an Evolving Field, ed. by Amelia Arsenault and Alisa Perren (Media Industries
Editorial Board, 2016).

                                                                                                    21
                                     Luca Barra


as indicators able to signal rumours and news, often stimulated or exploited
by promotion. The focus was then mainly on the role played by several media
outlets in orienting and expanding the official discourses about the platform, and
— through a direct analysis of documents such as press releases, where possible,
or drawing inferences from journalists’ articles — on the official promotion and
press-office work.


A Long Wait, Full of Expectation

   The Italian version of Netflix launched in late October 2015; the on-demand
platform had already achieved considerable success in the United States,
developed its acclaimed first original productions — with titles such as House
of Cards (Netflix, 2013–) and Orange is the New Black (Netflix, 2013–) — and
launched its service in several foreign countries, including some major European
markets: the UK, Ireland, and Scandinavia in 2012, plus France, Belgium,
Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 2013.
   As a consequence, the hype, the attention, and many traces of the global
discourse about the service was widely experienced in Italy some years before
Netflix was available to consumers there. The brand enjoyed a continuous
presence in Italian-language web pages, sites, and articles from 2012, with
accounts of the platform’s features and its global-expansion plans, and rumours
about a future debut in Italy, which intensified in the years that followed, and
especially in the months leading up to the launch.7 On national newspapers
and magazines, both on paper and online, the international discourse was first
mediated by foreign correspondents in the US, framing it as a new curious
‘phenomenon’ from abroad and a possible future revolution, and later explored
in more detail by tech journalists, focusing on platform, interface and library,
and by entertainment specialists as well, giving some space to contents, original
productions and the actors and writers involved. This sporadic yet constant
presence received a boost with the first European expansion of the platform,
with mixed feelings of exclusion from the first and second tier of countries
involved and of hype on the brand and its main assets, waiting for the almost
inevitable Italian ‘invasion’.
   The start of the Italian version of the service could be carefully planned in fine
detail, building both on the knowledge developed by the company in previous
years and in similar markets, and on an established groundswell of needs and
expectations (which at times were naïve). In 2015, Netflix Italia was entering
the national market, where all parties — both the audience, or at least its most
informed consumers, and the industry players, such as ‘traditional’ broadcasters
and other on-demand services that launched similar viewing platforms and


7
    Source: Google Trends.

22
                                  On-Demand Isn’t Built in a Day


models before Netflix’s arrival — had in many ways already formed their own
idea about the service, months and years before it materialized.
   Netflix’s promotional efforts therefore had to take into account a huge
number of discourses, hypotheses, opinions and expectations, true and false,
about the company’s plans, which had already been shaped and disseminated
by grassroots users and corporate media. Moreover, this buzz was generated by
the local repercussions of the company’s US and then international publicity
activities, which crossed national borders and laid the groundwork on which
Netflix Italia’s effort to establish and develop a specific, long-term promotional
discourse would be built. It is important, in this initial phase of shaping the
on-demand service’s public image, to highlight the lack of direct action by the
company — which was present only in the knock-on effects of its actions and
campaigns in other countries — and the subsidiary role of many intermediaries
trying (in an often disorganized, uncoordinated way) to fill this gap and to
provide newsworthy information. They included amateur online users and more
established sources, such as newspapers, magazines, radio and TV shows, and
technology and media websites, including some possible media competitors. This
rich yet confused discourse was both a strength, highlighting Netflix’s impact
and forging a positive image of the brand and the service, and an important and
complex challenge, as the company was forced to live up to a growing hype and
keen anticipation.


Initial Announcements: The Hype and the (Tentative) Attempts To Control It

   The first official announcement of the Netflix launch on the Italian media
market came on Saturday, 6 June 2015. The carefully planned story was released
on several media outlets especially to reach the service’s potential target audience:
mainly young viewers and tech-savvy early adopters. At the same time, however,
the story was constructed to follow the classic rules of the ‘promotional game’,
reaching mainstream journalists and opinion leaders, helping them to understand
the service, and inviting them to contribute to the general discussion. The news
spread along four main ‘axes’, with different tones and targets, giving shape to a
multi-faceted discourse.
   A classic press release, a short text confirming the Italian launch together
with those in Spain and Portugal, was the first action by the company and its
delegates. There were no details on the national offering, the features of the
service, or the catalogue; it was primarily a teaser, to be explained and expanded
on in subsequent months. The second promotional device was a special tweet, in
Italian, from the official US Netflix Twitter account,8 spreading the news online


8
  The tweet, including three emojis (Italian flag, television, and heart-shaped-eyes smile), was:
‘Buongiorno! Ora è ufficiale: a ottobre Netflix arriva in Italia. A proposito, come si dice binge-
watching in italiano? #ciaoNetflix’ [‘Hello! Now it’s official: in October, Netflix is coming to Italy.

                                                                                                    23
                                              Luca Barra


and introducing a special hashtag, ‘#ciaoNetflix’, which the Italian audience used
on their own Twitter accounts over the ensuing days (and on other social media,
including Facebook). Another important operation in this coordinated effort
was the cover of the Italian edition of Wired magazine, which showed Hastings,
Netflix chairman and CEO, switching off an old TV set and promising to ‘turn
off old television forever’.9 Inside, a long interview focused on the company, its
goals, its US and global success, and its disruptive power ready to be unleashed
in Italy.10 The fourth pillar was ‘Netflix House’, a space established in Milan
from 29 June to 2 July, where invited journalists could try out and learn to use
Netflix in half-hour sessions aided by trained ‘educators’, all in the presence of
Stuart Gurr, director of UK and EMEA originals publicity. As one newspaper
headline suggested, ‘Netflix exists and is educating the journalists’,11 revealing the
company’s understanding of the national opinion leaders’ fundamental mediatory
role. Building the first announcement on a wide set of tools — the press release,
a social-media account, an exclusive interview in a tech-oriented magazine,
and a PR initiative with mainstream media — reflected not only the company’s
meticulous attention to the Italian market but also its need to take immediate
control of promotion.
   Before an official launch date was set, and without an Italian corporate
social-media account, Netflix started to build its narrative in third-party spaces,
presenting itself as a global success story, a disruptor that could change television
and frighten established broadcasters. It was a revolution, a game-changer, a
threat: as headlines and summaries reported, on-demand would destroy classic
TV, with its obsolete broadcasting models and lowbrow shows, freeing viewers
from the tyranny of the schedule, synchronized viewing times, and programming
made only of entertainment formats.12 A slew of newspaper, magazine, and
online articles followed, spreading the ‘good news’ and highlighting the
service’s strengths: low price, ease of access, a user-friendly interface, excellent
compatibility with numerous digital platforms, original content (already familiar
to Italian viewers), and a choice of multiple versions of films and TV series:
original, subtitled or dubbed in Italian. Some Italian-language publications on
this topic began following the lead.13 The main drivers towards uptake of the


By the way, how do you say binge-watching in Italian?’, [my translation] (@netflix, 6 June 2015).
9
  [my translation]
10
   Maurizio Pesce, ‘Tutto sull’arrivo di Netflix in Italia. Intervista esclusiva al boss Reed Hastings’,
Wired Italia, June 2015 <www.wired.it/play/televisione/2015/06/29/intervista-reed-hastings-
netflix> [accessed 27 July 2017].
11
   Maurizio Caverzan, ‘Netflix esiste e istruisce i giornalisti’, il Giornale, 16 June 2015, p. 26.
12
   A good example is: Stefano Crippa, ‘Fuori dal format, Netflix prova la rivoluzione del palinsesto’,
il manifesto, 9 June 2015, p. 13. See also: Andrea Secchi, ‘Netflix, lavori in corso per costruire
la library italiana’, Italia Oggi, 30 June 2015, p. 21; Giacomo Gambassi, ‘Arriva Netflix. È vera
rivoluzione?’, Avvenire, 2 July 2015, pp. 1 and 24.
13
   These are mostly journalists’ and popular analyses. See Stefano Zuliani, Netflix in Italia e il big
bang di cinema e tv (Milan: Il Sole 24 Ore, 2015); Francesco Marrazzo, Effetto Netflix. Il nuovo
paradigma televisivo (Milan: Egea, 2016); Ester Corvi, Nuovo cinema web. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon:

24
                                 On-Demand Isn’t Built in a Day


service were content, and especially money and technology. Some articles also
looked at weaknesses, often relating not directly to the service but to Italy’s
media system and infrastructure in general: the patchy high-speed bandwidth
coverage, the paucity of early adopters in an under-developed digital nation,
the content library still under construction because of a lack of available licence
rights and distribution deals, and the high competition in the market with the
other services operated by broadcasters and telcos (such as Mediaset, Sky Italia,
and TIM/Telecom Italia) already providing non-linear programming to their
small consumer bases.14 Even the weaknesses were reported by the press using
the company’s promotional rhetoric.
   During this phase, however, the company also tried to establish a counter-
narrative, taking into account the struggles of the previous European launches,
especially in France, where just after the launch a backlash followed on both press
and social media, criticizing the limited width of the initial catalogue and the lack
of some important, expected license rights.15 ‘Netflix House’ in Milan included a
press conference by Joris Evers, then vice-president and head of communication
for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to downplay the revolutionary aspect, to
present the on-demand platform as an ancillary service that complemented not
replaced free and pay television networks, and to scale down the hype. He and
his fellow senior executives proclaimed, among other things, ‘we are not at war
with the television networks’,16 ‘it’s like having a sumptuous buffet to hand, but
not an unlimited one; people should not expect that, and we want to make that
clear from the start’,17 or ‘we are not an encyclopaedia, a place where every show
is available, but one channel among others’.18 This narrative, however, would
disappear over the ensuing months, as the Italian launch progressed, losing this
more nuanced, and cautionary, approach.
   From the start, through its strong mediation, the company tried to directly
and indirectly orient the local public discourse, carefully building interest in the
platform, highlighting its strengths, with few caveats, and enhancing an already
extremely positive public image.




la rivoluzione va in scena (Milan: Hoepli, 2016).
14
   On Italy’s complex on-demand scene and its relationship with national television broadcasters,
see Luca Barra and Massimo Scaglioni, ‘Convergenze parallele. I broadcaster tra lineare e non
lineare’, in Streaming Media. Circolazione, distribuzione, accesso, ed. by Valentina Re (Milan-Udine:
Mimesis, 2017), pp. 31–47.
15
   ‘Après Netflix’.
16
   Paolo Giordano, ‘Arriva Netflix: “Non facciamo la guerra alle tv”’, il Giornale, 30 June 2015, p.
24 [my translation].
17
   Andrea Biondi, ‘Netflix: in Italia produzioni globali’, Il Sole 24 Ore, 30 June 2015, p. 21 [my
translation].
18
   Bruno Ruffilli, ‘Netflix presenta la sua offerta tv: “Siamo un canale, non l’enciclopedia”’, La
Stampa, 30 June 2015, p 38 [my translation].

                                                                                                  25
                                             Luca Barra


The Lead up to the Launch: Italianized Promotion

   During summer 2015, the public discourse on the Netflix launch in Italy was
kept alive with a different spin. A spotlight on the company, the revolutionary
aspects of the service and its success in the US and the rest of the world gave way
to a more local attention to the potential strong connections between the global
company and the national film, media, and television industry. Some recurring
stories, spun by Netflix’s PR department (and by other companies looking to tie
their image to the incoming service’s strong brand) and reported by the national
press, then focused on possible future production and distribution links between
the two countries. First, there was the foreshadowing, with scant detail, of a
mafia-related TV series produced in and for Italy. The article paved the way
for later announcements, explicitly highlighting a (supposed) ‘panic’ among
domestic competitors who were already investing in original fiction production,
such as Mediaset and Sky.19 Another step was the early award given by an Italian
film festival on the island of Ischia, near Naples, to Netflix chief content officer,
Ted Sarandos, flanked by national movie and television producers. The award
preceded the launch of the platform, and even any hint about its original Italian
productions. However, it attracted international attention to the company’s
plans.20 Lastly, national telco company TIM/Telecom Italia announced a non-
exclusive partnership and distribution deal with Netflix, to partially resolve
the endemic broadband problem, thus strengthening links to Italy and gaining
both companies some extra press attention.21 These morsels of news filled a
void, maintaining the interest before the main story broke. Moreover, the first
announcement aroused considerable grassroots curiosity, even spawning a
counterfeit Italian Netflix Twitter account, which sent 7 tweets and misled a few
journalists before it was disabled.22
   On 1 October 2015, a second official announcement gave full details of the
Italian launch: the date October 22nd, the offer, with a month free trial for
new subscribers, and three different prices for basic and premium services,


19
   Carlo Tecce, ‘Netflix fa Mafia Capitale: panico a Mediaset e Sky’, il Fatto quotidiano, 8 July 2015,
pp. 1 and 15.
20
    ‘Ted Sarandos incontra il mondo della produzione audiovisiva italiana’, Italian Television
Producers Association (APT) website, 18 July 2015 <www.apt.it/focus/ted-sarandos-incontra-il-
mondo-della-produzione-audiovisiva-italiana> [accessed 27 July 2017]; Nick Vivarelli, ‘Netflix’s
Ted Sarandos Schmoozes With Italian Industry At Ischia Global Fest’, Variety, 17 July 2015
<variety.com/2015/digital/festivals/netflixs-ted-sarandos-schmoozes-with-italian-industry-at-
ischia-global-fest-1201542936/> [accessed 27 July 2017].
21
   See, for instance, Melania Di Giacomo, ‘Telecom con Netflix, la banda larga per la tv via internet’,
Corriere della Sera, 30 July 2015, p. 32; Andrea Biondi, ‘L’accordo. Partnership fra Telecom e
Netflix’, Il Sole 24 Ore, 30 July 2015, pp. 23–25; Luca Pagni, ‘Telecom porta Netflix in Italia per
spingere sulla banda larga’, la Repubblica, 30 July 2015, p. 26.
22
   Emanuele Capone, ‘Ciclone Netflix: scendono i prezzi’, Il Secolo XIX, 9 September 2015, p. 38, is
an example of the articles written drawing on the fake account. It published details of subscription
costs.

26
                                   On-Demand Isn’t Built in a Day


and some initial hints about the catalogue. Once again, press coverage and
online reaction were enthusiastic, adopting the usual rhetoric of revolution
and disruption, encouraged by the company and its PR: many articles reported
Netflix as a ‘hurricane’ transforming the media scenario and scaring its
competitors.23
    Following this lead, the weeks before the Netflix Italia launch were punctuated
by announcements focusing on content that highlighted the service’s espousal of
a very loose, general idea of Italianness, while at the same time building on some
established world-famous trademark Netflix productions already broadcast in
Italy and known to the local audience. The first Italian Netflix co-production,
Suburra (Stefano Sollima, 2015), made with production company Cattleya and
Rai, the public service broadcaster, was officially announced, partially exploiting
the promotional effort for the movie, which acted as a pilot for the TV series.
The long-term plans for the serialization (released in October 2017) were
brought forward to confirm an investment in the Italian market and to exemplify
a need for ‘local stories with global interest’ at the heart of Netflix’s production
plans.24 The major production Marco Polo (Netflix, 2014–16) was also trumpeted
for its Italianness, in terms of the story and the actors involved, with interviews
and junkets with the star, Lorenzo Richelmy, and leading Italian film actor
Pierfrancesco Favino.25 Regarding the second aspect, the big Netflix content
brands House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black were heavily exploited, even
if the first few seasons had already been broadcast (and released on proprietary
on-demand services) by Sky Italia and Mediaset Premium, respectively. With
the first title, Netflix had already licensed the broadcasting rights exclusively
to Sky, with a life-of-series pre-emption clause, thus depriving the platform of
its most recognizable product: in subsequent months, this conflict prompted a
social-media PR effort on both sides, with fictional character Frank Underwood
protesting from the Netflix official account about the series’ absence from the
digital service, and his wife Claire sharply responding on behalf of Sky Italia.26
Netflix and Mediaset struck a deal about Orange Is the New Black, meanwhile,


23
   See, for instance: Piero Degli Antoni, ‘Dateci la banda larga e avrete i film. Netflix, il telecomando
va online’, Il Giorno, 1 October 2015, p. 14; Mattia Pasquini, ‘Intanto anche in Italia arriva il
ciclone Netflix’, l’Unità, 1 October 2015, p. 5; Marco Cubeddu, ‘Perché le serie tv di Netflix ci
avvicinano all’Apocalisse’, Il Secolo XIX, 1 October 2015, p. 39.
24
   See, for instance: ‘Accordo Netflix-Rai, e “Suburra” (la serie) debutta su internet’, Corriere
della Sera, 6 October 2015, p. 46; Natalia Lombardo, ‘“Suburra”, il cinema che diventa anche tv’,
l’Unità, 6 October 2015, p. 17 and 21; Silvia Fumarola, ‘“Suburra” arriva online su Netflix. Il film
di Sollima diventerà serie tv’, La Repubblica, 6 October 2015, p. 65.
25
   Simonetta Robiony, ‘“Con un provino a distanza sono diventato Marco Polo”’, La Stampa, 6
October 2015, p. 30; Silvia Fumarola, ‘Favino: “Cambiamento che non danneggia il cinema”’, la
Repubblica, 23 October 2015, p. 56.
26
   The picture with Frank Underwood’s letter was posted on Twitter, as a response to other tweets,
by the official series account @HouseOfCards (4 March 2016); the response, with a handwritten
note by his wife, Claire, was posted by the Italian Now TV account, the OTT service connected to
Sky Italia (@NOWTV_It, 8 March 2016).

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allowing it to appear on both platforms, so that Netflix Italia could ‘have back’
one of its globally distinctive titles since the beginning.27
   In the months and weeks after the official announcements in the run-up to the
launch date, therefore, the promotional effort continued to play on the service’s
revolutionary power and disruptive strength while seeking some initial ways to
mediate with the national taste, the market, and the audience expectations, with
many successes and some minor failures.


The Official Launch: Great Power (and Great Responsibilities)

   With an official national website, a service app at the main digital outlets,
and a host of social-media accounts, Netflix launched in Italy on 22 October
2015. It immediately deployed all its promotional ‘weapons’, in contrast to the
lower-key launches in Spain and Portugal, the other two markets that the service
was entering.28 The main promotional events, with a guest list of journalists,
opinion leaders, and celebrities, took place in Milan. First, Reed Hastings
and Ted Sarandos presented the service at a press conference, with panel and
individual interviews with the two managers; then, actors from Netflix’s original
productions29 flooded the city, attending the press conference and various photo
opportunities in Milan’s main landmarks, from the Duomo and La Scala theatre
to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele; finally, there was a huge launch party in the
evening, with the actors in attendance. Less visible, but extremely important,
was a high-level meeting in Rome between the Netflix policy and legal affairs
leads and representatives of the Italian Culture and Economic Development
ministries, where Under-Secretary of Communications Antonello Giacomelli bid
a ‘warm welcome to a company willing to invest in Italy’.30 Netflix conspicuously
cultivated relationships with the national press, journalism and media scene,
bringing over top managers and Hollywood actors while at the same time creating
useful connections with national institutions and policy-makers.
   As a result of this huge synchronized effort, both the press and online discourses
adopted the Netflix PR and communication department’s promotional rhetoric
almost uniformly. Once again, headlines, articles and interviews reported that
‘TV 2.0 may end up changing the whole country’, portraying the service as an
ongoing ‘streaming revolution’ ready to be completed.31 When consulted, even


27
   Andrea Biondi, ‘Accordo Mediaset-Netflix sulle serie tv’, Il Sole 24 Ore, 13 October 2015, p. 14.
28
   ‘Radiografia de Netflix’, El Paìs, 21 October 2015, p. 46.
29
   Will Arnett, voice of BoJack Horseman (Netflix, 2014–), Kristen Ritter and Carrie Ann Moss
from Jessica Jones (Netflix, 2015–), Taylor Schilling and Kate Mulgrew from Orange Is the New
Black, Daryl Hannah and Miguel Angel Sylvestre from Sense 8 (Netflix, 2015–18), Pierfrancesco
Favino, and Daredevil screenwriter Steven DeKnight (Netflix, 2015–).
30
   ‘Giacomelli incontra Netflix’, Italia Oggi, 22 October 2015, p. 26.
31
   See, for instance: Renato Franco, ‘La partita della tv via web. In Italia è l’ora di Netflix’, Corriere
della Sera, 23 October 2015, p. 1 and 51; Virginia Della Sala, ‘“Netflix, la tv anche al parco”’,

28
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direct competitors and other market stakeholders (including Mediaset’s president
and the national copyright society SIAE)32 shared the same basic views on the
service, casting it in a predominantly bad light but without disputing the idea of
disruption or the on-demand platform’s future nationwide power. All caution
was abandoned at that point, and Hastings set the bar high in his interviews,
explaining that Netflix Italia would be considered a success only when a third of
households (‘one family in three’) was using the service, probably within seven
years.33 Amid the enthusiastic approval of the press and grassroots discourse,
the triumphant promotional rhetoric went beyond the Italian market’s limits,
traditions, and habits, by forecasting a result that will be tough, if not impossible,
to reach.34 At least during the brand’s moment of maximum exposure (with wide
press coverage, free and promoted trending online topics, and even some reports
on the mainstream television news), the choice of brand communication took
a strong tone, building on all the previous anticipation and actually ignoring
a possible subsequent backlash (as had already happened in France and, to a
certain extent, in Germany).35


Conclusions: The Mechanics and Consequences of Promotional Discourse

   The reconstruction of the promotional efforts, the press response and public
discourse in the months leading up to the Netflix launch in Italy — which are
investigated mainly through articles, interviews, and social media — serves to
identify the various (sometimes conflicting) otherwise hidden promotional
approaches and multiple logics, which are seen as neutral or ‘natural’, and to
highlight the crucial intermediary role constantly played both by the US and
global company based in Los Gatos and by many national media, stakeholders,
and institutions. This is just one of the possible roads to take for an on-demand
operator entering a different national market: for instance, a year later, in late


il Fatto Quotidiano, 23 October 2015, p. 9; ‘“Promettiamo una rivoluzione”’, il manifesto, 23
October 2015, p. 13; Nicole Cavazzuti, ‘Arriva Netflix, la tv è servita’, il Messaggero, 23 October
2015, pp. 1 and 27; Silvia Fumarola, ‘Streaming Revolution. Clicca e guarda. La tv italiana entra
nell’era di Netflix’, la Repubblica, 23 October 2015, pp. 1 and 56; Massimo Russo, ‘La tv 2.0
comincia dalle serie e dai film ma può finire per cambiare il Paese’, La Stampa, 23 October 2015,
p. 11 [my translations].
32
   ‘Confalonieri: “Con Netflix non corriamo ad armi pari”’, il Giornale, 17 June 2015, p. 22; ‘La
SIAE contro Netflix’, il Fatto Quotidiano, 21 October 2015, p. 21.
33
   Andrea Biondi, ‘Netflix punta a una famiglia su tre’, Il Sole 24 Ore, 23 October 2015, p. 15; Jaime
D’Alessandro, ‘Il boss Hastings: “Tra sette anni saremo in un terzo delle case”’, la Repubblica, 23
October 2015, p. 57 [my translations].
34
   In February 2017, the entire market of over-the-top pay platforms in Italy, with Netflix and its
three main competitors (Sky Online/Now TV, Infinity, and TIMVision), comprised around 1.6
million subscribers. The estimated number of Netflix subscriber was then of about 570.000, a 36%
share of the market (source: EY report, Spring 2017).
35
   On the French case, see Après Netflix. For Germany, see ‘Netflix – zwischen Mythos und
Realität’; ‘Invading Europe’.

                                                                                                   29
                                              Luca Barra


December 2016, also Amazon Prime Video was launched in Italy, as well as in
other countries. Here, building on the already wide-established reputation of
the company, and on the large pool of Prime package subscribers, the entrance
was slow, without big announcements, following a step-by-step implementation
of features and contents, in order to ‘naturalize’ the service as much as possible;
as a result, the press coverage was limited, mostly focusing on Amazon as a
multi-faceted company. However, Netflix Italia’s noisy entrance in the market
constitutes an important promotional strategy for a ‘real’ newcomer, without
previous connection to the national industry, which could also easily be adopted,
reshaped, or maybe exploited, by other possible global new players.
   In an increasingly interconnected world — especially in the media and
communication industries, with constant transversal changes and a strong
circulation of discourses — promotional activities must always consider and
constantly adapt to what has already happened, including elsewhere. The
announcement and launch of Netflix Italia was built on a previously established
brand and on its awareness, image, and ‘behavior’ in the US and in other countries,
especially in Europe, resulting in much distortion and oversimplification, as
in the building of a shared transnational rhetoric. Even before the platform
officially arrived, Italian viewers already had an idea of what to expect, based
on the US and foreign practices and discourses. The promotional effort not
only expanded this but also mediated and bridged the gap between the huge
expectations and the actual experience of the service. By carefully shaping its
Italian debut, Netflix’s production, distribution, and promotion professionals
— some part of the company, others at a national press-office and PR service —
could then exploit this established positive brand value. They mainly adopted
a highly enthusiastic globalist rhetoric relating to digital media and Silicon
Valley, partially tempered only by some references to the Italian media system
and imagery. This kind of rhetoric spread across large swathes of the national
television and media landscape, social media (already thirsty for news), and the
entire journalism world. This also helped to raise high expectations about both
the platform and its ability to disrupt a national TV market, connecting directly
with the enduring controversies about its oligopolistic nature and its need for
profound reform.36
   Despite the perpetual mantle of disruption and revolutionary rhetoric
surrounding Netflix — actively constructed, as demonstrated, by the company
itself — the on-demand platform constitutes a complementary new resource for
national and global audiences. At the same time, precisely when it appears to

36
   On the history of Italian TV and its numerous conflicts, see Aldo Grasso, Storia della televisione
italiana (Milan: Garzanti, 2004); Franco Monteleone, Storia della radio e della televisione in Italia
(Venice: Marsilio, 2004); Irene Piazzoni, Storia delle televisioni in Italia (Rome: Carocci, 2014);
Storie e culture della televisione italiana, ed. by Aldo Grasso (Milan: Mondadori, 2013); Enrico
Menduni, Televisione e società italiana (Milan: Bompiani, 2002); Peppino Ortoleva, Un ventennio a
colori. Televisione privata e società in Italia (Milan: Giunti, 1998); Paul Ginsborg, Silvio Berlusconi:
Television, Power and Patrimony (London: Verso, 2005).

30
                             On-Demand Isn’t Built in a Day


eliminate at least some intermediaries, providing the viewers with direct access
to a large pool of audio-visual content, it also acts as an intermediary force at a
technological, economic, and editorial level. Moreover, as Netflix tried to insert
and position itself in the Italian national media scenario, through communication
and promotion, several different yet interrelated layers of mediation between
distinct forces inevitably emerged, highlighting the crucial role of several primary
and secondary actors in shaping the service’s brand image and in connecting
it to and engaging the target audience. Each of these forces follows its own
rules, practices, and (editorial and promotional) logic, in an intricate network
of actions and reactions, ‘baits’ and source materials, biases and traditional
professional cultures. Together with Netflix itself, which constitutes the initial
layer of mediation, setting timeframes and managing information and exclusives,
the journalists and opinion leaders (online, in the press, and in broadcasting)
work as special (added) intermediaries, first as anticipators and trend-setters,
then later expanding — often uncritically — on the company’s publicity stunts,
actions, and rhetoric. Following journalistic logic of exclusivity (the ‘scoop’) and
newsworthiness (news values as unexpectedness, meaningfulness for the national
audience, conflict and competition), they shaped the discourse according to the
company’s lead and spin, at the same time positioning themselves towards their
own competition and tailoring the news according to their audience’s expected
tastes and needs. Ministries and other national institutions are necessary
stakeholders for the company to engage when entering a market; however, their
regulatory role (often delegated to the European Union) appear mostly to have a
discursive value, indirectly reinforcing the promotional efforts. In this case, a logic
of double legitimation appears, with Netflix securing a strong connection with
the Government, while the latter can position itself as a privileged interlocutor
of a huge, highly-valued global company. Even the market competitors — both
broadcasters and over-the-top operators already present in Italy — adopt the
hype surrounding Netflix’s communication, with some provincialism, adding
some adverse remarks that nonetheless never question the launch’s importance
or strong future impact. Here the adoption of a common-sense approach to a
complex phenomenon mixes with a negative view on possible change inside the
market and with the request of external help (especially from the government)
to sustain national ownership and local production. The redefinition, and
proliferation, of intermediaries leads then to a common, shared ‘spreadable’
enthusiasm, an exponentially-growing hegemonic discourse that is perfectly
coherent with the classic media logic of newsworthiness and the professional
practices of promotion, and also rather contagious to the entire media system,
competitors included.
   The promotional and discursive path towards Netflix’s Italian launch,
moreover, exemplifies the service’s winding, ‘bumpy’ road into the major
continental European markets, which already had a strong tradition of original
television production and a competitive environment with many channels. After
Netflix’s partially disappointing debuts in both France and Germany, following

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a similar series of announcements and marketing efforts along an anticipated
timeline, in Italy — and, to a lesser degree, in Spain — some hesitant counter-
balances were tentatively added to curb the enthusiastic rhetoric of revolution
and disruption. However, the promotion and branding cultures struggled to
accept such distinctions and precautions, resulting in a communication that
focused more on hype-building than on the actual technology and catalogue.
Netflix Italia took particular care to steer the public discourse and to guard
against potential damage, but that is less a specific feature of the market and
more a concrete example of how the company, its professionals, and its publicists
learned from experience and sought to establish a model that could be followed
in the subsequent worldwide expansion. The enthusiastic sense of global
revolution, then, combined with a more careful, step-by-step market entrance, in
dialogue with all the stakeholders.
   During the Italian launch, the promotional culture and its discourse built,
established, and maintained a strong — and particularly functional —
polarization between the hype and the reality of the service, forced as it was
to deal with strong, established television systems, with role redefinitions and
historical specificities. The struggle between the expectations, raised directly
by the company and indirectly by all the surrounding discourse, and the actual
first few months of operation in Italy prompted a recalibration of previous
hopes, with a more varied, even cynical and detached, online commentary and a
‘normalization’ for balance and restraint on most mainstream media. In the first
months, the attention was (also) on the limited extent of the catalogue (especially
regarding films and national production), on the lack of some license rights
(including landmarks as House of Cards), and on impossible requests like the
availability of the new episodes of US network and cable TV series. Later on, as
soon as the service features were clearer and the library slowly increased, Netflix
Italia’s promotion not only concentrated on opinion leaders and early adopters
(with a handful of live events in Milan, Rome, or Lucca), but also on the larger
mass audience, with promos shown inside national networks’ programming and
connections to Italian media events and personalities (i.e. the Festival di Sanremo,
or web star Fabio Rovazzi). After the promotional tricks and efforts, only the
hands-on approach by the general audience and the several intermediaries, as
well as a recalibrated communication, could shape a more nuanced, complex,
and multi-faceted perspective on the Netflix brand, and the huge phenomenon
surrounding it.




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