ABSTRACT
Streaming is quite often associated with the televisual, likely due to vanguard powerhouse platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video. But one relatively understudied change in streaming video competition comes in the form of mobile streaming. It’s expected that by 2025 roughly 75% of the world will access the internet solely through smartphones (Handley, 2019) with video streaming accounting for an estimated 90% of 5G data use over the coming decade (Horwitz, 2019). It follows that as of 2019, over 50% of global video views now begin on mobile devices (Munson, 2019). Consequently, platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ have optimized their previously fixed focus to include mobile functionality. Netflix now trials mobile-only subscription plans in various countries around the world, while Quibi’s failed attempt at mobile-streaming-only “movie-quality shows” raised roughly US$2 billion in investment before launch. Streaming, however, is not just limited to televisual and cinematic-style content. Established social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter now heavily promote streaming media content, and in the United States, over half of social media users are mobile-only. This chapter works through the nuances of what streaming is and can be, as well as the role of competition and market power in the larger streaming landscape. Due to the vast array of streaming services available and a definition of streaming that goes beyond the televisual, this chapter focuses on two case studies that complicate mainstream understandings of streaming: Quibi and Fortnite. These two examples represent some of the many divergent strategies for monetizing mobile streaming and the changing discursive and material compositions of mobile streaming.
