Abstract/Summary

The speed and breadth with which global television is crossing borders has been accelerated by legal web-delivered platforms, particularly services like Netflix and Amazon Video internationally and Hulu in the US. These sites are developing impressive reputations as prolific producers of “Original” content, but this designation as “Original” obscures the national origins of imported programming to claim all creative credit for the SVOD distributor. We identify a distinctive shift from long-standing practices surrounding imports on both sides of the Atlantic through the paratextual framing practices of particular SVODs. To identify these programs as ‘Original’ content communicates exclusivity and freshness, but when this identification is used falsely it erases the production and exhibition histories of the shows in their originating countries and threatens the global diversity of content, the viability of independent producers, and the localism that has been central to broadcasting from its origins.