According to recent research from Amazon Ads, 72% of monthly streaming viewers want to see more authentic, cross-cultural stories in the media. That study, titled “Ads to Zeitgeist,” examines why streaming is at the forefront of the globalization of storytelling.
“It’s an interesting time in the world of television and content creation,” said Nick Pepper, head of wholly owned content for Amazon MGM Studios, sitting down to discuss the trend toward globalization at Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit, presented by City National Bank. The broadcast model — which was focused on the U.S. market and, thus, U.S.-centric storytelling — is no longer king.
Now, with streaming services like Amazon’s Prime Video in 240 countries and territories, “there’s a way to tell stories to our customers or our audience that really mines and exposes many different cultures,” Pepper said. But there’s a responsibility there, too: “We have to look at things through an authentic lens. You have to find the filmmaker or the storyteller that has the ability to talk to an audience on a global scale, but to tell an authentic story that’s really deeply meaningful.”
Pepper pointed to Prime Video shows like “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” or “Hazbin Hotel” as examples of culturally relevant storytelling done right. Donald Glover created and co-starred in the former (opposite Maya Erskine), taking familiar IP and retooling it for a new audience.
“Donald is known for being able to take an idea and give it an incredibly fresh and unique perspective, but still tell an entertaining story,“ Pepper said. “So he, I think, brilliantly created a nuanced drama that paid attention and did the right homage to the original, but still explored something that was really socially relevant: taking a look at the differences in romantic relationships between people from different backgrounds. And the show resonated.” [The show debuted at No. 4 on the Nielsen charts, with nearly 1 billion minutes watched in its first three days on Prime Video.]
In the case of “Hazbin Hotel,” creator Vivienne Medrano’s animated show was already a huge success on YouTube before Amazon licensed it over to Prime Video and then commissioned additional episodes. “There’s going to always be a huge desire for the YA audience,” Pepper said. “What we saw was a migration of her audience from her platform on YouTube to ours — which is really rare for that demographic, especially for young women who came in droves to Prime Video.”
What the success of shows like those indicate, Pepper explained, is that “there’s an appetite, a desire to key into cultural storytelling and we’re seeing it around the world.”
Globalization is not just about greenlighting or acquiring culturally relevant content, the very nature of streaming makes a difference too. Take FireTV for starters: the report affirmed what Charlotte Maines, director of Fire TV business and devices advertising, had learned about what drives the customer experience on that device (of which over 200 million of which have been sold, in more than 85 countries in its 10-year history).
“I’ve been watching for years as we’ve increased our global penetration … and not, surprisingly, what you see is that it’s not limited,” Maines said, explaining that customers from one country or culture still want to watch stories from another. “My job is to make sure a customer can watch whatever they want to, whenever they want to. As we invested and prioritized that strategy, we’re seeing that the borders are melting.”
Nick Pepper, Charlotte Maines and Rachel Delphin during Variety’s Entertainment & Technology Summit.
Rich Polk
Maines said that streaming has allowed her team to be nimble in creating better experiences for its customers because there is much more information available about what the user wants. For example, she said, “We have an app called Fire TV Channels, which is effectively super-topical, relevant short-form content that you can access directly for free from the Fire TV U.I. [user interface].”
Maines explained that the channels started with a focus on news and sports highlights since those categories are traditionally underserved on streaming versus traditional linear and cable. However, what the Fire TV team quickly discovered was that users would follow one story down a rabbit hole of related content. So, they used that insight — i.e., a broad swath of customers enjoying Spanish-language content — to create dedicated channels like Fire TV En Español, which has 40 providers, including Univision, the Weather Channel en Español, and more.
“Instead of a Spanish-speaking customer having to hunt and peck and find the content, it’s just right there,” Maines explained. “In streaming, you just have so much more information. You know who’s watching, how long, for what, and then you’re able to just respond to that, versus sending content out at prime time and hoping for the best [with] no feedback loop.”
Spanish-language speakers are a booming audience at Twitch, too, said Rachel Delphin, Chief Marketing Officer for the live-streaming service. From 2019-2022, the audience for Spanish-language livestreams increased sixfold.
“It’s our second most-spoken language,” Delphin said. “Our biggest streams and biggest events are happening in Spanish, so we created more programming,” like the Spanish-language panels at TwitchCon San Diego, as well as a dedicated livestream called “Vamos!,” developed to connect, chat and share Twitch news with the community. Another emerging market is Japan, where Twitch has seen a 46% increase in viewership, so they’re also looking to incorporate more anime and manga content.
While Twitch is primarily known for gaming, the service has a broader and more diverse audience than one might think, which gives it a natural leg up in the conversation about cultural exchange.
“When people are fans of ‘Fallout’ or ‘League of Legends,’ the thing that brings them together is their love, their passion for that game. If they have a shared language, then they get to experience something that they both love, but you’re coming together over sameness rather than the things that make you distinctive.”
Another theme of the study is the importance of “cultural dialogue,” and Twitch has an advantage there, too. “Because we’re live, there’s a lot of interaction,” Delphin said. “That’s really the hallmark of live-streaming — you can have that live interaction. It allows for nuanced discussion, and it really rewards curiosity.”
Watch the full conversation in the video above.
