There is another kind of cultural executive who prefers hoodies to tweed. He talks about innovation, disruption, and \u201cserving fans,\u201d and he likes to say he runs a tech company, not a studio. On paper, he oversees a streaming service. In practice, he runs a private ministry of culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the old model, studios made films and series, distributors delivered them, and audiences decided. In the new model, power moved \u201cfrom studios to platforms, from creators to algorithms, and from broadcasters to digital ecosystems.\u201d Platforms sit at the center of the value chain. They license or own catalogs, commission originals, set the rules of monetization, and, critically, control discovery through recommendation engines. A recent analysis of the Netflix\u2013Warner Bros. deal spells it out: once a platform owns vast IP catalogues and its own production units, it can channel revenue toward internally produced content and \u201cgovern the entire creator\u2013user\u2013partner ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Executives in this position do not merely greenlight shows. They decide who can be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the surface, there is a reassuring democracy to it. Anyone can subscribe. The home page is \u201cpersonalized.\u201d If viewers don\u2019t like something, they can just scroll. Underneath, the levers are less romantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Platform researchers note that \u201cplatforms now control discovery via algorithms, monetisation via revenue\u2011sharing rules, and production via acquisitions and originals,\u201d while users \u201cnegotiate unknowingly by feeding the data systems that shape their own recommendations.\u201d Industry surveys for 2026 predict that control of discovery will move even further \u201cup the stack,\u201d away from individual apps and toward operating systems, interface layers, and AI viewing assistants that decide which tiles you see before you even enter Netflix or Disney+. In other words, the gate is moving behind the gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is what one critic calls \u201calgorithm culture\u201d: platforms don\u2019t just host content; they \u201csort it, rank it, surface it, hide it. They decide what appears first.\u201d That decision is a policy choice, even if no parliament voted on it.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Streaming executives like to say the platforms have made culture more diverse. There is some truth to that. A 2025 study of streaming platforms and cultural consumption finds that using platforms increases the diversity and cosmopolitanism of what people watch, especially for TV shows. But the same study notes that the effect is socially uneven: higher\u2011status users are more likely to use streaming, benefit more from the increased diversity, and convert that cosmopolitanism into \u201cbetter life outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nInequality with a cosmopolitan face<\/h2>\n\n\n\n