(Dis)locating South Asia: Diasporic markets in the global streaming landscape

Abstract

This paper maps how South Asian media is marketed by streaming aggregators such as Sling TV and ZEE5 Global for diasporic audiences in the United States and Canada. Examining questions of access, availability, and marketing, and analyzing popular press coverage, media industry reports, advertisements, as well as the platforms themselves, we show how South Asian diasporic consumers are envisaged as a target constituency by streaming platforms. In the era of bundled entertainment capsules, such aggregators capitalize on the multiple sub-identities within the umbrella of “South Asian diaspora.” Through this analysis, we also show how “South Asia” is produced as a territorial category and a potential market through the nexus of cultural hegemony and capitalist markets, rather than a taken-for-granted identity of emotional belongingness.