Although Internet-distributed television bears much in common with the television long studied and theorized using cultural studies-based approaches to analysis, several of its features profoundly deviate from earlier television norms and require reassessment and adaptation of theoretical frames. This article focuses on the issue of textual popularity in relation to these services and identifies key challenges to using the same frames of cultural power that have been used for studying television in the past. The underlying problem of audience fragmentation does not originate with streaming services, but this profound contextual change, in concert with industrial aspects that further distinguish internet-distributed television from television’s past norms, must be addressed. The article concludes by identifying several ways the cultural power of streaming services can be investigated despite the challenges that emerging norms of Internet-distributed video provide.

尽管互联网分发的电视与长期使用基于文化研究的分析方法进行理论研究的电视有很多共通之处，但其某些功能与以前的电视规范大相径庭，需要重新评估和调整理论框架。本文重点介绍与这些服务相关的文本流行性问题，并确定使用过去用于研究电视的相同文化力量框架所面临的主要挑战。观众分散的根本问题并非源于流媒体服务，而是必须解决这种深刻的语境变化，并与工业方面相结合，以进一步将互联网分发的电视与电视的过去规范区分开来。