Marius Øfsti is employed at the Faculty of Audiovisual Media and Creative Technologies in Lillehammer.
He began his doctoral studies in a PhD programme in audiovisual media that was a collaboration between INN University and NTNU, but transferred to NTNU in 2020 when INN University discontinued the programme.
Øfsti will defend his thesis in Trondheim on 13 January.
New everyday
Netflix's introduction into the Norwegian market a little over 20 years ago led to major changes.
Almost overnight, the Norwegian film industry lost tens of millions in income from the domestic market. For the local distributors, the emergence of a global and digital American film industry proved to be an existential threat.
Using quantitative and qualitative methods, Øfsti's thesis investigates how Norwegian film distributors adapted their strategies and their function when the spread of movies became digital and global.
"This thesis presents a new theoretical framework, 'cultural industries functions', and uses this to show how the small Norwegian film industry was affected by the global changes in the way movies are being distributed," writes Øfsti to inn.no.
Significant consequences
The thesis' finding is that the digitization of the film industry did not only lead to a loss of income for Norwegian film distributors. Digitalisation also brought with it changes in the needs and priorities of the American film industry, which threatened the Norwegian film distributors' very function.
"The thesis finds that in response to this loss of both income and potential function, Norwegian film distributors became more dependent on Norwegian movies. Even though foreign films are still a safer and more predictable source of income, these have become increasingly difficult to obtain rights to while at the same time losing value in the domestic market," says Øfsti.
SF Studios and Nordisk Film Distribusjon, the largest distributors in Norwegian film industry, also increased the degree of vertical integration through the acquisition of production companies.
However, this contributes to greater differences between the Norwegian distributors, in which the smaller ones lose access to both films and markets.
Contact information:
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About the public defence:
Marius Øfsti of INN University will defend his thesis towards his PhD at NTNU, the Faculty of Humanities, on 13.01.2023. The public defence will take place at NTNU in Trondheim.
The title of the thesis is: "Norway After Netflix: Local Distributor Strategies in a Global Movie Market"
The trial lecture will be held at 10:15 in D2, Dragvoll.
The topic of the trial lecture is: "VOD Platforms and Nordic Cinema"
The public defence will be held in D2, Dragvoll, Friday 13 Januray 2023 at 12.15.
The evaluation committee consists of:
- Associate Professor Jakob Isak Nielsen, Aarhus University
- Associate Professor Christopher Meir, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
- Professor Anne Gjelsvik, NTNU
Supervisors:
The candidate's main supervisor has been Professor Audun Engelstad, INN University. Professor Eva Bakøy, Department of Art and Media Studies, NTNU, and Terje Gaustad, now of Kristiania University College, har have been co-supervisors.
The thesis can be obtained by contacting the research section at the Faculty of Humanities, NTNU by e-mail: phd@hf.ntnu.no
This public defence was held on 13.1.2023.
This article was translated from Norwegian by Noorit Larsen.