New Feminist Studies in Audiovisual Industries| Gender Representation in Subscription Video-On-Demand Spanish TV Series

Abstract

 In recent years, the increasing popularity of video-on-demand (VOD) platforms has changed Spanish audiovisual consumption. The main objectives of this article are to analyze the representation of gender in VOD Spanish productions. We pay particular attention to whether there is underrepresentation of character types and gender stereotyping with respect to occupation, traits, attitudes, and conversations. In addition, we set out to verify whether the image of women is different in VOD platforms compared with generalist television channels. To this end, we carried out a quantitative content analysis on a sample of 760 characters from Spanish fiction series produced by VOD platforms, broadcast between 2017 and 2020. The results obtained prove that even though new audiovisual platforms tend to incorporate equality, the underrepresentation and stereotyping of female characters in terms of professional occupation, family, and emotions still exist.