8. Neoliberalism and Terminal Video

In the past several years, internet video has become big business with major studios and technology companies investing millions in talent and multichannel networks. Based on interviews with those leading the explosive internet video industry, this chapter investigates the liberal politics—or the lack thereof—of several multichannel internet and video networks and examines the practices of self-branding executed by video entrepreneurs. By 2015, the corporate liberalism that used to regulate television was now out-dated. This chapter charts how earlier desires that internet video constitute a socially liberal public sphere for participatory politics and amateur production have been replaced by a gold rush of acquisition, conglomeration, and monopolization. Internet video is less an open, generative, and democratized platform and increasingly one dominated by the logic of capital.