Ramon Lobato
Ramon Lobato is Senior Research Fellow with the Technology, Communication and Policy Lab at DERC. A media industries researcher, he has a special interest in video distribution, and has written widely on piracy and informal media markets.
Ramon’s books include Shadow Economies of Cinema (British Film Institute, 2012), The Informal Media Economy (Polity 2015, with Julian Thomas), Geoblocking and Global Video Culture (INC, 2016, with J Meese), Netflix Nations (New York University Press, 2019) and more than 40 book chapters and articles.
With Amanda Lotz and Stuart Cunningham at QUT, Ramon currently leads an Australian Research Council Discovery Project investigating the impact of subscription video-on-demand services in national media markets. In 2020, he will commence a four-year ARC Future Fellowship project on content discoverability in the age of smart TVs.
Labs
Digital Domesticity, Sustainability, and the Everyday
Digital Domesticity, Sustainability, and the Everyday examines the role of everyday life practices and homes as increasingly central hubs of digital engagement and smart infrastructure.
Automation and Social Futures
Automation and Social Futures engages with the ethical, political, social, organisational, cultural and governance implications of machine learning, algorithmic decision-making and digital infrastructures.
Projects
Australian Television in the Smart TV Ecosystem
This project (running until 2025) investigates the cultural impacts of smart TVs in Australia. A majority of Australian adults now use an internet-connected (smart) TV set or streaming device, fundamentally...
Publications
Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution
This book examines how streaming services and internet distribution have transformed global television culture.
News
Australian Content in SVOD Catalogs: Availability and Discoverability Report
November 1, 2019
Australian Content in SVOD Catalogs: Availability and Discoverability - 2019 edition by Dr Ramon Lobato and Alexa Scarlata is the third in a series of annual studies.
DERC Researchers Ellie Rennie and Ramon Lobato awarded ARC Future Fellowships
October 22, 2019
We are very excited by the news that both Ellie Rennie and Ramon Lobato have been awarded ARC Future Fellowships.
$340k ARC Discovery Project led by Ramon Lobato
December 4, 2018
DERC’s Ramon Lobato along with Amanda Lotz (Uni Michigan) and Stuart Cunningham (QUT) have been awarded $340k for their ARC Discovery Project ‘Internet-distributed television: cultural, industrial and policy dynamics.’