Major streaming video services have declined to bid on a new documentary about the Saudi Arabian government’s alleged killing of a dissident. Netflix, in particular, was eager to bid on and list Icarus, the director’s previous documentary about the Russian government’s pervasive athlete doping programme but, according to the New York Times, did not even reply to the director about this documentary.
The same market forces that make streaming services great US stocks to own – Netflix, Amazon, Disney among them – also make them less inclined to pursue anything outside of a certain risk-free definition of entertainment, since a broader market inevitably brings broader constraints on what is acceptable.
I see an important role for independent publishers with a direct relationship with their audience in distributing new material like this documentary, especially those that collect payments directly from their readers/subscribers as opposed to via sponsors.