EU Commission publishes first-ever European Media Industry Outlook
Brussels, 18 May 2023
Today, the Commission published the first-ever European Media Industry Outlook, analysing trends in the audiovisual, video game and news media industries. Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton presented the report at the European Film Forum, organised at the Festival de Cannes.
The Media Outlook report provides market data and identifies challenges and underlying technological trends common to the media industries. Among other findings, it stresses the structural impact of the ongoing shift in media consumption in favour of digital players. According to the report, growth is mostly driven by segments such as video on demand (VoD), mobile gaming or immersive content.
The report also highlights the relevance of strategic assets such as intellectual property rights (IP) for media companies and how the retention, acquisition and exploitation of these rights can help increase revenues, invest or remain independent. It also stresses that an early yet wise uptake of innovative technologies and techniques (e.g. AI virtual production) is fundamental to adapt, open up new markets and become more competitive. Moreover, audience driven strategies should serve as a basis to build successful business models.
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Background
The European Media Industry Outlook is a European Commission report first announced in the Media and Audiovisual Action Plan (December 2020), aiming to explore media trends and analyse their potential impact in the EU media markets. The analysis relies on market overviews, sectorial studies, consumer surveys and questionnaires around the theme of competitiveness of the EU industry. Further editions will follow.
Quotes
The European Media Industry Outlook published today underlines how critical it is to sustain our efforts in helping European Media enterprises digitalise. We have to position ourselves early enough on new technological segments. To avoid that others impose standards, we might not agree to. From immersive content to virtual production.
Our European action is delivering results – from building industrial coalitions to stimulating investments. We have to pursue our efforts to be more present in emerging media industry segments, to prepare for tomorrow’s business models, and to help the European industry go global. Audiences are at the centre of the attention economy. In Europe we have the audiences – our internal market of 450 million citizens, we now need strategies that will help us retain our financial independence and protect our cultural diversity.