The Outlook shows that Europe's media industry continues to produce high quality audiovisual works and video games, as well as trustworthy news, while facing challenges linked to distribution, consumers’ shifting habits and the rise of new technologies.
EU media industry, which directly employ 1.32 million people in the EU across 245,000 enterprises, faces unprecedented competition from global giants. As international conglomerates shift to user-centric business models, professional media organisations are competing with online platforms, including social media, notably for advertising revenue as users’ attention to content is being monetised.
As the sector continues to evolve at a rapid pace, the Media Industry Outlook offers a number of key insights for the future scaling up, competitiveness, independence and appeal of European media:
- putting users and consumers at the core of business development strategies to appeal to larger audiences;
- increasing investment in and take up of EU-based technologies, including artificial intelligence;
- utilising Europe’s rich intellectual properties to stand out in an increasingly crowded landscape.
The Commission has put forward several initiatives to those ends. Between 2021 and 2027 the EU is investing €1.6 billion in the sector under the Creative Europe programme (MEDIA and Cross strands). In the next Multiannual Financial Framework, the Commission is also proposing ‘AgoraEU’, a new programme worth € 9 billion for culture, media and civil society to, among others, increase the competitiveness of the cultural and creative sectors, in particular the media and audiovisual industries.
European media at Venice Film Festival
Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy will present the European Media Outlook at the Venice Film Festival. She will use this opportunity to exchange with media executives on the Audio Visual Media Services Directive and the European Media Freedom Act, as well as on the economic state of the sector, AI, copyright and the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework.
Amongst the official selection at Venice are 19 works supported by Creative Europe MEDIA. Silent Friend (by Ildikó Enyedi) and Duse (by Pietro Marcello will compete for the Golden Lion, while four others (Grand Ciel by Akihiro Hata, Dinți de lapte by Mihai Mincan, Un anno di scuola by Laura Samani and Mother by Teona Strugar Mitevska) will compete in the prestigious Orizzonti selection. Together, these productions received €2.3 million funding from Creative Europe.
Background
The European Media Industry Outlook explores media trends and analyses their potential impact in EU media markets. It expands on the first edition, published in May 2023, by providing new consumer data from all EU Member States. The analysis relies on the most recent EU-level market overviews, sectorial studies and a consumer survey.