At their first working session on Wednesday 4 September, MEPs from the Committee on Education and Culture will discuss changes, challenges and opportunities in the cultural and creative industries (CCI), on the basis of a study prepared by the European Parliament's Research Service.
CCI covers all sectors whose activities are based on cultural values and/or artistic and other creative expressions, whether commercial or not. They include, among others, architecture, libraries and museums, audiovisual, design, festivals, music, literature, etc.
The 100-page study notes the strong economic potential of these sectors, which employed more than 6.7 million people in 2016. In most EU countries, between 2008 and 2016, CCI companies grew overall positively (+4.3%).
However, the document identifies a series of challenges, such as competition between quasi-monopolistic players, artificial intelligence and the carbon footprint of digital activities and cloud computing. Not surprisingly, for audiovisual, the significance of video streaming services is worrying: in 2018, Netflix and Amazon Prime accounted for 73% of total subscription streaming revenues in Europe (52% for Netflix and 21% for Amazon Prime, followed by Sky with 4% and HBO with 3%). The authors also point out that the platform economy is currently only profitable for the largest high-tech companies, such as Google, Amazon, Apple or Netflix, who benefit from technology to reach audiences more easily.
The study addresses around 15 recommendations to MEPs and underlines that “the development of a single European VOD platform to counter the dominance of non-European platforms could be considered”. Text of the study: http://bit.ly/2lt3Upw (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)