Trends and Perspectives on Digital Platforms and Digital Television in Europe| Trends and Perspectives on Digital Platforms and Digital Television in Europe — Introduction

Abstract

 

Digital platforms are supporting a new universe of audiovisual production, distribution, and audience viewing, and they are now tightly integrated into many people’s everyday lives. The changes in commercial and public service media business strategies demand the analysis of emerging trends and perspectives in the audiovisual landscape. The articles in this Special Section are selected from submissions to the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) International Communication Section, and they include examinations of both the cultural and the political economy of the European audiovisual industry’s operations and practices. These articles address the impacts of “platformization” and changing policies and regulation in the audiovisual industry, focusing on developments in the European Union and, nationally, in Spain and the UK. They highlight successful instances of adaptation to changing market conditions in the cases of television series production and public service media. They also call attention to how new cultural, political, and economic dynamics, regulations, and changes in the competitive environment in Europe are challenging the financial sustainability of local audiovisual content production and efforts to strengthen media plurality and diversity, as well as online public service media discoverability. This special issue signals a continuing need for research to monitor interactions between changing technologies for monetizing audience data, commercial business strategies, and the constraints and opportunities facing European commercial and public service media players.