Trends and Perspectives on Digital Platforms and Digital Television in Europe

Resumen

Digital platforms are supporting a new universe of audiovisual production, distribution,and audience viewing, and they are now tightly integrated into many people’s everydaylives. The changes in commercial and public service media business strategies demandthe analysis of emerging trends and perspectives in the audiovisual landscape. The articlesin this Special Section are selected from submissions to the International Association forMedia and Communication Research (IAMCR) International Communication Section, andthey include examinations of both the cultural and the political economy of the Europeanaudiovisual industry’s operations and practices. These articles address the impacts of“platformization” and changing policies and regulation in the audiovisual industry, focusingon developments in the European Union and, nationally, in Spain and the UK. Theyhighlight successful instances of adaptation to changing market conditions in the cases oftelevision series production and public service media. They also call attention to how newcultural, political, and economic dynamics, regulations, and changes in the competitiveenvironment in Europe are challenging the financial sustainability of local audiovisualcontent production and efforts to strengthen media plurality and diversity, as well as onlinepublic service media discoverability. This special issue signals a continuing need forresearch to monitor interactions between changing technologies for monetizing audiencedata, commercial business strategies, and the constraints and opportunities facingEuropean commercial and public service media players.