ABSTRACT
The question of the globalisation of advertising campaigns and markets only makes sense in relation to the supporting media. On this point, analysis by the partisans of megamergers stops short. After launching the idea of the need to capitalise on the universally acknowledged symbols and cultural references of super-productions and best-sellers, and taking their hats off to their counterparts in the new multinational multimedia groups, the doctrine remains silent at just the point where the real problems begin. They also had to confront the various sectors of the cultural industry that began to set up subsidiaries in the international market years, even decades ago. Their record shows how difficult it is, and continues to be, to reconcile global objectives with concrete cultures and realities. It also indicates how far ‘international’, as an operative concept, has imperceptibly evolved towards ‘global’, as much in the case of the press as in audiovisual media. And it also shows how this history is that of the relation of forces.
