ABSTRACT

This book maps the landscape of contemporary European premium television fiction, offering a detailed overview of both the changes in the digital production and distribution and the emergence of specific national and transnational case histories.

Combining a media-production approach with a textual and audience analysis, the volume offers a complex, stratified, systemic view of ongoing aesthetic, sociocultural and industrial developments in contemporary European TV. With contributions from leading experts in the field, the book first offers an overview of the industrial, policy and cultural context for the renaissance of European television drama over the past decade, based on original comparative research. This research is then supported by case study chapters from the key contexts within which quality European television is being produced, offering a complex and complete picture of the industry’s strengths and limitations, its traditions and trends, its constraints and future perspectives.

A European Television Fiction Renaissance is a must-read book for TV scholars working across Europe and beyond in the areas of media studies, international communications and television studies, media industries studies, production studies, European studies, and media policy studies as well as for those with an interest in television drama, Netflix, globalisation, pay TV and on demand.

chapter 1|10 pages

Introduction

The many steps and factors of a European renaissance

part 1|57 pages

Researching European fiction

chapter 2|20 pages

The grounds for a renaissance in European fiction

Transnational writing, production and distribution approaches, and strategies

chapter 3|23 pages

Mapping European premium-scripted TV

Trends, patterns, and data in an emerging EU market

chapter 4|12 pages

Transnational circulation of European TV series

National models and industrial strategies for scripted pay imports/exports

part 2|32 pages

United Kingdom

part 3|41 pages

France

chapter 8|12 pages

The strategy of “quality TV”

Branding, creating, and producing at Canal+

part 4|32 pages

Italy

chapter 10|20 pages

Towards a new model for Italian TV fiction

Sky Italia originals and the struggle for difference

chapter 11|10 pages

The Holy See(ing)

Splendors and miseries of The Young Pope

part 5|36 pages

Germany

chapter 13|20 pages

Selling location, selling history

New German series and changing market logic

part 6|30 pages

Spain

chapter 14|14 pages

The origins of premium television fiction in Spain

Canal+ and its evolution towards new ways of production and distribution as Movistar+

part 7|54 pages

Central and Eastern Europe