Audio-visual content in the EU: production and scheduling

What this chapter covers

Introduction: analysing audio-visual programming in the EU

Sources

History and precedents

The 1980s

Technological development: satellite and cable

Sociopolitical context: ideological shift to neoliberalism

Commercialisation and its effects on programming

Changes in content production

The producers

Changes in television production: convergence, diversity, complexity

Financing

Financing private commercial television

Funding high-cost productions

Financing through the international market

Advertiser-funded programming

Entertainment on our television screens:

production, acquisition, scheduling

US fiction on Europe’s television screens

Domestic vs US fiction

Television fiction and European integration

The rise of formats

Other programming trends in the new millennium: added-value, textual convergence and interactivity

Added-value programming

Interactive television content

Textual convergence

Learning objectives

When you have completed this chapter you will be able to:

Outline the development of audio-visual production in the EU and the principal economic, political and technological factors determining it.

Locate some of the primary sources available to researchers of the changing audio-visual production scene.

Identify differences amongst EU countries as regards the production of audio-visual content and understand the reasons for the diversity to be found.

Understand the factors that impact on the production and scheduling of fiction programming and that determine the relationship between (national) domestic, EU and US fiction.

Describe some of the principal debates over the past 30 years in audio-visual programming across the EU.

Identify and understand current and future trends of audio-visual content.

Themes

Below you will find a simple statement or series of statements around the six themes. They should not be read as a given fact. They are more like hypotheses (see Chapter 2) which need to be proved, discussed, debated and then used in your own analysis of the subject. The ideas and approaches in this book are always to be considered with an open mind; this is important in university study and is what makes it distinct from pre-university study.

Diversity of media

To some extent audio-visual programming in the EU is converging. National differences in the production and scheduling of audio-visual content are becoming eroded in many ways. Even so, the traditionally grown diversity is still visible and strong: different countries produce, buy and schedule in different ways. Varying economic, socio-cultural and legislatory frameworks mean diversity will continue to exist.

Internal/external forces for change

Changes in audio-visual production are not just a result of new (digital) technologies and sociocultural developments. Economics and media policy have a major impact on what is being produced and scheduled. Moreover, there are pressures at the local, national, EU and international levels. Forces for change are manifold and together build an intricate web of influences shaping audio-visual content. When analysing the market we need to be aware of the many different forces for change.

Complexity of the media

The production and scheduling of audio-visual content is a complex process, raising many interesting questions. After the introduction of private commercial television the debate centred on the provision of programming, public versus private, and the perceived threat of the Americanisation and commercialisation of content. In more recent years, the internationalisation of production and other new ways of funding have come to be of interest. Moreover, the digitisation and convergence of the media is introducing new types of television content, with added-value and interactive features.

Multi-levels

Audio-visual production is changing rapidly at the global, trans-national, national and local level. National markets are becoming ever more commercial and with it more international. Policy concerning production and trade is implemented at the national, EU and global (GATS) level. Production groups are expanding globally, and programming is increasingly characterised by internationalisation. Many genre trends these days are international; expensive productions are increasingly financed at the international market; and television formats, a huge and growing trend since the late 1990s, are truly global.

European integrative environment

Through the ‘Television without Frontiers’ Directive (EU, 1989, 1997) and the Audio-visual Media Services Directive (EU, 2007), the EU has set out a legislative framework which the audio-visual sector needs to comply with. The audio-visual industries, although still nationally regulated, must be seen as a part of the EU market. EU policies, such as quotas for European productions and independent productions or funds to support production and distribution of European content (MEDIA programme – EU, 2006), all impact on national television production and scheduling within the EU’s borders.

Cultural values

Cultural values and traditions are reflected in the production and scheduling of audio-visual content. National governments as well as the EU support audio-visual production for cultural reasons. Production quotas, subsidies and tax incentives are policies implemented to foster expressions of national culture and to retain cultural diversity across Europe. Even so, we must be careful not to ascribe everything to culture. Audio-visual policy at the national, EU and international level often also has an economic objective, and many production and scheduling decisions result from financial and economic considerations.

Essentials

From the 1980s onwards television experienced significant architectural changes that affected the production, sale and scheduling of audio-visual content. In the 1980s it was US programming, production values and scheduling practices that influenced the changing European market(s) in hitherto unknown and, to some, threatening ways.

In the 1990s, it was much highlighted that a localisation trend came to define television programming. While this was true in parts, the assessment proved to be simplistic. The empirical analysis of programme production, trade and scheduling discloses complex and uneven patterns. Moreover, it reveals that important differences continue between European countries at the same time that a process of convergence is taking place – much of it attributable to international formats, production values and scheduling practices.

With the major growth in channels, the issue of funding has become more significant. With increasing commercialisation and competitiveness, it is a much greater determinant for programme production today than it was in the days of public service broadcasting (PSB), or even in the early days of the public service–private commercial duopoly.

The new millennium, moreover, is characterised by the introduction of new television genres and of television content expanding into other media – both a result of digitisation. Television content is refashioning fast, and the continuing trends for market concentration, convergence and internationalisation mean the market will keep spinning for some time to come.