Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

Table 7.4Rank1234567891011121314151617181920CompanyTop 20 audiovisual companiesworldwide and their 2004 turnoverWalt DisneyViacomTime WarnerSonyVivendi UniversalNews CorporationNBC UniversalThe DirecTV Group Inc.BertelsmannLiberty Media Corp.BBC (Group)ARDNHKBlockbuster Inc.NintendoMediasetRAIITV PLCTFIFrance TelevisionsCountryUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesJapanFranceAustraliaUnited StatesUnited StatesGermanyUnited StatesUnited KingdomGermanyJapanUnited StatesJapanItalyItalyUnited KingdomFranceFranceSource: KEA, European Affairs (2006), The Economy of Culture in Europewith figures from the European Audiovisual Observatory.the fact that major media and content producers are largemultinational companies from developed countries, and itfollows that this is where most of the value-added activitiesare generated. The top 20 companies in the audiovisual andvideo-game industries are all based in Europe, Japan or theUnited States — the same group responsible formost of the exports of selected creative goodsFigure 7.6and services. It bears mentioning that 17 of the20 leading audiovisual enterprises worldwide aremainly or partly active in broadcasting, thus benefitingtwice from technological convergence andmaking profits in both markets.1207.4.1 The growing importanceof ICTs for the creativeindustriesPeople with broadband access use theInternet more often and more intensively.Broadband drives online shopping, education,use of government services, downloading musicand other forms of digital content, and videotelephony. Broadband is essential to support100806040200new creative industries which can help stimulate domesticindustry and employment. Furthermore, digital inclusion isincreasingly measured, not by computer or Internet access,but by technological fluency and multimedia content creation.10 What is most important is people’s ability to makeuse of those technologies for producing creative work. Today,almost everyone can be a “prosumer”, a combination ofproducer and consumer of interactive creative content.In this changing environment it is important to understandhow infrastructure and access are being used. Indicators suchas online purchases and sales allow a comparative analysis ofthe performance of digital markets vis-à-vis traditional channels.In the case of the creative industries, for example,Internet music sales showed a consistent increase in shareacross markets. In 2008, the digital music business internationallygrew by around 25 per cent, and digital platformsnow account for around 20 per cent of recorded music sales,up from 15 per cent in 2007. The recorded music industrygenerates a greater proportion of its revenues through digitalsales than the film, magazine and newspaper industriescombined. Downloads of single music tracks were 24 percent higher in 2008, reaching 1.4 billion units globally, andthis continues to drive the online market. 11The dynamic growth of creative industries orientedtowards digital content is outlined in the OECDInformation Technologies Report 2008, which covers user-Market size and growth of digital content sectors, 2007USD billion (left scale): percentage year-on-year growth (right scale)Offline revenues Online revenues Online revenues growthOnlineshare: 7.5%Advertising total revenueUSD 445 billionOnlineshare: 17%Statlink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/476155357582Onlineshare: 16%Film and video onlinerevenue growth: >100%Onlineshare: