Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

7Technology, connectivity and the creative economybusiness-as-usual agenda may deliver pronounced increasesin inequality, access and range of cultural offerings. The realchallenge will be to develop new forms of governance in thecreative economy that will support and encourage the positiveand minimize the negative effects.The creative industries are clearly well placed to benefitenormously from the development of ICTs. However,there are a number of challenges that will need to be carefullymanaged. First, the creative economy often lacks professionalsin financing and accounting that would enable it tosecure funding from financial institutions. Second, SMEsnormally face legal uncertainties relating to cross-boarder e-commerce and the need to keep up to date on the dynamicsof e-commerce legislation. 15 Third, investment and commercialbanks are not always prepared to value intangible assets.This is a veritable lose-lose situation as companies find ithard to prove the financial potential of their creative productsand services and investment and financial institutions donot increase their portfolio of clients. Smaller creative companiesmust then refer to a mix of internal and externalfinancing sources. A recent Canadian study revealed thatapproximately 57 per cent of cultural SMEs have soughtBox 7.3Eurovisiondebt financing during the last two years, 80 per cent ofwhich were successful in obtaining debt capital from financialinstitutions. However, the research data do not explainwhether cultural SMEs succeeded in obtaining the entireamount of capital that they had requested or whether thecapital was obtained at favourable rates. A clue that such wasnot the case, however, is provided by the fact many culturalSMEs (and 42 per cent of those receiving debt funding) usepersonal savings to operate their businesses. 16As pointed out earlier, the digital divide is narrowingbut still exists; the development of inexpensive computingservices and of open-source software is very important as astepping stone in closing the gap. However, another digitaldivide is opening up, one that may have even greater consequencesthan the first. It is the investment-intensive universalbroadband. The example of countries such as the Republic ofKorea is notable in that such investment has driven andexpanded the market as well as the innovative use of ICTs.This is one of the main advantages in ICT applications anda way to engage the public. Given the increasing importanceof a closer interaction between producers and consumers aswell as the growing interactive and educational learningGeneva-based Eurovision is not only the home of the world's most popular musical talent show, the Eurovision Song Contest; for almost 50 years, it hasalso offered a distribution platform to Europe’s public broadcasters for an exchange of news items. Since October 1958, Europe’s public broadcastershave provided one another with coverage of news events in their countries on a reciprocal basis. The added value of the Eurovision News Exchangeswas already clear during the first experimental news exchange, when Pope Pius XII fell ill. When he passed away two days later, the editor of the Dutchtelevision news bulletin made history by asking for “the dead Pope live”, and Eurovision arranged for a live broadcast from the Vatican.Today, the Eurovision News Exchanges handle over 42,000 news items per year, using two satellite channels for both news reports and extensive livecoverage of events. Eurovision News Exchange items cover wide-ranging topics from the worlds of politics, culture, science, business, religion and sports.United Nations agencies began offering items to the Eurovision News Exchanges in the mid-1970s. Today, content provided by FAO in Rome, ILO, IOM,UNCTAD, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNTV, WFP, WHO, WIPO and WMO as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, the International Criminal Tribunalfor the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague, and others adds additional breadth to the Eurovision News Exchanges and helps more than 100 national andinternational broadcasters fill their daily news bulletins. United Nations videos, particularly concerning unfolding humanitarian crises, provide broadcasterswith essential material from regions of the world where press access may be limited and about conflicts in their earliest stages.Video material from the United Nations is also distributed outside of the News Exchanges via Eurovision’s World Feed Service, which began in 2005. Livecoverage of the 62nd General Assembly in September 2007 was distributed to more than 300 broadcasters worldwide. This cooperation betweenEurovision and the United Nations is only the most recent in a fruitful partnership that dates back more than 30 years and puts United Nations materialin front of editors in major TV newsrooms around the world. Additional information about Eurovision is available online at: www.eurovision.net.By Laura Downhower, Eurovision.15 Ibid.16 Nordicity Group Ltd (2004).204 CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 2010