VOD is generating just 1% of TV revenues for European broadcasters, according to research just released by the European Commission (Executive Summary, Full Report). While still a relatively small share of revenue, the report says VOD is ‘growing in importance’ and revenues are said to be coming mainly from advertising rather than pay.
The research, carried out by Attentional,, also looked at the TV industry as a whole, for which revenues have been flat since a 2008 study, with growth ‘barely keeping pace with inflation’. TV industry revenue totalled just over €77 billion in 2009. Advertising revenues are down and there is now a heavier reliance on public funding and pay-TV continues to be the main growth driver.
Other key findings from the report:
The majority of services are delivered via open systems, i.e. freely available to everyone, and not subscription based. These services are typically ad funded or funded through public funding.
Five largest markets still represent around 70% of total TV revenue. Germany and the UK are by far the two largest TV markets in Europe; France and Italy – which have similar sized economies to that of the UK – are somewhat smaller.
The mix of TV revenue streams varies considerably between markets, making it difficult to generalise on market structures across countries. The newer Member States tend to have a higher reliance on advertising and a lower reliance on public funding and Pay-TV than older Member States, while the proportion of income from ancillary revenues tends to be higher in older Member States.
On content, Europeans still have a strong preference for content made in their own countries, but popular drama series produced on higher budgets than individual countries can afford are also popular across the European Union – most of this content is American.
