Beyond the audience market in which they have manage to carve out a place for themselves, American groups have manage to weave an impressive network within Europe: in 2017, the American group Discovery was the most omnipresent Stay up to date and subscribe on the European audiovisual market, since it broadcast in 26 territories. The group was closely followe by Viacom, Walt Disney Company, AT&T and Comcast which are present in 25, 23, 22 and 19 European countries respectively. These figures are considerable since, for comparison, the European group with the most presence outside its national borders is the German Bertelsmann, present in 14 territories.
This means that the top five groups in terms of presence in the national audiovisual markets of Europe… are American!
This phenomenon has been accentuate by recent mergers and acquisitions upbit database by large American groups . “The acquisition of the British group Sky by Comcast in November 2018 and that of 21st Century Fox by Walt Disney Company in March 2019” has strengthenedthe anchoring of American groups in Europe. “They have brought the total share of American groups in the non-national television market to the unprecedente level of 9.1% where it was previously only 6.9% .” However, this should be qualifi by the fact that these mergers and acquisitions “have mainly increasedtheir presence in national markets and not gaine significant new broadcasting territories . ”
The resistance of public service media
This internationalization of the television market in Europe should be seen in the light of the weight of public service media groups. Although they generate most of their audience within their national markets, they represent seven of the top twenty build a content marketing strategy audiovisual groups in terms of audience market in Europe. They have a dominant position in most of the major European countries , notably in Russia with RTR and Channel One Russia, in Italy with RAI, in the Unit Kingdom and in France with the BBC and France Télévisions.
So yes, the European television market is becoming international, with a strong American sale lead Stay up to date and subscribe base, but it remains “solid on its foundations”; the proportion of internationalization being mainly intra-community and the weight of public service media being (still) very important within national markets in Europe.