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Abstract

This article argues that a European media industry has failed to materialize despite sustained policy efforts by the European Union. Apart from film and TV production groups, European broadcasters/streamers are more nation-centric and less regionally integrated than in the late 20th century. The first section charts the international expansion of European broadcasters and documents how their regional integration began to unravel in the 2010s. Looking at the determinants, the second section argues that legacy broadcasters struggle to lift their digital revenue and are under immense pressure from streaming giants whose scale has created an uneven playing field. Using the global value chain (GVC) framework, the article draws a distinction between European lead firms (broadcasters and streamers) and their suppliers (e.g., film and TV content production groups). It contends that while the EU legislative framework supports the latter, it does not protect the former from global market forces.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2025. Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 4.0) This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Request permissions for this article.
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Sociology & Criminology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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