Cross-border circulation of films and cultural diversity in the EU

Abstract

This paper explores new data sources on multilateral trade in films among EU countries and with the USA in offline cinema and in online video-ondemand distribution. We observe variations in trade patterns across countries and films and explore how they affect cultural diversity. We find that the EU film market is highly fragmented and cross-border film availability in cinema is low. We explore different aspects of the cultural discount hypothesis by means of a standard Helpman and Krugman (Market structure and foreign trade. Increasing returns, imperfect competition, and the international economy, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1985) trade model with economies of scale and a two-stage Heckman (Econometrica 47(1):153-161, 1979) estimation procedure. Our results show that cultural distance, success in the home market and the size of the film budget influence trade of films between countries. US films have a lower propensity to get into export markets, relative to their success in the home market. Consumer demand for imported films is relatively smaller in large EU economies, except for films imported from the USA that are only marginally affected. We also show that trade patterns in online film distribution are not fundamentally different. As online distribution occurs downstream from theatrical release, online distributors can benefit from cinema market experience to make a better selection of films. This results in a lower impact of domestic market shares on online trade patterns.

Sustainability in the Most Globalized Sectors of Creative Industries in Slovakia

“…The film industry and video publishing belonging to the group of the most globalized sectors in the creative industries fit the aforementioned characteristics. They have high fixed production costs, benefits from economies of scale and faces significant trade costs related to cultural distance [9].…”

The Creation and Operation Strategy of Disney’s Mulan: Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Discount

“…This change is as follows: due to the influence of cultural discount and cultural premium factors, the relationship between cultural distance and product sales is U-shaped [44]. In addition, cultural distance may play a positive role in promoting the import of these cultural products [45].…”

Channels and Barriers of Cross-Border Online Circulation: Central and Eastern Europe as a Digital Periphery

“…Existing studies of cross-border circulation show that the small media markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are by far the least successful exporters of audiovisual content among EU Member States, including small West European countries such as Belgium and Denmark (Higson 2018). The reasons include the typical economic characteristics of small countries' media industries such as the shortage of financial resources, inability to benefit from economies of scale in the home market, a limited pool of internationally established talent and language barriers (see Alaveras and Martens 2018). My own research of producer practices indicates that there are also more specific, cultural-historical factors typical for post-socialist media systems: the lack of strong production houses and low levels of vertical and horizontal integration, the relatively late professionalization and internationalization of independent producers, high levels of dependence on public subsidies and, more generally, enduring structural elements of the former state-socialist media, mainly in the form of the local public service broadcaster (PSB)Česká televize (Czech Television), which is the major local producer and exporter of audiovisual content (Szczepanik 2018).…”