Media
The content and media sector plays a key economic, social, and cultural role in Europe. The European Commission’s role is to put in place the ideal conditions and regulations to create a single market for audiovisual media services. The EU encourages cooperation between Member States and, if necessary, supports and supplements their action in the area of artistic and literary creation, and is required to take cultural aspects into account in all EU policies.
Content industries are not only crucial to cultural diversity; they are also of paramount importance for the economy of the European Union. For instance, the audiovisual sector alone directly employs over one million people in the EU. With the internet, media content, be it made of images, sound or written words can be distributed and accessed in a variety of ways and EU policy is evolving to reflect this new situation.