Brussels - The Computer &
Communication Industry Association has released the latest economic study it
commissioned, “The
Sky is Rising,” just ahead of this year’s MIDEM music business conference
in France. The latest study from Floor 64, co-authored by Mike Masnick and
Michael Ho, is a follow up that broadens last year’s U.S.-focused analysis of entertainment
industry economic data over the past decade. Using data from the entertainment
businesses in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the UK, the study
illustrates how the sky is not falling for the entertainment industry, but
actually rising.
Some findings from the report:
From gaming and digital music to
e-books and video, adoption trends have steadily increased. Despite some country and
market-specific variations, the economic report on entertainment over the past
decade has found that overall entertainment industry revenue and offerings growing
for the countries examined. Among the findings this year:
·
Books:
the number of published books has almost doubled between 1995 and 2011. Ebook
market growth is exploding.
·
Games:
in only 2 years the total European gaming population has more than doubled from
40 million in 2008 to 95 million in 2010. Between 2006 and 2011 total video
game industry revenues grew by more than 50 percent.
·
Music:
the number of authorized music services has increased five-fold between 2007
and 2011. For most countries, revenues are increasingly driven by digital music
sales. Markets for live music continued to
grow in France, Russia, Italy, the UK and Spain.
·
Films:
Between 2005 and 2009 the amount of European films produced has increased by a
cross-country average of 31 percent. With a gross box office revenue of EUR 6.4
billion, up .7 percent from 2010, 2011 was a record year for the European film
industry.
Masnick,
who authored the report said, “This data clearly shows that the Internet and
the creative industries do not stand in opposition to each other. The digital
age has undoubtedly created a new reality that is far more disruptive and
therefore harder to adapt to. However, this disruption brings more
opportunities and policymakers should make sure not to slow or choke off these
processes. The key is to understand the challenges and successes of the content
industry before considering policies that would cause a huge collateral damage
for the digital economy as a whole.”
“The
Sky Is Rising studies attempt to give an unbiased and neutral picture of the
economic state of the entertainment industry. In the process, the numbers
revealed one consistent message across the whole industry: it has been
continuously growing, particularly in the last decade -- despite the disruptive
change brought by the Internet,” Masnick said.
The following can be attributed to CCIA
Brussels director Jakob Kucharczyk:
“Policymakers no doubt hear complaints from the entertainment industry
about their profits, but have had little data to determine if the Internet is
helping with new distribution models or killing the industry.
Having statistics like the data in this report could help policymakers
in various countries examine what policies are really needed and how to tailor
them so that they are effective.”
