Digitalization of Society and Socio-political Issues 1

10Digital Audiovisual Platforms, Between Transnational Flows and National Frameworks

A preliminary observation can easily be made: digital platforms now play a central role in the economy of cultural industries. They are a central vehicle for dissemination, monetization and promotion, particularly through recommendation and fund-raising mechanisms (especially participatory financing) as well as creation and production (especially for the discovery of new artistic and creative talent, production renewals or ticket sales, etc.).

In the audiovisual sector – which is of interest to us here and which we will define as the television, film and video sectors – the deployment of digital platforms is not a new phenomenon. Nevertheless, with the so-called “Over-The-Top” (OTT) offers, it would seem that these players are playing a growing role and are now at the center of audiovisual change. In particular, these digital platforms have become an essential vector for the transnationalization of the audiovisual sector. This is the proposal at the heart of this chapter.

This presents the questions and the first results of ongoing research on the deployment of digital platforms in the audiovisual sector in France and India conducted within the LabEx “Industries culturelles et création artistique” (ICCA – Cultural industries and artistic creation). These two national situations are of course very different in terms of market size, consumer creditworthiness, number of consumers and growth prospects. ...