A new report on the European audiovisual sector says US groups control around one in five private TV channels and over one-third of all SVOD (38%) and TVOD (34%) services.
The United States represents the largest ownership base outside the EU27 including the UK.
The European Audiovisual Observatory, which compiled the report says the European AV sector boasts a total of 12, 275 audiovisual media services. Around three-quarters of these are linear services (9,080 TV channels) and one-quarter are non-linear (3,195 VOD services and video-sharing platforms).
US players typically operate on a pan-European level, serving numerous European markets. The Walt Disney Company, for example, has a virtual European omnipresence operating in 45 European TV markets.
The European TV market is divided into a public sector with mainly generalist programming available on DTT networks and a private sector which has expanded into thematic cable and satellite channels. Almost all on-demand services are privately owned (97%). Public service media has also entered the market, mostly offering catch-up of their linear programming.
