Press Release | Gütersloh, 07/05/2018

Europe's Creative Industry is One of the Continent’s Most Important Economic Sectors

• 453,000 creative companies in Germany, France and Britain provide 2.2 million jobs
• Gross value add of €161 billion
• Thomas Rabe: “The regulatory framework urgently needs to be modernized.”

Germany, France and Great Britain are Europe’s three biggest creative hubs. This was confirmed by a recent study carried out by the London based company Enders Analysis on behalf of the international media, services and education company Bertelsmann. It concludes that the German, French and British creative industries jointly contribute €161 billion euros to European gross value added (GVA), and provide around 2.2 million jobs that pay into the social security system.     

In 2015, the UK was Europe's leading creative hub, generating GVA of €76 billion, with approximately 118,000 British employers employing 725,000 people. Add to that a large number of freelancers. Germany’s creative industry generated €52 billion in GVA with the activities of 157,000 companies with 947,000 employees. In France, the GVA contribution of the creative industry was €32 billion, generated by 178,000 companies with 478,000 employees. Britain’s creative industry showed the strongest development during the period under review (2010 to 2015). The development of the creative industries in France and Germany was stable or slightly positive over the years.

Thomas Rabe, Chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann, said: “The creative industry is one of Europe’s most important economic sectors. But it faces great challenges. U.S. tech platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google are expanding rapidly. We are meeting this new dimension of competition with creativity and entrepreneurship. Yet, all success aside, like all creative companies in Europe we are at a disadvantage in our competition with the tech platforms. This is due to disparate regulatory policies that no longer correspond to the reality of the market. For us to survive, there is an urgent need to modernize the regulatory framework for creative companies in Europe. This applies to fields such as data protection, copyright, antitrust law, advertising law, media law and taxation. If politicians care about having a strong European creative industry, they must take urgent action.”

The European creative industry produces films, television programs, videos, news, books, magazines, music and games for millions of consumers every year. Some 453,000 companies with more than two million employees are active in the publishing, printing and distribution of books, newspapers and magazines; audiovisual production, broadcasting, video and games; and the provision of professional and technical services to other companies, such as advertising and design.

The complete study, “Europe’s Creative Hubs Update 2018,” can be found at www.bertelsmann.com  .

About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company that operates in about 50 countries around the world. It includes the broadcaster RTL Group, the trade book publisher Penguin Random House, the magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato, the Bertelsmann Printing Group, the Bertelsmann Education Group and Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of funds. The company has 119,000 employees and generated revenues of €17.2 billion in the 2017 financial year. Bertelsmann stands for entrepreneurship and creativity. This combination promotes first-class media content and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world.