Following the global economy developments of the past five years, after the financial crisis toke the globe by storm, the entertainment industry struggles or respectively flourishes in the different parts of the world. Here we will look at three major markets, that are well established, growing or promising.
United States
In January, the US employment in the motion picture, television and sound recording category fell 7.3% to 114,700 jobs. This Hollywood jobs decline is measured on year over year basis by the Employment Development Department in the United States.
Actually the US entertainment employment level in January was the lowest of any month since January 2001. Back at that time, the employment also stood at 106,300 jobs. This is a negative driver for the American entertainment industry since the drop occurred in a month when the overall statewide jobs jumped by 1.8%.
Yet, this drop hints for long term challenges threatening the US film and television industry. One of the major concerns is the possible effect of production migration. In 2012, a historic decline in the number of new television dramas shot in Los Angeles was recorded. Namely drama productions are the major source of employment in the industry.
China
In China, the production company Enlight Media has announced a 76.5% year-on-year net profit growth in 2012. The company produced the actor-director Xu Zheng’s box office record-breaker “Lost in Thailand”.
The production house reported net profits of $49.8 million. The earnings are up from $28 million in 2011, with operating income rising from $112 million in 2011 to $165 million in 2012. The 2012 recorded total earnings make the company the second biggest studio in the Chinese market for the last year. Its box office revenue amounts to 9.4% of the China’s total annual box office of $2.74 billion. That left behind Bona Films which announced earnings of $117 million over the last year. Top in China remains Huayi Brothers with $337.5 million box office revenue from its seven releases in 2012.
Dubai
In 2012, Dubai’s media industry attracted more than 250 new players. Though, fundamental problems in the entertainment industry are hampering further growth.
Dubai Studio City, Dubai Media City and the International Media Production Zone are united in Tecom Media Cluster. Over the last year, the Media Cluster recorded an inflow of companies and freelance workers. At present, there are more than 1,820 partners across the three centers.
The free zones introduced by the cluster attracted new business partners including Euronews, Ticketmaster and Getty Images. About 170 companies and freelancers who left the zones offset the 257 registrations. That brought a net increase of 87 for the last year. In terms of percentages, this numbers could be described as over 30% growth, which is a promising indicator.
It is important to highlight that demand to do film TV productions in Dubai comes mostly from the West and even India and China. In 2013, growth is expected to unfold in five key segments of the local media industry. That is namely: digital publishing, internet advertising and film and TV production.
Yet, there are still challenges such as lack of funding, local talent development and piracy. Also, Dubai relies too much on imported TV formats, as the creation of native original content still doesn’t correspond to the demand.
