BPN 1604: Dutch cross media on the mend again

In the past week the iMMovator Cross Media Monitor 2012 was presented. It is already the fourth edition of the biannual snap shot of the creative industries and ICT. The monitor is a co-production of iMMovator, Paul Rutten Research and TNO. This is my translation of the press release published by the 

foundation iMMovator Cross Media Network at Hilversum.

The stats

The Dutch cross media sector provided nearly 553 000 jobs in 2010 which is nearly 7 per cent of the Dutch employment. Cross media is the combination of creative industries and ICT segments. Of this 3.5 per cent accounts for the creative industry (over 280 thousand jobs) and 3.4 per cent for the ICT sector (over 272 000 jobs). The turn-over of the cross media sector accounted for  € 90 billion in 2010, of this amount € 32.8 billion is generated by the creative industry (2.9 per cent) and € 57.2 billion by ICT (5 per cent). In ICT more sales were generated with less people than in the creative industries.

Hesitant recovery

The number of jobs in the Dutch cross media industry has again increased slightly (0,5 per cent) between 2009 and 2011. The job reduction of the crisis year of 2009 has been brought to a standstill. Creative industry is growing again by 1.9 per cent, while ICT shows a slight decrease: -0.9 per cent. The sector has some difficult years ahead. The economic downturn will certainly be felt in the cyclical ICT segment. The cuts of the national government will hit the creative industries, particularly arts and cultural heritage as well as  media and entertainment. Arts will be less subsidised in the coming years. Also the public broadcasting system and its suppliers will feel the impact of government measures.

Need for co-operation between small creative businesses  

An important part of the growth in creative industries is attributable to the rise of self-employed entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs increase in number, while large firms are getting smaller. Downsizing is the key word in the creative industry more than in the rest of the industry. The creative industries have low entry barriers and is therefore open to new professionals. This creates the need for new forms of working together. In this way self-employed entrepreneurs and small businesses can compensate the lack of scale of large companies. This leads to inefficiencies within the creative industry. While the number of jobs in the creative industries is increasing, teh revenue declines. ICT sees the reverse effect, the number of jobs decreased while sales increases.

Amsterdam and Utrecht fastest growers in the media cluster

In The Netherlands there are two major cross media areas, called the Northern, ranging from Haarlem, Amsterdam, Almere, Hilversum, Amersfoort to Utrecht and the Southern wing, ranging Delft, The Hague, Rotterdam, Breda, Tilburg, Eindhoven to Den Bosch. The fastest growing concentration is in the Northern Wing. Amsterdam and Utrecht have generated the largest number of cross media jobs in the past years (2009 ttill2011).  Amsterdam had the largest  growth with over 7,500 new jobs in cross media (+5.6 percent)  in 2009 to 2011, while Utrecht had an increase of almost 3 thousand (+5.3 per cent) in the same period. Hilversum is a different story: the town lost nearly a thousand jobs (-3.6 per cent) over the past two years due to the decline in major media and entertainment industry. The media cluster in the Northern Wing of the Randstad is still an important engine of the Dutch economy. A strengthening of the cluster strategy is necessary, partly in view of the internationalization of the sector, which will intensify the competition. The clustering of cross media companies currently mainly provides efficiency, but must increasingly become a source of innovation.

BPN 1604