The European Union’s sector on Audiovisual and Media Policies directly employs over one million people. In addition to its economic importance, it also plays a key social and cultural role throughout Europe since television is the most important source of information and entertainment in European societies.
To implement audiovisual and media policies, the European Union employs several different types of overlapping action: a regulatory framework, support mechanisms at a European level such as the MEDIA program, and other actions like the promotion of media pluralism and the use to external measures to defend European cultural interests in the context of the World Trade Organization.
The Commission also participates in the European Audiovisual Observatory.