Canned Television Going Global. The Transnational Circulation of Ready-Made Content in Television

The international distribution and circulation of audio-visual content is one of the most relevant in recent debates in media and television studies. This area has been the subject of much previous scholarship, particularly in terms of the relevance of TV formats, their centrality for the medium and its economy, and different practices of adaptation and “localization”. However, much less attention has been devoted to so-called “ready-made content” (or “finished content”) and its circulation among different countries and markets. “Canned” programming is typically the output of a specific national TV and media system, but it spills across borders when licensed into different territories, sometimes even globally. This special issue of VIEW focuses on the international circulation and distribution of ready-made content, in the form of scripted products

The International Circulation of European Cinema in the Digital Era

From a political-economic perspective, the global market is dominated still by major international cinemas: Hollywood in particular – whose major studios (20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., MGM, Sony) maintain control locally through national subsidiaries – but also Bollywood, Nollywood and the Chinese industry in certain regions. European productions, on the other hand, remain for the most part confined to national successes alone, with only few exceptions – such as Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Dany Boon 2008), The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper 2010) and, albeit to a lesser extent, Gomorra (Matteo Garrone 2008). In the meantime, the influence of media convergence and the proliferation of digital platforms has demonstrated a series of content circulation strategies that differ to the classic windows of the distribution industry; strategies that have since become central to contemporary debates on film distribution. In academic studies, these mutations have contributed to broadening focus beyond theatrical distribution, in order to account for the circulation of films via alternative, formal or informal channels too (Tryon 2009; Iordanova and Cunningham 2012; Cunningham and Silver 2013). Some recent studies have emphasized in particular how contemporary research on film distribution can no longer exclude informal or non-linear circulation channels (Lobato 2012; Crisp 2015; Lobato and Thomas 2015). With the aim of studying how this new technological context is changing current tendencies, and taking root in the “national interest research project” (PRIN 2015) on the international circulation of Italian cinema, the special issue No. 3/2018 focuses on the strategies and outcomes of European cinema distribution beyond national borders

Introduction: The International circulation of European Cinema in the Digital Age

It is little more than thirty years since the introduction in 1987 of the European Com- munity’s most significant financial support system for cinema and audiovisual media, the ‘Programme MEDIA’ (‘Mesures pour encourager le développement de l’industrie audiovisuelle’), with an initially small endowment that has since increased steadily1. At present, the terms of the Creative Europe programme (of which MEDIA is a part) for the 2021-2027 period is undergoing scrutiny and redefinition. In the meantime, the media and political landscapes have undergone significant changes: on the one hand, the digital revolution has shaken up, to some extent2, film production and distribution; on the other, more recently, populist political currents are posing urgent questions about the very definition of nationhood and the wider European community. This issue of Comunicazioni sociali reflects on the production and distribution of film and television within this context

Canned Television Going Global - The Transnational Circulation of Ready-Made Content in Television - Editorial

The international distribution and circulation of audio-visual content is one of the most relevant in recent debates in media and television studies. This area has been the subject of much previous scholarship, particularly in terms of the relevance of TV formats, their centrality for the medium and its economy, and different practices of adaptation and \u201clocalization\u201d. However, much less attention has been devoted to so-called \u201cready-made content\u201d (or \u201cfinished content\u201d) and its circulation among different countries and markets. \u201cCanned\u201d programming is typically the output of a specific national TV and media system, but it spills across borders when licensed into different territories, sometimes even globally. This special issue of VIEW focuses on the international circulation and distribution of ready-made content, in the form of scripted products