The number of TV channels increased from 40 in 1981 to 205 in 1995 and it is estimated that digital channels will reach the number of 450 by 1998. The market share in Europe of the American industry is increasing. It is my duty to make sure that the European audio-visual industry profits as well from the continuous expansion and dynamism of the European market by becoming more competitive, modern, with quality content that Europeans want to watch and have the opportunity to do so. The globalisation of economy and technology has important effects on the audio-visual. Both traditional and new audio-visual services circulate, generate revenues, call upon creative talent worldwide in order to produce content that people want to watch but that also reflects their culture, tells their stories, speaks their language.
Frontiers disappear fast but cultural diversity is re-enforced.
We, from both sides of the Atlantic, responsible for content, have a common interest and a lot to gain from this expanding demand. To-day 's globalisation and digitisation go hand in hand and demand new responses. Digitisation brings spectacular benefits through technological convergence between means of delivery and subsequently brings about market convergence as telecommunications companies buy into media enterprises and vice-versa. However, it has not yet been convincingly demonstrated that there will be anything like the same degree of convergence in content. It remains important, when defining policy, to distinguish between technological and market convergence on one hand and convergence in relation to content on the other.