Covid is finally loosening its grip on Europe. Things are fortunately slowly going back to normal, not for the media sector though.
The shift to digital during the pandemic strengthened dominant US players even more. And there is no rowing back, this trend is meant to stay.
So the media sector consolidation continues to accelerate. Bertelsmann is refocusing its strategy on national (German) champions, divesting from other countries. The selling of RTL Belgium and RTL Netherland confirms the trend.

New alliances are built: the latest in France between TF1 and M6. Whilst the acquisition of MGM by Amazon for 8 billion $ didn’t create antitrust concerns, TF1 & M6 will have to undergo a lenghty antitrust clearing process with a potentially uncertain outcome (two national regulators are involved). Even if cleared by the end of 2022, what will happen then? Swallowed by another GAFA?

Survival mode does not allow for mid term planning any more. Luckily the European Commission is willing to help. The new, recently published Call for proposals: JOURNALISM PARTNERSHIPS shows a step forward in that direction, and an opportunity to ensure the sustainability of the Stars4Media programme. Particularly relevant for smaller scale, local and regional media is the European Cooperation Projects call that envisions funding for up to 130 projects in creative sectors.

Disinformation remains in focus as the Commission embraces the fight against it with the recently published Code of Practice on Disinformation that aims to create, among other, stronger monitoring framework. Horizon Europe, successor of Horizon2020, opened a Call for Proposals aiming to fund projects that tackle disinformation providing advanced AI solutions for both media professionals and citizens.

MediaLab continues to actively work on fighting disinformation through an array of activities. Currently in development is the Content Sharing Study on European Platform(s), developed on behalf of the European Commission. Christophe Leclercq’s keynote during the High Level Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism stressed equal access to AI food both big and small media is key, and this was also highlighted during the #Stars4Media Lab held in May.

Many funding opportunities for MediaLab, as well as other media policy think tanks, companies and organisations will hopefully translate in a vivid public sphere, and a digital ecosystem where trustworthy and reliable information takes center stage again.

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