Competition Policy in the European Film Industry Focused on Consumers’ Interests – a Romanian Perspective
Author:Puiu Nistoreanu, Violeta Mihaela Dincă and Andreea Fortuna Șchiopu
JEL:A14, D18, L41, Z10, Z18
DOI:
Keywords:European film industry, competition for European cinema, European Union
state aid, European consumer of cinema.
Abstract:
European cinema was and still is often assimilated by film consumers as art cinema which
is more difficult to understand and ultimately to reach a big number of consumers. The
objectives of this paper were to examine the pathway of European cinema market and the
relationship with its consumers along with their interests and attitudes towards European
films and to research the most important measures taken by European Union institutions
under their competition policy to support European films through state aid schemes. In
order to give shape to these objectives, in-depth interviews with five elite specialists from
the Romanian film industry were used, specialists who possess international expertise and
recognition. The problems of the qualitative research are: the modification of consumer
behaviour face to European cinema and support measures.
The findings suggest that regarding its relationship with consumers and their interests in the
seventh art, European cinema faces many different difficulties ranging from the
competition with American films and insufficient funds, to the increased comfortableness
or coziness of the movie consumers of our times.
The paper concludes with examples of measures suggested by the respondents, to help
European cinema become more attractive to consumers, measures which are already being
implemented by the industry, making the results of our study useful for policy and decision
makers within this cultural area.