Steady growth expected for US Media And Entertainment industry

New International Trade Administration Report Indicates Steady Growth For The U.S. Media And Entertainment Industry, Along With Barriers To International Exports & Licensing

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration today issued a report describing the steady growth of the U.S. media and entertainment (M&E) industry.

The U.S. M&E market is the world’s largest, by far, and is projected to reach $771 billion in annual sales in 2019, an increase of 8.3 percent from $712 billion in 2016, according to ITA’s “2017 Top Markets Report Media and Entertainment Sector Snapshot.” The world’s second-largest market is now China at $190 billion.

“The U.S. M&E market alone represents a third of the global market,” the report notes. The industry pays its workers well — $93,221 is the average annual compensation, compared to $67,715 for all U.S. workers. The broader copyright intensive sectors, which includes software, constitute an exporting powerhouse, with overseas sales of $177 billion in 2015, far higher than the next leading U.S. export sectors of chemicals ($135.8 billion) and aerospace ($134.6 billion).

American media and entertainment companies face significant hurdles in penetrating global markets. The report notes that the industry’s export potential continues to be hampered by persistent piracy and copyright infringement; cultural content and censorship restrictions; foreign direct investment restrictions; and issues associated with royalty payments.

“It is difficult to quantify losses from piracy and to calculate piracy rates accurately,” notes the report. “Therefore many industry groups and businesses track piracy around the clock, and online takedown notices are rising dramatically as a result.”

The M&E sector exports a large variety of products including books, CDs, game consoles, production equipment and instruments and, the largest component of M&E exports, content.
The “Sector Snapshot” describes export opportunities in the five largest global M&E markets: the United Kingdom, China, Canada, India and Brazil.