LEARNING FIRMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

LEARNING FIRMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

LEARNING FIRMS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

Introduction

The growth of Munich's film and TV cluster in the post-war period has been influenced by a number of factors such as the historical roots of the industry4 and differing means of public support.5 Of particular relevance has been the liberalisation of the market in 1984; since then the structure of the German TV market is shaped by the co-existence of public and private broadcasters (e.g. Mossig, 2004b). The public broadcasters include nine regional channels and two channels broadcasting nationwide (ARD and ZDF). They are financed from fees paid by TV and radio owners. In 2007, public broadcasters accounted for close to 45% of the viewing public. In contrast, private broadcasters generate most of their revenue from advertising, and the private market is dominated by a group of channels that belong to two distinct corporate groups: the RTL Group in Cologne, owned by the fully integrated internationally operating media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG, as well as the Munich-based ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG.

Munich's film and TV industry, that is, broadcasting, film/TV production, distribution and services, employs ~16,000 people overall (Ernst & Young, 2006; IHK, 2007). In spatial terms, the industry is highly concentrated in Unterföhring/Ismaning, about 10 km north-east of the city centre, and in Grünwald-Geiselgasteig which is about the same distance to the south of the centre (Figure 1). The city centre, on the other hand, hosts a large number of specialised training and funding organisations such as the MediaCampus Bavaria or the Bavarian Film and TV Fund, which provide a unique institutional infrastructure. The regional public broadcaster, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and a number of productions and distribution firms—Constantin Film and Tandem Communications, for instance—are also located in the centre.

Figure 1. Location of broadcasters, important production companies and institutions related to film and TV in Munich, 2008.

Discussion

According to the results of the research on the internal and external dynamics of Munich's film and TV cluster by Bathelt and Gräf (2008, 1955-1957), this fragmented territorial distribution limits the opportunities for informal communication and information flows also referred to as 'local buzz'. There is, however, an exceptionally high degree of functional and organisational interconnectivity within Munich's film and TV industry: Bayerischer Rundfunk, for example, is not only present in the city, but has broadcasting and production sites in Unterföhrung, too. Another example is Bavaria Studios, one of the largest service ...