Breakdown of the audiovisual chain

As determined by the official statistics of the standard industrial classification, the audiovisual supply chain can be analyzed and classified according to its different activity stages, from Production to Post-production, all the way to Distribution and Exhibition of theatrical and television products. The need to group the supply chain according to the two media (Cinema and Television) has led this study to adopt an original methodology, aimed at linking each company with one of the two, according to five fields of investigation (see the Appendix: A  Note on the Method):

• Textual analysis (word mining) of the social objectives of each company to detect terms that are specific to the world of television, cinema, or both (mixed;)
• Analysis of the company’s secondary activities in view of identifying one of the two distinctive features specific to cinema or television (1);
• Analysis of the business activity description (information that can be found in the Chamber of Commerce registers which specify the business sector) which offers further information on the field of action of each company;
• Objective analysis of the activities and projects carried out by each company starting from an investigation of their internet websites, where existent;
• Analysis of the loans and funds granted by an eventual tax credit (2) and assessment of the nature of the financed project for each company.

By gathering and combining this information it was possible to collect specific data in terms of employment and added value for each of the three classes that include Film&TV combined activities (Ateco 5911, 5912, 5913). The univocal grouping of the other two classes of activities (5914 – Exhibition; 6020 – TV programming & broadcasting) allowed the study to reallocate the figures estimated in the previous chapter.  

(1) Among the 5 Ateco classes, only two are completely and univocally part of one of the two main industries of the supply chain: 5914 solely for the film industry; 6020 solely for the television industry.

(2) Tax credit is a credit on tax managed by Mibact that supports productions in the audiovisual sector in relation to theatrical and television products.

Breakdown of the audiovisual chain: cinema, tv and mixed activities
Year 2018 (percentage share in added value and employment)

Source: Fondazione Symbola

Specifically, the audiovisual core appears to be made up of companies that operate mainly in the television business; approximately two thirds of the entire added value produced in fact belong to this (4,332 million euros; 70.9% of the supply chain.)