DEscription and scope of our data tracking






The COVID-19 crisis is producing unprecedented challenges for the audiovisual sector. 
In response to this, governments and organisations in the sector are bringing in measures to support and guide the various industries and their professionals through this period.
And we're now tracking them for you.
On the top right-hand side of this page you’ll find a free to download EXCEL table. A new version of this tracker is uploaded on the first Tuesday of every month. We emphasise that this is an on-going research project and should be understood as work in progress.
There is also a link to our HTML table.


Scope of this project

As of mid-March 2020 we have been tracking information on specific national measures aimed at supporting and guiding the audiovisual sector in the 41 Member States of the European Audiovisual Observatory. In addition, we include measures introduced at the level of the European Union, as related, for example, to the European Commission’s Creative Europe Programme, and the Council of Europe. For example, included in this tracking is the Council of Europe’s Eurimages co-production fund. Other measures adopted at supranational level by intergovernmental organisations may also be included in the tracker where they are relevant to the audiovisual industry.

The measures we are tracking are specific to the audiovisual sector and to the cultural and creative industries. They include mechanisms such as public support, regulation, guidelines, industry agreements and policy statements, for example. When more general, overarching measures concerning cross-sectoral fields such as support measures for enterprises and SMEs or measures for workers are taken for example, we will also track them insofar as they are particularly relevant to the audiovisual sector in times of crisis.

Information sources for this project

In order to compile this data rapidly and ensure its reliable and trustworthy nature, the European Audiovisual Observatory is making use of its virtually unparalleled network of professional and institutional information sources throughout Europe:

Information supplied by these networks is supplemented by the desk research of the European Audiovisual Observatory. We process the raw information and collate it in the form of a publicly available data sheet downloadable from this page.

Categories of the various different measures

As one may see from the EXCEL tracker made available, this information is presented under (and so may be sorted by) the following categories:

  • Geographical area (EU27 or other European countries for example)
  • Country initiating the measure
  • Organisation type and name having created the measure (such as a film agency, a media regulator, a government, a financial institution, or a branch of the industry, for example)
  • Type of initiative such as national regulation, guidelines, initiatives, or policy statements at supranational level
  • Sector targeted by these measures (ex. cross-sector film and audiovisual industries, or more specifically targeting broadcasters, VOD providers, film production, distribution, etc. cultural and creative sectors, including authors and artists, telecommunications, etc.)
  • Area impacted (such as direct public support, content programming, support to SMEs and self-employed, journalism and freedom of expression and information, public service missions for example)
  • Type of measure such as postponement of payments or relaxing of deadlines, creation of emergency funds, or solidarity measures.

And of course, we include the link to the original source text for each measure we have tracked.

Each category can be filtered, (click on the little arrows in the blue table heading) allowing you to narrow down your search as you please. 

For further information about our COVID-19 tracking project, contact info.obs[@]coe.int 

COVID-19 audiovisual sector measures

Download the EXCEL tracker here 

Link to the HTML table here

  • Measures taken:  
        1162

  • Downloads:
      8718

  • Last update:  
        09/02/2021 

Help us with this project!

Tracking these developments as they happen is work in progress, updated every Tuesday.
If you wish to inform us about any new measures, send an email to: info.obs[@]coe.int  with a link to further information. We’ll include them in our table. Also, if you see any incorrect information in our EXCEL table, contact us using the same email address.