The replacement of media policies with (media) entrepreneurship policies: A view from Europe’s periphery

Estonia is recognized for its optimism with regard to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) – the country has benchmarking online services, and the number of start-ups per inhabitant is the highest in Europe. The ways this enthusiasm is translated into its audio-visual policy is the topic of this article. Estonia’s internal market for audio-visual services is very small, and this limits the degrees of freedom for its institutional actors – commercial broadcasters do not drive market innovation. Yet the responsibility of public service broadcasters for innovation coordination is not recognized in Estonia’s policy frameworks. In contrast, many new initiatives are funded that are aimed at supporting the cooperation of the audiovisual industry’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with ICT sector. Such initiatives rely on the hope for scalable returns to national gross domestic product (GDP) rather than generating diversity in media. Yet these measures suffer from structural constraints that limit the growth of media SMEs in small peripheral countries. This article raises related issues for both national and European policies.