On the 4th of September 2025, the European Commission published the second edition of the European Media Industry Outlook. It notably provides valuable insights on the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the audiovisual and media sectors, thus helping to better understand the state of play of AI uptake by professionals from these sectors.
It is accompanied by a consumer survey, conducted between July and October 2024 across all 27 EU Member States, gathering data from 55,746 respondents, which includes questions relating to the perception and use of AI.
The outlook shows that although adoption of AI tools and applications are on the rise, uptake remains uneven across the audiovisual and media sectors. In 2024, 51% of companies in the video game industry, 38% in the audiovisual sector, and 35% in the news media sector reported using AI-based tools and solutions.
Among multiple possibilities, AI is primarily used in pre-production, post-production, animation, visual effects, and data analytics. It is often used to improve efficiency, automate metadata generation for faster asset indexing, and support video hosting, streaming, and cloud storage. So far, the video games sector is the most advanced in its AI uptake with use cases such as in-game level generation, multiplication of non-player characters, and dynamic narrative. In the future, AI technologies are expected to enhance both content creation and media infrastructures. Economic forecasts also reflect the potential of AI. For instance, the market for AI-generated content in the audiovisual sector is expected to grow rapidly, to reach EUR 48 billion by 2028 with an annual growth rate of 85%.
Regarding acceptance by consumers, approximately 30% of surveyed Europeans don’t feel concerned by the increasing presence of AI-generated content, while 35% feel slightly concerned but see the more positive side of it. In this regard, several scenarios have been tested and show that most of the surveyed Europeans are not concerned or slightly concerned by the use of AI in specific use cases such as the creation of video games, using digitally created settings instead of shooting in real locations, or the automatic reporting of news.
All in all, the European Media Industry Outlook shows that the ongoing context of fierce international competition with the dominance of non-European AI firms is challenging European media companies. Access to diverse public and private funding sources, the development of advanced digital skills, and the definition of common standards will therefore be key to allowing the European audiovisual and media sectors to take up sovereign EU AI solutions.
Read the full report : The European media industry outlook - Publications Office of the EU
