World Media Economics and Management Conference 2016

Sharing Economy is a keyword much talked about in recent years. Most commonly, it is associated with sharing platforms, such as Uber or Airbnb. This paper applies the concept of the Sharing Economy to the media industry and in particular to the TV industry. It argues that behind the recent interest in the Sharing Economy is an increase in sharing culture in today’s society, which also influences the media industry. This increase in sharing culture has been made possible by the emergence of social media platforms and it is reflected in increasing sharing activities among audiences as well as between audience members and TV providers. This paper addresses the following question: How can changing business models of traditional TV producers and stations be traced back to an increasing sharing culture? The paper addresses this question through in-depth interviews with company representatives as well as through the review of previous literature. As a result, this paper identifies various characteristics of the Sharing Economy relevant to traditional TV providers (importance of social media, interaction with audiences, circulation among audiences, increased audience activities and resulting changing audience expectations) and discusses how these characteristics influence various business model components (value proposition, value creation & provision, financial endurance). In a last step, the results of this study and the need for future research are discussed.