21 Clusters in media industries: What is their added value?

Media clusters can be defined as agglomerations of media industry-related activities within a certain location that bring competitive advantages. Media cluster theory links research on media industries to economic geography. In economic geography the focus lies on the location of economic activities and theory of the emergence of agglomerations of companies. We can find media clusters around the world,including examples such as Hollywood, Soho in London, and Dubai Media City. These examples show that media clustering can take various forms and sizes and can create unique added value for media companies. This chapter aims to explain the phenomenon of media clusters by discussing the added value of media clustering through spatial network effects. Three media cluster case studies are presented to exemplify these effects, namely Media Cymru in Cardiff, UK; Mediapolis in Tampere, Finland; and mediapark.brussels in Belgium–three media clusters at different stages of development driven by policy interests.