Postdoc Position in European Film and Video on Demand Markets

The Department of Media and Journalism Studies within the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University invites applications for a Postdoctoral position with a focus on European film and video on demand (VOD) Markets. The Postdoc position is tied to two research projects: “CresCine - increasing the international competitiveness of the film industry in small European markets” (Horizon Europe, 2023-2026) and “EUVoD - The development of Europe’s Video on Demand markets” (Aarhus University Research Foundation AUFF, 2021-2024). Two years are assigned to CresCine and one year to EUVoD. You will be part of a team consisting of Associate Professor Jakob Isak Nielsen (AU lead on CresCine) and Assistant Professor Cathrin Helen Bengesser (lead on EUVoD and participant in CresCine) as well as student assistants. Jakob Isak Nielsen and Cathrin Helen Bengesser will be jointly coordinating the postdoctoral work in the three-year period.

The postdoc position is a full-time and fixed-term, 36-month position. The position starts 1 March 2023 or as soon as possible thereafter and ends 28 February 2026.

The School of Communication and Culture is committed to diversity and encourages all qualified applicants to apply regardless of their personal background. 

Projects

CresCine aims to strengthen the competitiveness of the film industry across small countries in Europe and improve the international circulation of films and audiovisual (AV) content coming from small markets. Aarhus University has various roles in the project. For two of the three years, the postdoc’s work will be equally divided between two work packages. In the work package on “Small Film Markets: Comparative and Cross-sectorial Perspectives”, the postdoc will be involved in both qualitative and quantitative assessment and comparison of the state of the art of European film industries in select small markets: Estonia, Lithuania, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium (Flanders), Croatia and Portugal. The work will be both empirically and conceptually oriented to better conceptualise small film market ecosystems from a media-systemic perspective. The work package on “Platforms, Distribution, Exhibition and Promotion” will identify challenges and drivers of change for the distribution and exhibition of content from small markets. The impact of platforms (domestic, pan-European or global platforms) will be closely examined. The project will involve collaboration with other academic consortium partners as well as industry stakeholders.

The project studies the transformation of the European audiovisual (AV) market from broadcasting to video on demand since 2012 by comparing the economic, cultural and media-political development of national markets across the EU. Using quantitative indicators on market development as well as qualitative knowledge on VOD players and idiosyncrasies of national markets, the project maps how different media systems in small and large, central and peripheral, Western and Eastern European regions have reacted to the technological change, the expansion of US-based, globally operating services and media-political challenges emerging from them. The project seeks to find explanations for diverging trends across Europe and to evaluate them in the light of national and European cultural and economic policy goals for sustainable, internally diverse and externally competitive media markets. The postdoc’s work is supposed to contribute independent research and academic publications on specific national and pan-European market conditions and to assist in the communication of project findings to stakeholders beyond academia. 

For the full description and to apply, click the ‘Apply’ button.