The power of the format catalogue

Abstract

While the international flows of media content and the emergence of global media giants have gained extensive scholarly attention, their implications for national television production remain understudied. The article addresses the question of how the concentration of ownership and transnational flows involved in global media industries determine television production in a small national market. By analysing the structures, practices and agencies involved in programme format import and adaptation in Finland, the article introduces the format catalogue as the main vehicle of distributing and establishing the structuring properties of global formats in local television production.