To obtain a well-informed picture of the future characteristics of the media landscape in the digital age, the Council commissioned a series of preparatory studies. These studies cover the different aspects and disciplines that are needed to draw up a new map of the media landscape: law (international and European), technology, economy, social and cultural aspects of media consumption and behaviour. As mentioned earlier, developments in these fields are most likely to show complex interactions. All of them still exhibit many uncertainties and ambiguities. However, a cross-impact analysis as well as many interviews and specialist meetings did enable us to identify the more robust trends. We are in a position to draw a new chart of the complex and bumpy field that lies ahead of us. In this version of the publication, we have limited ourselves to the major conclusions of the analysis.

The research came up with five major trends that are changing the media landscape:

• 1 An increase in the level of competition and commercialism (a larger part of the landscape is controlled by commercial partners that are motivated by profit);

• 2 Technical and economic forms of convergence (furthered by both technical digitalisation and economic internationalisation, which also lead to a further integration of the domain of traditional mass media and telecommunications);

• 3 A strong trend towards globalisation of the media industries and the growth of several very large media concentrations (which may actually become new players in the field, and might push out more traditional players);

• 4 An explosion in the available content, much of it with a link to merchandising and entertainment (but also: a new opportunity for all kinds of fragmented niche markets);

• 5 Increased possibilities for interaction and ‘individual’ use of media content (pay-per-view, conditional forms of access).

The media landscape is developing more and more ties with culture, events and amusement. In the Netherlands, there is also a strong rise in both local and regional media, especially in radio (but also regional and local websites are gaining importance).