Flirting with Amsterdam: Reorganizing the Dutch Broadcasting Industry in Hilversum

I will show in this article that there are two distinct audiovisual clusters in the Netherlands. One is situated in Amsterdam, the cultural capital of the Netherlands, and one in Hilversum, the broadcasting centre of the Netherlands, 20 km east of Amsterdam. I will propose that the organizational structure of the audiovisual industry cluster in Amsterdam, in contrast to the one in Hilversum, fits the description of other cultural industry clusters as found in the international literature. In addition, I will demonstrate that employment numbers in the broadcasting cluster in Hilversum-after a window of locational opportunity in the 1990s-are stagnating, while employment numbers in the broadcasting segment in Amsterdam are increasing. I will conclude that this tendency can be related to deregulation processes in the broadcasting industry in 1989. The paper is based on quantitative employment data.