Media Funding Series
Mapping EU Spending on Media Projects
The European Union is one of the largest funders of media and journalism in Europe. But there has never been a consolidated public account of where that money actually goes. Since 2023, MJRC has been building one: a record-by-record map of EU-funded media projects, open to researchers and policy-makers.
Not all of it is support for the media. Just over a quarter buys communication and advertising services for the EU itself.
Grants and support to media organisations, press-freedom bodies, broadcasters, universities and research.
Advertising and media buying, events, monitoring and IT bought by the EU.
Four numbers worth knowing
The full analysis
Tracing the Flows: A Structural Analysis of EU Media and Journalism Funding in 2014–2024
Eleven years of EU media funding, drawn from the Financial Transparency System and screened record by record. The study maps the scale, geography, programmes and themes of the funding, and separates genuine support for the sector from services the EU buys for itself. It is descriptive by design: a reproducible baseline against which the effects of EU support can later be tested.
- Period
- 2014–2024
- Records
- 6,103
- Entities
- 2,166
- Countries
- 105
- Largest programme
- Horizon 2020
- Largest department
- DG CNECT
Four steps, in order
The EU publishes its spending, but not by sector — there is no “media” category to filter on. Building a usable picture means constructing one, from the ground up.
Find the funds
Establish which EU funds reach media and journalism, narrowly and broadly: how many there are, who oversees them, how they are distributed, on what criteria, and where the EU publishes the underlying data.
Systematise the search
Build indicators to classify the funds — their budgets, legal basis and geographic level — and categories for what gets funded, from investigative newsrooms to media literacy and audiovisual work. Then collect the data on each recipient.
Build the database
Design the structure, sort every project into its categories and load the records, so that a single beneficiary within a multi-partner award is counted with its own contracted amount.
Analyse and open it up
Publish an overview of the key findings — totals, recipients, change over time — then open the database to researchers and institutions who want to write their own studies from it.
Researchers
Previous publication
EU Funding in the Media: An Analysis of Journalism Projects Financed by the European Union
The first study in the series. It sets out how European taxpayer money reaches content production, journalism initiatives, research, policy work and literacy programmes — and why many major journalistic and academic projects would not exist without it.
Read the study →Invest in independent media research and join a community of practice.
MJRC takes no government money — so the questions we chase are set by the field, not by a funder. A contribution keeps our research and global analysis independent, and buys you a seat closer to the work: early access to new findings, invitations to small-group briefings, a place in our Supporters Circle, and the option to be listed on our Supporters Page.