In addition, commercial services.

Another factor that has contributed towards

internationalization within the television industry has been the development of international coproduction deals where partners (usually broadcasters in different territories) share production
costs between them. One example would be the Wonders of the Universe series of science
programs, transmitted both in the UK and in the US in 2011, which was a co-production between
the BBC and Discovery Channel. However, globalization has mostly been driven by
international trade in finished programs and formatsbroadcasters acquiring transmission rights
to programs or purchasing the right to use existing tried-and-tested formats from overseas
television companies, in some cases from neighboring countries or countries that share a
common language. The volume of international trade in audiovisual is large and growing.
According to WTO estimates based on balance-of-payments data, global exports grew annually
from the year 2000 at an average rate of 8% and by 2007 had reached US$35bn (WTO 2010: 3).
International traffic in audiovisual has increased, partly because channel proliferation has
triggered an explosion in demand for attractive television content over the last couple of decades.