Media, culture, sports and entertainment

The media, culture, sports and entertainment sectors represent dynamic and rapidly evolving industries that provide inspiration, entertainment, and employment to millions worldwide. Creators, performers, professional athletes and media professionals are vital to the cultural, sports and entertainment landscape—including live events and television, radio, film, publishing, and digital media.

These sectors are undergoing profound transformations due to digitalization, which has reshaped how content is produced, distributed, and monetized, giving rise to new business models and remuneration systems. These shifts have brought increased attention to the potential of these sectors for job creation and innovation. They have also highlighted challenges to human and labour rights of workers across the sectors, including decent work deficits, violence and harassment, gender inequalities and unequal access to social protection.

Drawing on the conclusions of tripartite international sectoral meetings in the fields of media, culture, sports and entertainment, the ILO promotes social dialogue, implementation of international labour standards, skills development and capacity-building initiatives to address these challenges. It also continues to assess the employment impacts of digitalization, globalization, demographic changes and the green transition on these sectors.

Key resources

ILO/UNESCO/WIPO Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations, 1961

Report - Decent work and the safety of journalists (April 2026)
Achieving decent work in the arts and entertainment sector - The role of collective bargaining (September 2025)
Leaving your country to become a professional footballer - All you need to know, all you gotta do (July 2024)
Joint publication - UNESCO Methodological Guide for the Participatory Development of a Law on the Status of the Artist (November 2023)
Promoting decent work in the African cultural and creative economy (July 2023)
Social Protection in the Cultural and Creative Sector (April 2021)

Briefs

Professional Athletes and Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (May 2024)
COVID-19 and the sports sector (March 2023)
Statistical Profile of the media and culture sector (November 2022)
Policy Brief on sexual harassment in the entertainment industry (November 2020)
COVID-19 and the media and culture sector (July 2020)

Self-guided course: Advancing Decent Work in the Culture and Creative Sector

Meeting of experts on the application of the fundamental principles and rights at work and on violence and harassment in the world of sport (2-6 March 2026)
Technical Meeting on the Future of Work in the Arts and Entertainment sector (13-17 February 2023)
Decent Work in the World of Sport (20-22 January 2020)

Data and statistics

The bar charts show global and regional point estimates at the sectoral level, based on data from the ILO Harmonized Microdata collection. These estimates cannot be directly compared across different periods and may be updated as new information becomes available. The estimates provided and published by the ILO may differ from those produced and released at the national level.

For more detailed labour market indicators and country-level data, visit the Sectoral Employment Statistics page of the ILOSTAT database.