The European Commission published a report which shows that most European film heritage institutions have not yet adapted to the digital revolution and are not yet able to preserve film digitally. According to the figures, yet only 1.5% of European film heritage is commercially or freely accessible to the public.

The 3rd Implementation report on the Film Heritage Recommendation published by the European Commission shows that one million hours of European film locked away in archives. Only the 1.5% of European film heritage is commercially or freely accessible to the public. In July 2011, the Commission opened a public consultation on the audiovisual works in a digital single market.

The report warns that if this tend continues, some of our current films are being lost to future generations forever, just like those of the silent era, where only 10% survived. At the same time films of the early digital era – because of formatting and interoperability issues – also risk being lost forever. According to the Commission, current obstacles to digitisation include scarce national and private funding and the complexity of rights clearance (both time and money).

The Commission stressed that Member States should include film heritage in their national digitisation strategies and archival policies; one outcome of this should be greater film content on the Europeana portal. The Commission also underlines that Sweden and UK are considered to be examples of current best practice.