Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcast on accessing digital culture in Europe.

Digital Ages had a profound impact in many sectors and culture is no exception. It is open new and exciting opportunities for cultural industries.

But it has also raised new challenges related to skills, accessibility and affordability.

Want to know more? Stay with us.

Walk into museum nowadays or visit some Roman ruins during your holiday and chances are you'll be using some sort of digital application

to help you navigate your way through the collection

or find new information about the treasures on display.

Yes, there's no escaping digital technologies.

With their rise throughout the 1990s,

their relationship with culture has become increasingly closer.

Cultural assets and works have been digitised and digital technology has become a tool for novel creations.

Technology has, without any doubt, facilitated access to culture and large citizens all over the world to marvel at human creations.

Today you can take a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel from the comfort of your own couch.

You may say, it's not the same, but for those who cannot afford to take a trip to Rome for whatever reason,

it has been a breakthrough.

But to access digital culture, you need certain technical conditions, internet connection to begin with,

but also a computer, tablet or smartphone, all of which come with a price tag.

Moreover, the deployment of such infrastructure needs to be evenly distributed so that everyone

gets the same access to cultural resources, which is not yet the case.

No, it's not. You just have to look at the figures on internet access in rural areas compared to cities

to see that the digital gap, according to location, but also to revenue, is still big.

Eurostat data also shows a divide in the uptake of new technologies according to age and sex,

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