The creative industries in Baden-Württemberg with their separate branches: print media (books, literature and press market), audiovisual media, telecommunications, software, data- processing services, advertising, market communications, public relations, architecture, design, fine art and performing arts, media hardware and content suppliers generate a turnover of more than 54 billion Euros. The creative sector, in terms of sales volume, therefore ranks third in the region, after the automotive industry and mechanical engineering.

This economic importance is also underlined by the large number of businesses and the number of people employed in the sector. The creative industries in the south-west include over 42,000 businesses and around 126,000 employees.

In Baden-Württemberg manufacturers of media hardware represent the group with the highest turnover. Together with print media and the telecommunications, software and data-processing branch, they account for approximately 80% of all turnover in the creative industries.

Measured by the number of businesses, most companies in Baden-Württemberg are in the area of architecture and design. This branch includes around a quarter of all businesses in the creative industries. Similarly well represented are advertising, market research and public relations companies.

In the area of publishing, Baden-Württemberg is one of the leading centres in Germany. With the dmc digital media center GmbH and the Bassier, Bergmann & Kindler business, two of the top 10 German new-media service-providers are based in Baden-Württemberg. Other leading German media companies, such as the publishing group Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH (no. 2 in Germany for trade journals) or Hubert Burda Media Holding GmbH & Co (no. 2 in Germany for general magazines) and the Klett Group (no. 1 in Germany for school books) are based in the state.