This chapter provides for a theoretical and conceptual framework for the overall book. It introduces the reader to the policy framework at both Irish and European level for the operation of the tax expenditure regimes for film (Section 481) and for games (Section 481A) and outlines the key academic debates with which the book engages. These include the development of the cultural and creative industries, the concept of spatialisation, that is the commodification of the space of the nation, and the multiple understandings of cultural value identifiable in policy discourse. It interrogates the role of the products of the audiovisual industries as both a form of culture and industry and forms of cultural expression. It places this analysis into the context of academic and policy discourse around the multiple values contained within audiovisual products, including the cultural, social and economic.