History

     The EBU was founded in February 1950 during the European Broadcasting Conference in Torquay, England, as an international organization for public service broadcasting institutions. This was at a time when many Western European countries, still recovering from World War II, were rebuilding their radio networks and beginning to develop television facilities. Its early task was to help members exchange their programs, as well as to lend technological assistance when needed. Today, the EBU has moved far beyond its original scope of Western European countries, counting 69 active members in 50 countries and 49 associate members in 30 countries. Reflecting the end of the Cold War, in 1993 the EBU merged with the Organisation Internationale de Radiodiffusion et Television (OIRT), the former organization of Eastern European Broadcasters.

     The EBU is a major international broadcasting institution that negotiates broadcasting rights for its members, coordinates co-productions, operates satellites, consults on legal issues, and stimulates European cultural life. Over the last decade, it has become more aggressively involved in media policy. The EBU is now a major player, lobbying European and international institutions defending and guaranteeing the survival of public broadcasting despite the growing commercial competition in this area. The EBU has a staff of more than 250 people, including a dozen in Moscow and another dozen in the U.S.

Members and Finances

     The EBU allows as active members only radio and television broadcasters committed to the public service idea of broadcasting, highlighting information, education, and entertainment. Public service broadcasters tend to be financed mostly but not exclusively through viewers' fees, membership, or taxes on televisions or radios. The EBU statute officially asks for broadcasting organizations that fulfill a public service mission and achieve 98 percent national penetration. Its 69 active members are from 50 countries in Europe and adjacent areas in North Africa and the Middle East. Member organizations are in countries such as Austria, Bosnia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Portugal, Russia, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom. Some of the more influential organizations relating to radio are the financially strong British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Association of German Broadcasters (ARD). Moreover, the EBU also includes 49 associate members in 30 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia, utilizing and feeding into the EBU network.

     The EBU is financed through annual membership fees, which are determined by the number of radio and television households each member reaches. In addition, members also must pay for the technical transmission costs of EBU news items and programs that they air. In the last decade, the EBU commercialized some of its services, offering them on a fee basis to nonmembers. It also sublicenses rights to broadcast sporting events. In 1999 the EBU's annual revenue was 407 million Swiss francs (about U.S.$255 million), including 189 million Swiss francs for rights to broadcast sport events (about U.S. $118 million) and 117 million Swiss francs (about U.S.$75 million) for network transmission charges. Euroradio has a potential reach of 400 million listeners. It transmits approximately 2,000 concerts and operas, 400 sports events, and 120 major news events per year.

Organization

     After the inauguration of the EBU in 1950, the first major event for the organization was the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, which became the world's first live multinational television transmission. The Eurovision program exchange office was originally opened in Brussels in 1955, but a year later it moved most of its functions with the EBU to Geneva, where the operations were fully centralized by 1993. Since 1961 the EBU coordinates and transmits a daily television news feed (EVN) to all members. The late 1960s brought the change of international transmission to satellite. In 1970 the EBU opened a bureau in New York and another in Washington in 1987, followed by an office in Moscow.

     The increasing deregulation of national media systems changed the media landscape in Europe tremendously. Facing increasing competition and membership interest from commercial broadcasters in most European countries, in 1990 the EBU underscored its status as an organization of public service broadcasters in its Marino Charter. Although its television transmission had formerly been based on free exchange systems between active members, the EBU commercialized its operations (Eurovision Network Services) and began selling transmission rights to non-members in 1994. In the last decade of the 20th century, the organization moved further away from its original mission by launching several television and radio outlets. Since 1998, for example, the EBU has offered its members a free classic radio program throughout the night (Euroclassic-Notturno).

     In the last few years, both television and radio operations have been shaped by the change from analog to digital technology. The EBU and its technical departments developed and facilitated for its members many new technological advancements into high definition television (HDTV), digital transmission, and digital audio broadcasting (DAB). Recently the EBU has ventured into collaborations and sub-licensing with commercial broadcasters, to avoid investigations by the EU commission for anticompetitive practices. (Several commercial broadcasters have challenged the EBU's exclusive agreements in court and in political committees.)

EBU Radio Department

Although the EBU radio department tends to be in the shadow of its more visible Eurovision branch, it is nevertheless an important international cooperation for radio program exchange and technology transfer. Radio has been part of the EBU since its launch in 1950. Over the years its expansion has reflected the major technical transformations in this field, with the EBU engineers often in the forefront of developing new technologies. In 1989 the EBU radio department launched Euroradio to provide "international exchange of high quality digital sound programs," as its mission statement declares. It began digital transmission of its programs in 1994 via the Euroradio Control Centre (ERC) in Geneva. The Euroradio network is based on 40 satellite-to-earth stations utilizing a digital transmission system. The network currently operates on a digital system incorporating an audio base-band of 20 kilohertz and auxiliary data channels. It transmits its programs via two carriers on the Eutelsat II F4 satellite. The EBU radio department serves under the direction of the EBU radio committee, an elected body of member representatives who provide guidelines for programming strategies. The radio department organizes radio program exchanges between all or several members. The programs are mostly music concerts, sports events, and news or current affairs. The depart- ment also arranges conferences and events for members and holds workshops for foreign journalists and radio producers. Members often contact the department when they need professional, technological, or legal advice. EBU also publishes the "EBU Radio News Fax Letter." 

In addition, the EBU supports the development of specialized programming such as radio features and documentaries, radio dramas, educational and other programs for young people. With these niche and even experimental radio programs, the EBU supports the public service mission of its members, who often are required by law to inform, educate, and entertain a variety of societal groups, including minoriries. For instance, EBU organizes the International Radio Feature Conference, in which feature producers can present and compare their work. Another example is the Radio Drama Project Group that organizes workshops, initiates radio dramas (often from smaller, less affluent members), and stimulates collaboration between radio drama producers in all member countries.

The Project Group biennially commissions a major radio play. In the past, well-known writers such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Anthony Burgess have been among those whose work was

aired. To celebrate the new millennium, the EBU initiated a number of radio projects supplied by its members. These projects included, among others, an experimental audio art collage with sounds of the century, a collection of commissioned compositions, and a series of panels and lectures on human rights.

Music

The music department initiates new music projects, coordinates music transmission between member stations, and negotiates music broadcasting rights for its members. Annually it organizes and offers more than 2,000 live and deferred musical events such as operas, classical concerts, jazz, and rock via the Euroradio transmission system. One hundred of those are within regularly scheduled program slots; the others can be ordered on demand. EBU members can select and request all events via the internet through EBU's MUS internet software. Members can download programs directly from the internet through SATMUSIC, "a program which synchronizes the automatic recording of high quality digital sound programme exchanges for EBU members," according to its web site. The Euroradio Control Centre also has a direct satellite connection to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to distribute performances to its members. The music department also coordinates the Euroclassic-Notturno produced by the BBC. It provides an all-night program with light classical concerts by member stations; these include breaks to allow localized announcements by the members' hosts.

The music department has recently ventured into compact disc production by publishing a collection of traditional music on the Ocora label. It sponsors the Euroradio Big Band Concert and the international Forum of Young Performers. This music sponsorship becomes more important as national public service stations face political pressure to tighten their budgets. Euroradio's sponsored musical events may not be as well known as the European Song Contest organized by Eurovision, but they have become an important stimulus of music culture in Europe.

News

The news division offers local feed to other members, sets up broadcasting centers on location as important events occur, and supports foreign correspondents' efforts to broadcast radio reports to their listeners as fast as possible. The provision of timely radio news transmissions is very important in many

European countries, where a majority of people turn to radio for breaking national and international news during the day. Supported by the EBU's foreign bureaus, the news division also coordinates coverage of international political events such as elections, conferences, and political conventions.

Other tasks of the news department include the negotiation of access rates to other transmission networks and development and implementation of new technology, such as digital satellite telephone stations and lightweight news-gathering equipment. The division also organizes a joint EBU-NABA (North America Broadcasters Association) conference on radio news and current affairs. In special meetings, division staff discuss issues such as international news flow and the ethics of international news reporting.

Sports

In its first years of existence, the EBU was typically guaranteed the broadcast rights to major sport events such as the Olympics and soccer championships, as there were no commercial counterparts with similar coverage that were able to bid for the rights. In countries with more than one EBU member, these public stations would often share or take turns in covering major events. But the rise of commercial television and radio in the early 1980s changed the situation tremendously when new media moguls began to bid for rights to popular sports events. As a result the cost of broadcasting rights has skyrocketed.

The EBU captured the rights to broadcast the 2000 Olympic Games despite being outbid by Murdoch's FOX network. The International Olympic Committee decided on EBU because of its terrestrial penetration that no satellite provider could match at the time. Similarly, the EBU won the rights to air track-and-field competitions but lost the rights for the next two soccer World cups to the commercial Kirch Group from Germany. Now the EBU must sometimes rely on sublicense agreements and the support of national parliaments to keep such events on terrestrial channels.

The radio department typically negotiates jointly with the EBU television department. On location, it supports national broadcasters in their work. Besides top sports events, the EBU following its public service mission, is also interested in broadcasting minor sports that commercial stations do not find appealing. In this role, the EBU radio covers and assists at about 150 sporting events each year.

Technology

The radio division is part of a broader EBU project that attempts to develop a more efficient and automated system of transmitting traffic and travel information to viewers, licensers, and agent systems. The goal is to keep public service stations updated with the latest technology, enabling them to counter commercial competition in this area. Moreover, the EBU has initiated joint experiments with web-radio and interactive internet radio. For more than a decade it has initiated the development of digital studio and transmission equipment.

Collaborations

The EBU works in partnership with all major international broadcasting organizations such as Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), North American Broadcasters Association (NABA), the Union of National Radio and Television Organizations in Africa (URTNA), the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) and the Organizations de la Television Iberoamericana (OTI).

Future

As an increasing number of commercial stations build their market share by offering entertainment programs with mass appeal and outbidding public stations for rights to popular sports events, national political bodies ask public broadcasters to be more fiscally responsible and approve increases in viewer fees or licenses very reluctantly. As a result European national and regional public service broadcasters face mounting pressure from both sides. The EBU is more important then ever in helping the public broadcasting concept to survive. Members can synchronize their efforts, more efficiently share their resources, and use the institution as a powerful lobbying organization on an international level. In addition, at a time when commercial format radio is gaining a strong hold in many European countries, the EBU radio department can help to maintain their members' mission of broadcasting programs with less mass appeal, such as minority programs, radio drama, or cultural events. The EBU's support for public service radio is a way of ensuring that radio remains an information and education medium in Europe and beyond.