European Broadcasting Union

European Broadcasting Union Union européenne de radio-télévision
Countries with one or more members are in green
Formation	12 February 1950
Type	Union of broadcasting organisations
Headquarters	Geneva, Switzerland
Membership	74 active members
Official languages	English, French
President	Jean-Paul Philippot[1]
Website	http://www.ebu.ch/

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; French: Union européenne de radio-télévision (UER)) is a confederation of 75 broadcasting organisations from 56 countries, and 43 associate broadcasters from a further 25. It is unrelated to the European Union. Members are radio and television companies, most of which are government-owned public service broadcasters or privately owned stations with public missions. Full active Members are based in countries from Iceland to Russia, including almost all European countries. Associate members are not limited to those from European countries and the Mediterranean but include broadcasters from Canada, Japan, Mexico, India and Hong Kong, as well as many others. Associate Members from the United States include ABC, CBS, NBC, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Time Warner, and the only individual station, WFMT.

Active members are those whose states fall within the European Broadcasting Area, or otherwise those who are members of the Council of Europe.

The EBU's highest profile production is the Eurovision Song Contest, organised by its Eurovision Network. The Eurovision Network also organises the Eurovision Dance Contest, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, the former Eurovision Young Dancers competition, and other competitions for young musicians and screenwriters, which are modelled along similar lines. The countries in the EBU have also often worked together to create documentaries and (animated) children's programming.

EBU provides several targeted training courses for broadcast professionals through its section EBU Training which was founded in 1999 and since then, has trained over 5,000 people from more than 30 countries. Most of the programmes are offered exclusively to EBU members. However, certain programmes are increasingly made available to non-members.

Most EBU broadcasters have a group deal to carry the Olympics^[2] and FIFA World Cup (particularly, the games of their country and the Final). Another annually recurring event which is broadcast across Europe through the EBU is the Vienna New Year's Concert. The theme music played before EBU broadcasts is Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Prelude to Te Deum. It is well known to Europeans as it is played before and after the Eurovision Song Contest and other important events.

History

The classic opening ident that preceded all Eurovision network transmissions until the mid-90s. The logotypes of both the sending and receiving company were shown in the middle. The pattern around the middle is based on the Flag of Europe.

It was formed on 12 February 1950 by 23 broadcasting organisations from Europe and the Mediterranean at a conference in the coastal resort of Torquay in Devon, England. In 1993, the International Radio and Television Organisation (OIRT), an equivalent organisation of broadcasters from Central and Eastern Europe, was merged with the EBU.

The first co-production was the animated series The Animals of Farthing Wood from 1993 based on the books of the same title by Colin Dann. The second animated collaboration was Noah's Island from 1997 and more recently, Pitt and Kantrop. Another important EBU programme is Jeux Sans Frontières.

Technical activities

The objective of the EBU's technical activities is simply to assist EBU Members (see below) in this period of unprecedented technological changes. This includes provision of technical information to Members via conferences and workshops, as well as in written form (such as the EBU Technical Review, and the EBU tech-i magazine).

The EBU also encourages active collaboration between its Members on the basis that they can freely share their knowledge and experience, thus achieving considerably more than individual Members could achieve by themselves. Much of this collaboration is achieved through Project Groups which study specific technical issues of common interest: for example, EBU Members have long been preparing for the revision of the 1961 Stockholm Plan.

The EBU places great emphasis on the use of open standards. Widespread use of open standards (such as MPEG-2, DAB, DVB, etc.) ensures interoperability between products from different vendors, as well as facilitating the exchange of programme material between EBU Members and promoting "horizontal markets" for the benefit of all consumers.

EBU Members and the EBU Technical Department have long played an important role in the development of many systems used in radio and television broadcasting, such as:

• The AES/EBU digital audio interface;
• Serial and parallel interfaces for digital video (ITU-R Recommendations 601 and 656);
• RDS - the Radio Data System used on FM broadcasting.

The EBU has also actively encouraged the development and implementation of:

• Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) through Eureka Project 147 and the WorldDAB Forum;
• Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) through the DVB Project and DigiTAG;
• Digital radio in the bands currently used for AM broadcasting through DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale);
• Standardisation of PVR systems through the TV-Anytime Forum.
• Development of other content distribution networks on the internet through P2PTV; EBU Project Group D/P2P, from November 2007 to April 2008, with a trial of selected member channels, thanks to Octoshape's distribution platform. [1]. The EBU is also part of the European P2P-Next project.

Members

A map illustrating the entry dates of EBU member states. Some states have more than one channel so only the earliest is counted.

European members

Country	Broadcasting organisation	National script	Abbr.	Year
Albania	Albanian Public Radio and Television	Radio Televizioni Shqiptar	RTSH	1999
Andorra	Radio and Television of Andorra	Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra	RTVA	2002
Armenia	Public Radio of Armenia	Հայաստանի Հանրային Ռադիո	ARMR	2005
	Public Television of Armenia	Հայաստանի հանրային հեռուստաընկերություն	ARMTV	2005
Austria	Austrian Broadcasting	Österreichischer Rundfunk	ORF	1953
Azerbaijan	Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company	İctimai Televiziya və Radio Yayımları Şirkəti	İTV	2007
Belarus	Belarusian Television and Radio Company	Нацыянальная дзяржаўная тэлерадыёкампанія Рэспублікі Беларусь	BTRC	1993
Belgium	Flemish Radio- and Television Network	Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep	VRT	1950
	Belgian Radio and Television of the French Community	Radio-Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française	RTBF	1950
Bosnia & Herzegovina	Radiotelevision of Bosnia & Herzegovina	Radio-televizija Bosne i Hercegovine	BHRT	1993
Bulgaria	Bulgarian National Radio	Българско национално радио	BNR	1993
	Bulgarian National Television	Българска национална телевизия	BNT	1993
Croatia	Croatian Radiotelevision	Hrvatska radiotelevizija	HRT	1993
Cyprus	Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation	Ραδιοφωνικό Ίδρυμα Κύπρου \ (Turkish) Kıbrıs Yayın Kurumu	RIK/ CyBC	1968
Czech Republic	Czech Radio	Český rozhlas	ČR	1993
	Czech Television	Česká televize	ČT	1993
Denmark	Denmark's Radio	Danmarks Radio AS	DR	1950
	TV2	TV2 AS	DK/TV2	1996
Estonia	Estonian Public Broadcasting	Eesti Rahvusringhääling	ERR	1993
Finland	- Finnish Broadcasting Corporation - Swedish Broadcasting of Finland	Yleisradio OY / (Swedish) Rundradion AB	YLE/FST5	1950
	Commercial Channel 3	Mainostelevisio 3	MTV3	1993
France	- Télévision Française 1 - France Télévisions - Canal+ - Radio France - Radio France Internationale	Groupement des Radiodiffuseurs Français de l'UER	GRF	1950
	Europe 1	Europe 1	E1	1978
Georgia	Georgian Public Broadcasting	საქართველოს საზოგადოებრივი მაუწყებელი	GPB	2005
Germany	German National Broadcasting	Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland	ARD	1952
	Second German Television	Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen	ZDF	1963
Greece	Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation	Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία Τηλεόραση	ERT	1950
Hungary	Hungarian Radio	Magyar Rádió	MR	1993
	Hungarian Television	Magyar Televízió	HU/MTV	1993
Iceland	National Broadcasting Service	Ríkisútvarpið	RÚV	1956
Ireland	Irish Radio-Television	Raidió Teilifís Éireann	RTÉ	1950
	Irish Language Television	Teilifís na Gaeilge 4	TG4	2007
Italy	Italian Broadcasting	Radiotelevisione Italiana	RAI	1950
Latvia	Latvian Television	Latvijas Televīzija	LTV	1993
	Latvian Radio	Latvijas Radio	LR	1993
Lithuania	Lithuanian National Radio and Television	Lietuvos Radijas ir Televizija	LRT	1993
Luxembourg	CLT Multi Media	Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion	RTL	1950
	Radio 100,7	Radio 100,7	ERSL	1996
Macedonia	Macedonian Radio-Television	Македонска радио телевизија	MKRTV	1993
Malta	Public Broadcasting Services	Public Broadcasting Services	MT/PBS	1969
Moldova	Teleradio-Moldova	Teleradio-Moldova	TRM	1993
Monaco	Radio Monte-Carlo	Groupement de Radiodiffuseurs Monégasques	TMC	1950
Montenegro	Radio Television of Montenegro	Radio televizija Crne Gore/ Радио телевизија Црне Горе	RTCG	2001
Netherlands	Netherlands Public Broadcasting	Nederlandse Publieke Omroep	NPO	1950
Norway	Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation	Norsk Rikskringkasting AS	NRK	1950
	TV2	TV2 AS	NO/TV2	1992
Poland	Polish Television	Telewizja Polska	TVP	1993
	Polish Radio	Polskie Radio	PR	1993
Portugal	Radio and Television of Portugal	Rádio e Televisão de Portugal	RTP	1950
Romania	Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company	Societatea Română de Radiodifuziune	ROR	1993
	Romanian Television	Televiziunea Română	TVR	1993
Russia	Channel One Russia	Первый канал	C1R	1993
	Radio Dom Ostankino	Радиодом Останкино	RDO	1993
	All-Russia State Television and Radio Company	Всероссийская государственная телевизионная и радиовещательная компания	RTR	1993
San Marino	Radio-Television of San Marino	Radiotelevisione della Repubblica di San Marino	SMRTV	1995
Serbia	Radio Television of Serbia	Радио-телевизија Србије	RTS	2001
Slovakia	Slovak Radio	Slovenský rozhlas	SK/SR	1993
	Slovak Television	Slovenská televízia	SK/STV	1993
Slovenia	Radio-Television Slovenia	Radiotelevizija Slovenije	RTVSLO	1993
Spain	Spanish Radio-Television	Corporación Radiotelevisión Española	RTVE	1955
	Spanish Society of Radio	Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión	SER	1982
	People's Radiowaves of Spain	Cadena de Ondas Populares de España	COPE	1998
Sweden	- Swedish Television - Swedish Radio - Swedish Educational Broadcasting - Swedish Factual Broadcasting	Sveriges Television AB	SVT	1950
	TV4	TV4 AB	TV4	2004
Switzerland	Swiss Broadcasting Corporation -Schweizer Fernsehen -Schweizer Radio DRS -Radio Télévision Suisse -Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana -Radio Television Rumantscha	SRG SSR idée suisse / Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft (German) / Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision (French) / Società svizzera di radiotelevisione (Italian) / Societad svizra da radio e televisiun (Romansh)	SSR SRG	1950
Ukraine	National Television Company of Ukraine	Національна телекомпанія України	NTU	1993
	National Radio Company of Ukraine	Національна радіокомпанія України	NRU	1993
United Kingdom	- British Broadcasting Corporation	British Broadcasting Corporation	BBC	1950
	- Independent Television - Channel 4 - Sianel Pedwar Cymru - Five	United Kingdom Independent Broadcasting/ (Welsh) Darlledu Annibynnus Deyrnas Gyfunol, previously the Independent Broadcasting Authority	UKIB, IBA	1959
Vatican City	Vatican Radio	Radio Vaticana	RV	1950

Non-European members

Country	Broadcasting organisation	National script	Latinization	Abbr.	Year
Algeria	National Television Company	المـؤسـسـة العمومية للتـلـفزيـون	Al-Mu'assasah al-`Umūmīyyah lil-Tilfizyūn	ENTV	1969
	National Sound-broadcasting Company	الإذاعة الجزائرية	Al-Idhā‘ah al-Ǧazā'irīyyah	ENRS	1969
	Television of Algeria	تلفزيون لجزائر	Tilfizyūn al-Ǧazā'ir	TDA	1969
Egypt	Egyptian Radio and Television Union	إتحاد الإذاعة و التليفزيون المصري	Ittihād ul-Idhā‘ah wal-Tilīfizyūn al-Miṣrī	ERTU	1950–1958, 1984
Israel	Israel Broadcasting Authority	רָשׁוּת השׁידוּר	Rashùt HaShidúr	IBA	1957
Jordan	Jordan Radio and Television Corporation	التلفزيون الأردني	Al-Tilfizyūn al-'Urdunīyy	JRTV	1969
Lebanon	Télé Liban	تلفزيون لبنان	Tilfizyūn Libnān	TL	1950
Libya	Libyan Jamahiriyah Broadcasting Corporation	الجماهيرية اللّيبيّة		LJBC	1974
Morocco	Société Nationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision	الشركة الوطنبة للإذاعة والتلفرة	Al-Shirkah Al-Waṭanīyyah lil-'Idhā`ah wal-Talfazah	SNRT	1950–1961, 1968
Tunisia	Êtablissement de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Tunisienne	-		ERTT	1950
Turkey	Turkish Radio and Television Corporation	Türkiye Radyo-Televizyon Kurumu		TRT	1950

Associate Members

Any group or organisation member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which provide a radio and/or television service outside of the European Broadcasting Area, are permitted to submit applications to the EBU for Associate Membership. Countries which have this status also pay an annual fee to maintain this status, if a fee is not paid, then their Associate Membership is revoked. It was also noted by the EBU that any country that is granted Associate Member status does not include any access into the Eurovision system.^[3]

The following table, gives a list of Associate Members of the EBU.^[3][4]

Country	Broadcasting organisation	Abbr.
Australia	Australian Broadcasting Corporation	ABC Australia
	Australian Fine Music Network	AFMN
	FreeTV Australia	Free
	SBS Australia	SBS
Bangladesh	National Broadcasting Authority of Bangladesh
Canada	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Societé Radio Canada)	CBC/SRC
Chile	Canal 13 (Chile)	UC13
Cuba	Cuban Television	ICRT
Gambia	Gambia Radio & Television Service	GRTS
Georgia	Teleimedi	TEME
	Rustavi 2	RB
Greenland	Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa	KNR
Hong Kong	Asia Television Limited	ATV
	Radio Television Hong Kong	RTHK
	Television Broadcasts Limited	TVB
India	All India Radio	AIR
Iran	Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting	IRIB
Japan	Fuji Television	FTN
	National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan	NACB
	Nippon Hoso Kyokai	NHK
	Tokyo Broadcasting System	TBS
	Tokyo FM	TFM
Malaysia	Radio Television Malaysia	RTM
Mauritania	TV de Mauritanie	MR/TVM
Mauritius	Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation	MBC
Nepal	Nepal Television	NTVC
New Zealand	Radio New Zealand	RNZ
	Television New Zealand Ltd	TVNZ
Oman	Oman Directorate General of Radio and Television	ODGRT
Pakistan	Pakistan Television Corporation	PK/PTV
Qatar	Al Jazeera Children's Channel	JCC
South Africa	South African Broadcasting Corporation	SABC
South Korea	Korean Broadcasting System	KBS
Syria	General Organisation of Radio and Television	RTV
United States	National Broadcasting Company[4]	NBC
	American Broadcasting Company[4]	ABC
	Columbia Broadcasting System[4]	CBS
	National Public Radio[4]	NPR
	American Public Media[4]	APM
	WFMT 98.7 FM, Chicago, Illinois[4]	WFMT
Venezuela	Radio Caracas Television	RCTV
	Radio Caracas Radio	RCR
Zimbabwe	Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation	ZBC

Approved participant members

Any groups or organisations from a country with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) membership, which don't qualify for either of the EBU's Active or Associate memberships, but still provide a broadcasting activity for the EBU are granted a unique Approved Participants membership, which lasts approximately 5 years. An application for this status may be submitted to the EBU at any given time, providing an annual fee is paid.

The following table provides a list of European Broadcasting Union (EBU) 'Approved Participants'.^[5]

Country	Broadcasting organisation	Abbr.
Belgium  Canada  France  Switzerland	TV5 Europe	FRI/TV5
European Union	Euronews	Euronews
Franco-German	ARTE GEIE	ARTE
Macedonia	JP MRD (Macedonian Broadcasting)	JPMRD
Hungary	Antenna Hungária RT	AH
	Duna Television	Duna TV
Palestine	Palestine Radio and TV Corporation	PRTV
	Abertis Telecom S.A.	-
South Africa	Sentech (Pty) Ltd	SNTC
United Arab Emirates	MBC Limited - Middle East Broadcasting Centre	MEBC

Past active members

Country	Broadcasting organisation	Abbr.	Years
Serbia and Montenegro	Alliance of Public Radio and Television	UJRT	2001–2006
Spain	Antena 3 de Radio, S.A.	A3R	1988–1993
Yugoslavia	Yugoslav Radio Television	JRT	1950–1992

Pending EBU membership applications

Country	Broadcasting organisation	Abbr.	Notes
Kazakhstan	Kazakhstan-1	K-1	State Television Company awaits of satisfaction of request for Pending or Approved EBU membership since 2008.
Kosovo	Radio Television of Kosovo	RTK	RTK has shown interest into obtaining active EBU membership. However, they have yet to fulfil all the criteria set by the EBU for admission.[6][7][8]
Liechtenstein	1 Fürstentum Liechtenstein Television	1FLTV	Liechtenstein's only television broadcaster which began broadcasting on 15 August 2008. In July 2009, Peter Kölbel, broadcaster's managing director officially announced its intent to apply to join the EBU by the end of July 2009.[9]
Morocco	2 Morocco Television	2M TV	The second commercial channel of Morocco has asked for membership to the EBU.

See also

• 3sat
• Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
• BBC World
• Caribbean Broadcasting Union
• Commonwealth Broadcasting Association
• Commonwealth Press Union
• Eurovision Song Contest
• Eurovision Dance Contest
• Eurovision Young Musicians
• Eurovision Young Dancers
• Junior Eurovision Song Contest
• North American Broadcasters Association
• TV5MONDE
• World Radio Network

Notes and references

Notes:

References:

External links

• EBU Website
• EBU TECHNICAL website