European News Exchange

The European News Exchange (short: ENEX) is an association of the world’s leading commercial TV broadcasters.[1] Coordinated by the ENEX Centre in Luxembourg,[2] ENEX members share their news content and news production resources in order to gain competitive advantages in newsgathering.[3] ENEX began as a technical service platform and has over recent years transformed itself into becoming a news provider that gathers daily news video stories from its members in a news pool. All ENEX content is available, exclusively to its members, for free.[4] To ensure exclusivity, only one channel per territory is allowed to join.[5]

Company’s History

On 14 December 1993, managers from RTL Television, RTL Belgium, RTL Nederland, M6 in France, and CLT (Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion or CLT, later to become RTL Group) met in Luxembourg to found the European News Exchange. The initial goal was to combine the resources of the different TV channels and to reduce costs by sharing news footage, technical facilities and satellite space. ENEX started operating in 1994.

In 1996, ENEX merged with the “News Consortium” consisting of CBS, Sky News, VTM Belgium and TBS Japan. The members of the News Consortium joined ENEX, now operating one digital and one analogue satellite channel. Ten years after its inception, 30 ENEX members were making tens of thousands of bookings on 10 satellite channels and exchanging more than 5,000 news stories per year.

In 2003, ENEX digitised the picture exchange; all news stories were now recorded on a server. The following year the number of items nearly doubled when footage from CBS Newspath was added. In 2005, ENEX introduced News Link, a system for the transmission and exchange of content via the internet on a file-sharing basis.[6] Today, ENEX has 37 members and operates 16 satellite channels on Eutelsat 16A.[7] All ENEX members contribute and receive content from all over the world via News Link HD. In 2012, ENEX members delivered an all-time high of over 24,000 items of video content.

The Members

The association currently has 37 members and is present in more than 40 countries. The geographical reach and news expertise of its members contribute to the value of ENEX content exchange. ENEX strength is the collective strength of some of the world’s most important commercial and news channels.[8] ENEX members contribute more than 24,000 news items per year to the content exchange that is facilitated by the Coordination Center in Luxembourg. They share live signals over the ENEX satellite whenever there is breaking news, often being the first on the spot. Members contribute with live coverage of breaking news that becomes instantly available to the ENEX network through their satellite. As a general rule, ENEX members are No.1 or No.2 commercial channel in their regions, or No.1 News channels with a broader appeal.

In the summer of 2012, ENEX welcomed Sky News Arabia, expanding the association’s coverage to the whole of North Africa and the Middle East.[9] Later the same year, the first members from Latin America joined.[10] One of the most recent members is the French news channel BFM TV.[11] Since 2012, ENEX has expanded its membership base by 25 per cent. At present, the organization is in discussions with channels in Asia, Africa, additional partners in South America, as well as further partners in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Full list of ENEX members

The Business Model

All ENEX members pay a yearly membership fee – the amount depends on the size of the channel, the size of its market, its contribution to the ENEX content pool, and the use of satellite time. Each member submits material from their own-produced news programmes to the ENEX content pool without receiving any financial compensation. In return, they can use all material from this pool for their programmes – free of charge. This way, it is possible to keep the membership fee low, resulting in significant cost savings for the channels compared to a classic agency model.[12]

Pool Operation

ENEX members organize pool operations for the coverage of major political, social and sports events. Coordinated by the ENEX Centre, these operations enable its members to share costs for transmissions, live positions and other production resources.

Recent examples of such pool operations include the coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s abdication and Pope Francis’s election in February and March 2013, the Hand-over of the Dutch throne in April 2013, the Tornado devastating parts of Oklahoma in May 2013, and the floods in Germany and Central Europe in June 2013.

References

  1. ↑ Spiegel.de, 1995, "Haie, Schlangen, Elefanten"
  2. ↑ Luxembourg Business Database, 2014, "European News Exchange"
  3. ↑ Hitting the Headlines in Europe: A Country-by-country Guide to Effective Media Relations, Cathie Burton, Alun Drake, 2004, page 56
  4. ↑ Variety.com, 1997, "Euros probe TV News"
  5. ↑ Planet-Wissen.de, 2009, "Fernsehnachrichten"
  6. ↑ Eutelsat.fr, 2008, "The BIS TV News"
  7. ↑ Enex.lu, 2013, "Shared Satellite"
  8. ↑ Enex.lu, 2013, "Our Members"
  9. ↑ TVMEA.ws, 2012, "Sky News Arabia Added to European News Exchange"
  10. ↑ Broadband TV News, 2012, "ENEX expands to Latin America"
  11. ↑ Rapid TV News, 2013, "BFM TV becomes ENEX member"
  12. ↑ Backstage, 2013, "How Enex is transforming from a technical service into content provider "