8
European Media

The nature of European media is, to a remarkable extent, the product of the interplay of various forces – political, technological, and social – which have worked together over time to produce one of the world's most vibrant media environments. Because of the varied nature of European nations, European media forms are varied as well, yet some commonalities tend to dominate. A logical starting point for understanding European media is to consider its historical context.

Historical Context

Some of the most historically significant innovations in the history of media have been conceived by European media entities. By about the 1770s to the 1780s, newspapers around the world were regularly reporting international news, especially matters of importance in the areas of business and politics. The Times of London, destined to become one of the world's most significant papers, began in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register.

Pioneer news agency Reuters began in 1851 in Britain and quickly became dependent on emerging telegraph systems. Largely because of concerns about the crossing of national borders by telegraphy, the International Telecommunication Union was formed in Paris in 1865. Fledgling broadcasting operations emerged by the early 1920s in Europe and in the United States. Some of these pioneering European radio endeavors were commercial in nature, but this would generally quickly change.

The majority of the population in Russia lived in the European part of that country. Experimental radio was in evidence in Russia by 1919, with regular broadcasts in operation beginning in 1924. By that time, broadcasting had shifted from private hands to a system of government domination.

In Britain, regular radio broadcast services were in place as early as 1920. The British Broadcasting Company began as a private company with a monopoly over radio broadcasting, but by 1927 had evolved into the British Broadcasting Corporation, a public service corporation. The BBC is still a formidable force in not only Britain, but in world media as well, although in the UK it now operates alongside various forms of commercial broadcasting.

In other Western European countries, fledgling broadcasting operations emerged in the 1920s which tended to eventually emphasize government dominance. Early radio tended to operate on commercial lines, but quickly gave way to publicly funded government monopolies.

In some countries, the 20th century saw the development of a unique entity which became known as the PTT, a generalized abbreviation for what we could term, in English, a “postal, telegraph, and telephone” service or agency, and the abbreviation holds for various languages.

In Turkey, for example, part of which is in Europe, the Posta Telgraf Telefon was established as that country's PTT (now known as the Posta ve Telgraf Teskilati). The PTT in Switzerland became known as Post, Telefon und Telegraph in German, and as Postes, Teléphones, Télégraphes in French. In Britain, the BBC emerged as a separate entity from the postal system, but the General Post Office (GPO) had a direct hand in the establishment of the BBC.

The emergence of PTTs in Europe served the purpose of providing a centralized public agency charged with coordinating mail service, radio broadcasting, and other services, such as telephone and telegraph options, and eventually satellite communications. In recent decades, however, PTTs have tended to take a back seat to a rising emphasis on privatization and commercialization. This became an explosive issue in Western Europe in the 1980s, as a wave of conservative politics acting in tandem with commercial challenges served to alter European media systems.

At the risk of overgeneralizing, much of the development of electronic media in Europe, especially Western Europe, could be placed into a very few broadly defined historical eras. The characteristics of these eras should be viewed as tendencies, and there were exceptions. In addition, the exact time frames as stated below are approximations, and varied to some extent from country to country.

  • The era of government dominance: 1920s to 1960s
  • The era of challenge and competition: 1960s to 1980s
  • The era of rising commercialism: 1980s to the present

Challenging the System

In the 1960s, state‐dominated radio services in Europe tended to avoid pop or rock, at the same time that this musical form was growing in popularity. This appears to have given rise to competition to official government‐dominated radio from two types of sources: (1) unlicensed pirate radio stations and (2) official but commercial radio services from the tiny nations of Luxembourg and Monte Carlo. These latter services operated at high power and were quite capable of crossing national borders.

Radio Luxembourg, in particular, broadcast commercially beginning in 1933, aiming its transmissions largely at the UK and Ireland. The BBC operated as the only legal radio service broadcasting from British soil until 1973. In the meantime, however, Radio Luxembourg provided an alternative, as an example of what is termed a “transborder” broadcaster. Out of Radio Luxembourg came what is known today as the RTL Group, a major European media company with a direct presence in 10 countries.

Unlicensed pirate stations operated on an unofficial basis as a challenge to state services. The most prominent of these were offshore stations, broadcasting either from a ship or from abandoned World War II platforms at sea, in an attempt to avoid territorial waters. One of the most popular was Radio Caroline, which aimed its signals at the UK from a ship in international waters. In a similar vein, Radio Veronica broadcast into the Netherlands from a ship, and managed to continue its operation for 14 years.

Largely because of competition from such sources as Radio Luxembourg and the pirates, official services began to change. The Netherlands initiated a service whereby time on government‐owned transmitters would be given to popular broadcasting organizations, based on their numbers of members. The BBC established a new radio service, BBC Radio 1, as early as 1967, in direct response to this competition. The first disc jockey heard on BBC 1, Tony Blackburn, was already well known to British listeners from his earlier days at offshore pirates Radio Caroline and Radio London.

Privatization and Commercialism

A growing tendency toward placing some segments of broadcasting into private and commercial hands became a major issue in the 1980s. The causes are varied. One significant factor was the economy. Television broadcasting had been conducted in Europe on an experimental basis since the 1930s, but by the 1980s costs had escalated. At the same time, economic recession had emerged. This was the era of Ronald Reagan as president in the United States and Margaret Thatcher as prime minister in the UK, both conservatives who championed commercial interests in the media.

At the same time, new technologies were coming to the fore. Video cassette recorders (VCRs) were widely available, as was satellite reception of TV using direct broadcast satellite (DBS) systems. Competition to the BBC through commercially operated Independent Television (ITV) had been in place since 1955, but had grown tremendously in popularity and quality by the 1970s.

In this technological, economic, and political context, government dominance in European broadcasting became an explosive issue in the 1980s. Pirate radio hit France, and François Mitterand came to power as French prime minister largely due to his campaigning efforts over pirate radio. Unlicensed radio stations were especially rampant for a time in both France and Italy during the 1970s and 1980s. A citizens‐band (CB) radio craze hit Europe, with individuals “broadcasting” from their homes via CB radio equipment imported from the US. Solidarity Radio transmitted a number of short political broadcasts in Poland in the 1980s, critical of the government, before the fall of communism.

The Present Climate

The current European media environment is characterized by a hybrid system incorporating both publicly funded systems and privately funded commercial operations. As Europe's political climate continues to evolve, the nature of media systems changes accordingly.

In 1992, the Treaty on European Union, better known as the Maastricht Treaty, authorized the creation of the current European Union structure, in addition to the euro as a unified currency system. As the UK prepares to disengage itself from the European Union through its Brexit (British exit) process, however, questions arise as to how relevant EU media regulation will be in Britain.

The majority of Istanbul, Turkey's most populous city, is situated in Europe, with part in Asia. Formerly, Turkey eagerly awaited EU membership and endeavored to compete successfully in the annual international media competition known as the Eurovision Song Contest. Now, however, under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and in the climate created by his comparatively repressive regime, Turkey has withdrawn from participation.

At the same time, however, the EU seeks to direct European media, to some extent, through an official European Commission agency known as the Education, Audiovisual, and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). A recent initiative of this agency is Creative Europe, which is intended to manage aspects of European media, culture, and creativity.

A vital “sub‐program” of Creative Europe is known as the MEDIA Program, sometimes referred to as the MEDIA Sub‐Program. A primary component of its purpose is to provide funding for European TV production, filmmaking, and other media industries.

The sub‐program also aids in the promotion and distribution of European media output in and outside of Europe. The MEDIA Program is set up to operate as a series of sequential multi‐year programs, which have been in operation since 1991. Program initiatives focus on such areas as film festivals, production and distribution of film and TV, promotion of media products, and the training of media professionals.

Operating in tandem with the MEDIA Program is the MEDIA Mundus Program, intended to increase cooperation between the European film industry and media organizations outside of Europe. The aim is, of course, to enhance the competitiveness of European media in the world market and to encourage the establishment of long‐range working relationships with media organizations in other parts of the world.

In addition, the EU's Audiovisual Media Services Directive, called the AVMS directive or sometimes the AMSD or even the AVMSD, operates as a regulatory framework which ensures that EU rules are applied consistently in all member nations with regard to the media. A primary component of the directive is the concept that all goods and services may be freely traded across national borders, and that this should extend to the media. In other words, media productions and services should not be blocked at a country's borders just because they originate from outside that country.

The Audiovisual Media Services Directive was originally known as the Television without Frontiers Directive, and was designed to thwart TV program import quotas. Such quotas, which were in place before the directive, were intended to limit programming from other countries from being televised in a particular country, in an effort to promote that country's own TV industry. Until 2012, Canada had similar rules in place, which mandated that a certain percentage of TV and radio programming in Canada had to be characterized by “Canadian content.” The eradication of such quotas in European television has been termed the “lynchpin of European policy.”1

France, in particular, expressed initial reluctance to comply with the Television without Frontiers Directive when it was first implemented in the 1980s, because of concerns about the protection of France's own media and culture. More recently, France has expressed concerns about the potential for what has been termed “cultural dumping” from Netflix as that American‐based media corporation continues to expand into Europe, with what is viewed as damage to France's own film industry.2 Despite concerns about the directive, a study released in 2017 found that 28% of films which were broadcast on TV in Europe during the previous year were European films.3

Since the Television without Frontiers Directive was enacted, the media landscape has changed dramatically. The earlier iteration of the directive was intended to pertain to “linear” television, in other words TV which operates predominantly on a broadcast schedule model. Newer forms of non‐linear TV services, in other words services which do not necessarily depend on a broadcast schedule, open up new regulatory challenges as well as new market implications.

Such technologies as web streaming and various types of video‐on‐demand (VOD) services like Netflix and YouTube break television out of the linear schedule mold. As a result, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive emerged in 2007, replacing the earlier Television Without Frontiers Directive, in order to take into account the changing nature of TV media.

Europe's Digital Agenda

The European Commission has emphasized three essential goals in coordinating European media. Those goals are (1) media freedom; (2) transparency; and (3) diversity. The term that the Commission has generally used in referring to media diversity is media “pluralism.”

European Union legislators have expressed multiple times and through multiple means a desire for a European media system in which journalists operate free from inappropriate outside pressure, in which multiple viewpoints are expressed, and in which transparency of media ownership and funding prevails. This is seen as an expression of a prevailing value held by the European Union in general terms, that being freedom of expression.

Much of this was codified in 2013 through the European Commission's High Level Group on Media Freedom and Pluralism European. In addition, the Commission's Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights reached essentially the same conclusions in 2016. That group formulated a list of six key elements regarded as “fundamental rights” in European media:

  1. Eradicating political pressure on the media;
  2. Ensuring financial independence of the media;
  3. Allowing freedom of expression by journalists;
  4. Preventing hate speech through the media;
  5. Upholding the rights of investigative journalists and whistleblowers; and
  6. Promoting media literacy and media ethics.4

The European Commission's Digital Agenda for Europe, usually referred to as simply the Digital Agenda, is a part of the Europe 2020 Strategy. This strategy has been established to provide parameters for European growth and development by the year 2020. The Europe 2020 Strategy was set in the year 2000 in order to replace the earlier Lisbon Strategy as a plan for European media development.

The Lisbon Strategy had been expected to make Europe's “knowledge‐based economy” the most competitive in the world in such areas as online commerce, Internet access, training, and research, with emphasis on an increase in numbers of jobs. By 2000, however, the Lisbon Strategy was widely viewed as having utterly failed in its mission.

As a result, the Europe 2020 Strategy was adopted in its place, with the Digital Agenda as an important part of that plan. The key element in the Digital Agenda is what is termed a digital single market, or DSM. The DSM is perhaps best expressed as a unified approach whereby a leading role in the world economy is assumed by European digital media.

In accordance with these goals, Europe seeks to enhance investment and to provide both national and regional initiatives, while taking advantage of Europe's unique position to act as a single, unified force in global media. This is seen as opening up new opportunities for startups.

In addition, this should allow existing European media businesses in operate in a context which encompasses all of Europe with, of course, enhanced ability to compete in the world market. The DSM endeavors to achieve this through concentration in three areas, referred to as the three pillars of the DSM:

  1. Access: The enhancement of access to digital products and services throughout Europe;
  2. Environment: The establishment of a level playing field and the optimum environment for the growth and development of digital services; and
  3. Economy and society: The expectation of maximum growth potential for European digital media.5

In addition, the DSM is a part of the Digital Agenda, which itself is made up of seven pillars:

  1. Creation of a DSM, in which Internet or other media services are not “geo‐blocked” at national borders;
  2. The use of universal technical standards which, in turn, ensure interoperability throughout Europe;
  3. The enhancement of cybersecurity on a uniform level throughout all member countries;
  4. The promotion of “fast and ultrafast” Internet across Europe through the establishment of next‐generation access (NGA) networks;
  5. Investment in research and innovation in the area of information and communication technologies (ICT);
  6. Promotion of media literacy, digital skills, and inclusion in all member countries;
  7. Encouragement of side benefits of ICT development in such initiatives as e‐health, digitization of media content, and response to climate change.6

Another EU initiative is what is known as the Satellite and Cable Directive, which was enacted in 1993. This directive forms a part of the DSM, and addresses access to broadcasting and Internet services where crossing national borders is involved. A primary concern is that the clearing of any copyright or licensing rights pertaining to broadcasting, satellite, and cable retransmission be facilitated. Additional related issues have emerged since the directive was passed, due to the growing importance of mobile media such as smartphones and tablets.

Recent Issues in European Media

Because Europe is composed of a number of countries, each with its own identity and culture, the unification of most of Europe has posed unique challenges, both politically and financially. In addition, the European Commission has been confronted with hurdles in its efforts to unify the media of the majority of the continent into a unifying force.

Electronic media emerged in Western Europe during the 1920s in the form of pioneering radio services, followed by experimental television in the 1930s. Largely in response to what were viewed as the excesses of the American system, in which commercial interests prevailed, Western Europe generally established non‐commercial public systems of broadcasting.

Another motivating factor in the establishment of the Western European model was a concern for maintaining European culture in the face of encroaching media products from the United States. American movies had already invaded Europe in large numbers. Such American cultural icons as silent film star Charlie Chaplin and animated character Felix the Cat were well known to European audiences by the 1920s.

Measures were instituted to ensure that Europe would not become a cultural dumping ground for American media products. This was easier to implement over state‐dominated broadcast channels than within the confines of commercial cinemas. With the influx of newer electronic media technologies, however, beginning with the spread of cable, DBS, and home video recording in the 1980s, this has become far more challenging.

With the intervention of the European Commission in its drive to unify European media, at the same time that efforts were made to instill new life into Europe‐based media, much of the old concern for quotas on media content imported from America disappeared. Finally, as much media storage, retrieval, and delivery becomes web‐based, this increasingly means that European media consumers are tied into a worldwide system in which national borders frequently disappear.

When the Television without Frontiers Directive was first instituted, a primary concern was that European media products from one European nation would be freely accessible across other European nations. Any influx of American content would have to be mitigated against institutional controls in countries which were still largely dominated by government broadcasting services. Since then, however, immense changes have impacted electronic media, with even greater changes poised for the near future.

In the 1980s, when the Television Without Frontiers Directive was first conceived, US government representatives were in Europe seeking to open doors for American media. More recently, however, European broadcast organizations have been increasingly engaged in producing their own versions of popular American‐style programming. This means that, in many cases, instead of importing American programs, European programs with similar themes and approaches have emerged.7

Challenges Posed by Digital Technology

Concerns have been expressed in Europe in recent years, especially in Western Europe, over the unexpected arrival of such non‐linear and web‐based TV services as Netflix and YouTube. Linear TV is called that because it operates on a broadcast schedule model, sometimes called “live” TV even when most of its programming is pre‐recorded.

Using the linear model, programs cannot be viewed unless they are accessed when they are aired, or are at least recorded by the consumer at that time for playback later. As already mentioned, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which replaces the Television Without Frontiers Directive, is intended to address the move to non‐linear services like Netflix.

European nations have not only feared what has been called “cultural dumping” from such services, in which American movies and TV could weaken the viability of European production, but concerns have been expressed about tax issues as well. Without changes in existing tax laws, for example, if Netflix expands into France from its European base in the Netherlands, the company could avoid paying taxes, thereby giving Netflix a distinct tax advantage over media companies based in France.

The European Commission has studied such matters, but has been criticized as being slow to deal in any effective and practical manner with these issues. For example, the financial contributions France makes to its own media production are higher than those of its neighbors. The concern is that this financial investment on the part of France will increasingly need to compete with media content which originates from outside of the country.

At the same time, Netflix has seen record profits, largely because of its expansion into other countries. The company's 23% increase in revenue in 2015 was primarily tied to international growth.8 More recently, Disney has largely withdrawn its presence from Netflix while announcing plans to establish its own streaming service.9

A concern in Europe centers around whether such services will come to dominate European media before the emergence of any Europe‐based alternatives that, once developed, could accentuate European media content. In the meantime, Netflix is in the process of producing its own new TV programs, designed specifically for the European market.

This involves multiple new series, with Netflix having reportedly invested around $1.75 billion in original and licensed series for Europe by 2017. This coincides with the company's CEO remarking that Netflix is “just getting started” in Europe.10 If these series achieve the sort of popularity which Netflix productions have enjoyed in the US, this can be expected to make it all that more difficult for European producers to compete.

Up until 2017, European subscribers to web‐streaming video and audio services like Netflix and Spotify were blocked from access while traveling in European countries other than their own. The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in 2017 to lift such bans, as long as such travel is for business, study, or vacations.

American‐based major Internet player Google has also been at the center of controversy in Europe, with a record $2.7 billion antitrust fine being levied against the company by EU regulators in 2017. At issue was Google's advertising practice, said to direct European consumers toward its own ad options instead of giving them a “genuine choice.”11

Another European controversy involving Google has been the search engine giant's objections to the EU stance that all citizens should enjoy a “right to be forgotten” by search engines. In other words, it is believed that outdated, irrelevant, or incorrect personal searches using Google should be delisted. This has been a particular bone of contention between Google and the French data protection agency CNIL. This resulted in a fine issued to Google in France, which has been appealed to the court system.

Growth in Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)

Following a model which will likely seem foreign to most Americans, the most popular method for accessing TV in Europe is digital terrestrial television (DTT). DTT uses neither cable nor satellite to deliver as many as 60 channels to European viewers. Although some pay channels, also termed subscription TV (STV) channels, may also be available depending on the service involved, DTT is, for the most part, described as a “free‐to‐air” service, also known as “free‐to‐view.” This means that consumers do not need to pay a monthly fee to access DTT services.

In its primary form, DTT relies on a special type of digital transmitter tower known as a multiplexer (MUX for short), which is capable of sending out signals from multiple broadcasters at once on a local over‐the‐air basis. In order to receive DTT services, a special tuner is available, but these are typically built into European televisions. The most popular DTT service in the UK is Freeview and, by law, all new TVs sold in the UK since 2008 include built‐in Freeview tuners. In other parts of Europe, DTT tuners are integrated into nearly all TVs.

European DTT systems, which are continuing to evolve, can use different forms of DTT technology. These can be placed into three different categories:

  1. Core to DTT: The predominant form of DTT, which focuses on linear television;
  2. Complementary to DTT: VOD services, which are non‐linear, sometimes referred to as hybrid TV; and
  3. Mobile DTT: DTT services made accessible via mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.12

Freeview, as a “free‐to‐air” DTT platform, is operated by DTV Services, Ltd. and is a joint venture involving the BBC, Channel 4, Sky UK, Arqiva, and ITV. Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster which is partly commercially funded. Arqiva operates transmitter facilities, and ITV is a commercial British broadcaster. Sky operates the biggest pay TV channel in the UK.

Freeview transmitters, located in such a way as to cover the UK, are capable of transmitting multiple channels at once. The Freeview system provides access to a number of TV channels, radio stations, and interactive services. Included are various channels from the BBC and the commercial‐based ITV, as well as commercial channels from Sky UK and UKTV, in addition to other options.

UKTV is jointly owned by the BBC and Scripps Networks Interactive, the latter being American‐based. In addition to its preponderance of free channels, some pay channels can be accessed via Freeview. Freeview access is enhanced through the prevalence of various types of recorder options, allowing viewers to record programs for access later.

Similar DTT multiplex services are also available in other parts of Europe, with roughly around half of European households accessing some form of DTT. Use of DTT is especially popular for use with secondary TV sets, since DTT allows users to receive a number of channels without need for cable or satellite. The popularity of DTT in Europe has cleared additional frequencies for mobile broadband.

Growth in DTT has been slower in Eastern Europe than in the rest of Europe, but was reaching about 28% of TV households in that region by the end of 2016.13 The tendency has been for European DTT systems to include few foreign channels, in other words channels which are not licensed in the state in which the DTT service operates.14 Various international news channels appear on DTT systems, depending on the country in which that system operates. These can include such channels as Euronews, BBC World News, France 24, CCTV (China), TV5Monde, DW, and CNN.

DTT has been termed a “spectacular European success story,” reaching 250 million people. In 2016, DTT was said to reach 43% of European households, compared to only 30% for cable and 25% for satellite.15

Media Policy Failure in Eastern Europe

Despite the fact that the European Commission has adopted a stance in favor of diversity in media ownership, implementing such a policy has sometimes been another matter. In the former communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe, free‐market reforms in non‐media areas of society have served to prevent the situation seen in Russia with the rise of oligarchs following the fall of communism. Some of those countries have, however, seen few moves toward media pluralism or diversity.

The fall of communism left a media void in some countries which was filled by both local investment and foreign capital. Investment has tended, however, to be far less robust than in Western Europe, with concerns raised about press freedom and diversity of ownership.

Media organizations which were formerly communist state media have tended to evolve into public service media. In addition, previously nonexistent media markets have opened up for commercial investment. The fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe does not mean, however, that there are no new political forces wishing to dominate media systems in this region.

In the Visegrád states – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia – for example, to a large extent early investors have withdrawn, while investors with strong political ties have moved in. Government pressure on journalists has occurred at times, while public service media control is often tied to political agendas.

Most former Soviet bloc countries in Europe joined the European Union in 2004. Three years later, Bulgaria and Romania were added. Only as late as 2013, however, did the European Commission begin to directly address issues of press freedom and diversity in those countries. That was when the European Parliament commissioned a study referred to as the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM), which was carried out by the Center for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom.

As a result of MPM findings, both Bulgaria and Hungary were determined to be “high‐risk” countries as far as fair and impartial news reporting is concerned. Hungary was also deemed high risk with regard to plurality in media ownership. In addition, Romania has come under fire, in part because of dominance of that country's media on the part of two individuals, Ronald Lauder and Adrian Sârbu.

Lauder, son of “cosmetics queen” Estée Lauder, moved in to fill the media void in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism in 1989. His company, Central Media Enterprise (CME), first appeared in Czechoslovakia (later known as the Czech Republic and Slovakia), but Lauder achieved greater success once he moved into Romania in 1995. By that year, CME controlled dozens of TV stations in most countries in Eastern Europe, with telecommunication services provided by another Lauder company, RSL Communications.

Lauder's inroads into Romanian media came about through his partnership with MediaPro, a media company established by Adrian Sârbu, the most powerful name in Romanian media. Sârbu's Pro TV channel, which he launched in Romania in 1993, became the country's most popular TV option.

As the country's most powerful media figure, Sârbu was said to be capable of determining who would and would not be prime minister of Romania. CME bought full ownership of MediaPro in 2009, with Sârbu retained as manager. In the same year, however, largely due to the worldwide financial crunch at the time, Lauder sold 31% of CME to Time Warner. Then in 2012, Time Warner increased its holdings, owning 49.9% of CME.

Time Warner called for an internal audit of CME. Although the findings are unclear, after the audit, in 2013, Sârbu resigned. Then in the following year, 2014, Lauder left CME. Also in 2014, the Romanian prime minister accused Sârbu of attempting to bribe him to block an investigation against MediaPro, as a subsidiary of CME.

Initially Lauder worked closely with Sârbu, but then both men became targets of criticism. Sârbu was arrested in 2015 on multiple charges, including tax evasion. Lauder, who has been called “Eastern Europe's answer to Rupert Murdoch,”16 resigned from the board of CME. Then other Romanian media tycoons came under criminal investigation. Pro TV was bought by Time Warner.

As a general assessment, the European Union has been widely critiqued as having demonstrated that it lacks the ability to ensure press freedoms, objectivity, and media diversity in the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In fact, rather than strengthening the media in this region, the European Union has been charged with undermining the situation.17

Similarly, it is claimed that the media environment in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic has “deteriorated dramatically” since joining the European Union. In addition, it is said that these countries exhibit what looks at first glance like media pluralism, when in fact media ownership is in the hands of a few powerful individuals in business and politics.18

This particularly became an issue following the financial downturn which began in 2007. This has resulted in dwindling capital, decreased foreign investment, and increased dependence on political regimes. At the same time that ad revenue and print circulation in these countries have dramatically declined, however, growth has been shown in digital media. Unfortunately, though, this does not seem to have led to an increase in pluralism of viewpoints, but rather increased commercialism and decreased news credibility.

In the meantime, throughout Europe, the EU establishes standards, but has not always been effective in establishing ways to implement them. This has especially been an issue in the former Soviet bloc countries. In some of those countries, repression of media critical of the government has been an issue of rising concern.

Since joining the EU, Bulgaria's press freedom ranking, as monitored by the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters without Borders, has steadily declined. Bulgaria ranked 34th out of 158 countries in that regard in 2003, but has dropped to 113th out of 180 countries in 2016. Then the country's ranking appeared to climb upward slightly in 2017, but only because the situation had deteriorated in other countries.19

At the same time that much of Eastern Europe's media environment is dominated by political figures, Russia has been increasing its direct involvement in Eastern European media. The Russian‐backed Sputnik News began radio operations in Serbia in 2015, for example. Russian involvement is also seen in Baltnews, an Internet‐based news operation in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

European Media Entities

Eurovision and the EBU

The Eurovision Song Contest is, each year, one of the largest and most‐watched media events in Europe. Each participating country contributes a musical performance it hopes will be chosen as that year's top song. In 2016, 204 million people watched TV coverage of the contest. In 40 markets, the contest's grand final reached an audience share of 36.3%. This is more than double the normal average share on the same channels during prime time.

Participation by various countries in the Eurovision Song Contest acts to some extent as an indicator of current political affiliations and issues. As already noted, Turkey declined to participate in recent years. Russia returned to the contest in 2018 after withdrawing in 2017 over issues concerning singer Yulia Samoylova. Her participation in the contest was viewed by the Ukraine as a direct provocation, since she had allegedly performed in the Crimea in violation of Ukrainian travel bans. In the same year, Macedonia was barred from participation because of debts owed by Macedonian Radio Television to the European Broadcasting Union.

The Eurovision Song Contest is organized by Eurovision, a department of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Eurovision also distributes news and sports content. The EBU, which calls itself “the world's leading alliance of public service media,”20 represents media entities in 56 countries, plus associate members in another 20 countries outside of Europe.

Although the EBU is probably best known for producing the Eurovision Song Contest, the Union also came to the fore during a major broadcasting controversy in Greece in 2013. In that year, the Greek government, plagued by a major financial crisis, closed state broadcaster Hellenic Radio‐Television (ERT) with little notice. In response, the EBU stepped in and established a temporary station a short distance away from ERT headquarters, with a satellite news‐gathering system set up in a parking lot. At the same time, the EBU took a stance against the closure, viewing it as a blow to democracy.

European television network Euronews was originally a project organized by the EBU. Until 2003, 51% of Euronews capital was owned by public channels, and 49% by private entities. The network was originally owned by 24 entities, 21 of which were public television channels. One of these private owners was London‐based Independent Television News (ITN). In 2010, about a third of the budget came from the European Commission, although it was not a shareholder and did not participate in decision‐making.

This system survived for a time, but then came a series of budget cuts by public broadcasters in various countries. Because their own budgets had been cut, they in turn cut their funding for Euronews, and Euronews ceased being profitable.

Then the majority of shares in Euronews (53%) were sold in 2015 to Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris. The remaining 47% was owned by 21 public service broadcasters and 3 local government entities. As late as December of 2016, the EBU was still funding about a third of Euronews. After Sawiris became involved, Euronews doubled its value, from 66 million to 115 million euros. Then US‐based NBC purchased 25% of the Euronews capital in 2017 for about $30 million.

Currently, Euronews reaches 430 million households in 166 countries, including the United States. Its news is supplied by more than 500 journalists from 30 different nations. In spite of ever‐increasing competition, the network is said to enjoy a higher viewership than that of any other such service in continental Europe. Euronews has been termed the “number‐one European news channel.” In actuality, however, Euronews consists not just of a single TV channel, but 12 separate editions, each in a different language and each designed to serve a distinct specific audience.21

The BBC, Expatriates, and the Diaspora

Britain's BBC is one of the world's oldest and most respected media organizations. As such, the BBC maintains a presence across the globe through several specific media endeavors. One is BBC World Service, which began in 1932 as the BBC Empire Service on shortwave radio.

Although the average American is probably completely unfamiliar with shortwave, it enables a single station to cover much of the planet as long as listeners have access to a special type of receiver. In theory, just three shortwave stations, using the right power and with the right atmospheric conditions, could cover the entire planet.

Shortwave was once a thriving form of global media, dominated largely by broadcasts from various national governments, but in recent years much shortwave activity has been replaced by cheaper Internet‐based alternatives. The BBC World Service currently supplements its shortwave options with the addition of services which use the Internet, mobile apps, cable and satellite TV, in addition to AM and FM radio. Through these varied means, the World Service currently reaches a weekly cumulative audience of 168 million people.22

The BBC also operates a global television service known as BBC World News. The service is commercially supported, and broadcasts on a 24‐hour basis. The BBC World News channel reaches about 300 million households in over 200 countries and territories, as well as about 1.8 million hotel rooms.23

In addition, BBC Worldwide operates globally as the commercial arm of the BBC and replaces an earlier subsidiary known as BBC Enterprises. A primary express intention of BBC Worldwide is to enhance the financial viability of the BBC in general, through marketing of BBC products and services to a global audience.

The BBC owns a vast collection of both current and older media materials, much of it in high global demand. As just a single example, its TV comedy Last of the Summer Wine is regarded as the world's longest‐running situation comedy, with 295 episodes spanning 37 years in worldwide distribution. In similar terms, the BBC's Dr. Who science fiction series was originally in production for 26 years, from 1963 to 1989, and has since been revived. Its international viewership has been phenomenal, with the modern version reaching more than 50 countries.

BBC Worldwide refers to itself as a business, and more than two‐thirds of its revenue comes from outside the UK.24 One way in which this is accomplished is through BBC Worldwide's operation of TV channels in various other countries. These include such specialized services as BBC America and BBC Canada, along with channels like BBC Earth, BBC Lifestyle, and BBC Entertainment.

These sorts of enterprises, along with the sales of such materials as books, magazines, DVDs, and rights to video clips, have enabled the BBC to supplement its income which, in the UK, is derived through license fees. These are the mandatory fees attached to television ownership in the UK.

During the early years of the BBC Empire Service, followed by shortwave dominance by BBC World Service, these services attempted to unite the empire, and then the Commonwealth of Nations, formerly referred to as the British Commonwealth. Such services have also served as a primary means of reaching expatriates, called expats for short. These are UK citizens living outside of their native country. They include those living abroad while working for multinational corporations, as well as those who are engaged in diplomatic services.

UK armed forces abroad are served by SSVC – Services Sound & Vision Corporation, formerly known as BFBS, short for British Forces Broadcasting Service. SSVC operates in a manner similar to the American Forces Network, or AFN, which is the US government broadcast service for American military personnel overseas.

In past decades, a number of European nations operated services similar to the BBC World Service, with emphasis on the use of shortwave to reach expats and to serve as a goodwill public relations arm on a global scale. The Netherlands, for example, began in 1928 to broadcast an international shortwave program known as The Happy Station Show, called Happy Station for short. The program, which was aired in English and Spanish, was heard internationally into the late 1990s. Similar shortwave services originated from Italy, West Germany, Spain, and various other European nations.

A more contemporary concern in international media is with the increased presence of diasporas – displaced populations – which have resulted from refugee crises as well as from the changing global face of economic and employment opportunities. The BBC World Service, for example, reaches speakers of Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, but the majority of the listeners to this service are regarded as “diaspora users” living outside of Pakistan.25

This is but one of many examples of European media attempting to provide media services for those living in various types of diasporas. One of the largest diasporic or displaced populations in Europe is made up of individuals from the Middle East who have moved into places like Germany and England. The BBC offers services in Arabic largely for this reason, but members of diasporas have produced their own media services in Europe, including broadcast stations. After President Recep Erdogan extensively quashed opposition media in Turkey, Turkish opposition TV began appearing in Germany.26

Other Major Entities

Some of Europe's major media corporations were discussed in Chapter 7. Television in the UK was fundamentally impacted in the 1980s by the arrival of Sky Television, backed by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. After initial financial losses, Sky merged in 1990 with a primary rival, British Satellite Broadcasting, to form British Sky Broadcasting, known as BSkyB or simply Sky.

In the UK, the company is now known as Sky UK, and is the UK's largest pay TV broadcaster. In addition, it was the most popular digital TV service in the UK until Freeview took that position in 2007. Sky is, however, one of the entities involved in Freeview as a joint venture.

Deutsche Welle, the state‐supported German broadcasting organization, has increased its worldwide presence in the last several years through such means as cable, satellite, and web streaming. At the same time, it has rebranded itself, preferring to drop the globally unfriendly name “Deutsche Welle” in preference to the easier to remember label “DW.”

DW began a 24‐hour English‐language TV news service in 2015. The global expansion of DW in various languages is roughly analogous to similar developments involving such TV news services as NHK World (Japan), Al Jazeera (Qatar), and RT (Russia).

Paris‐based France 24 has dramatically increased its worldwide presence as a 24‐hour TV news network, with services in four languages, including English. France 24 has been owned by the French government since 2010. The service is widely available via cable, satellite, and mobile apps.

French international news entity TV5Monde was formerly known as TV5 or TV5 Europe. The service offers multiple channels in French. “Monde” is French for “world,” and was added to TV5's name to emphasize its status as a global network. In Canada, however, the service is known as TV5 Québec Canada.

Although Turkey is generally viewed in the West as an Asian country, part of the country, including the bulk of its largest city, Istanbul, is situated on the European side of the Bosphorus. TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation), the Turkish government‐supported broadcaster, has become more globally accessible through such means as mobile apps and its recently introduced global TV service, TRT World.

Istanbul‐based TRT World is a 24‐hour English‐language news channel available via cable, satellite, the Internet, and web‐streaming devices. Some journalists associated with TRT World resigned in 2016, however, in response to what they regarded as repression following that year's failed coup attempt. That attempt was designed to oust Prime Minister Recep Erdogan.

Conclusion

Compared to other parts of the world, the nature and structure of European media are unusually characterized by some degree of multinational planning and organization, much of it via the European Commission. As is the case with global media in general, however, Europe has had to contend with the types of dramatic media changes which have recently arisen in other regions of the world. Those changes have generally been the result in changes in either technology or market forces or both. Chief reasons for media changes in recent years have included such issues as the following:

  • The shift from government dominance via PTT agencies to increased privatization and commercialization;
  • The switch from analog media to digital technologies and web delivery, along with an increased ability to bypass both established government‐dominated systems and major components of media regulation;
  • The challenges involved in maintaining cultural pluralism in the face of transnational corporation dominance and mergers, coupled with fears that global media could largely eradicate local cultures;
  • European security concerns involving such major media entities as Google and Apple; and
  • The interplay between “mass” media and social media in European society.

Since the 1980s, European media has fundamentally changed as the dominance of state‐supported services has been challenged by an ever‐increasing host of commercially based options. The interplay between governmental and market forces has led to the present hybrid system which prevails in Europe, in which government services operate alongside newer options characterized by privatization and commercialization.

Notes

  1. 1. http://merlin.obs.coe.int/iris/2003/6/article17.en.html, accessed January 15, 2018.
  2. 2. https://www.euractiv.com/section/languages‐culture/news/french‐fear‐cultural‐dumping‐from‐netflix‐s‐eu‐expansion/, accessed January 15, 2018.
  3. 3. http://www.obs.coe.int/documents/205595/264623/Films+on+television+2017+%28G.+Fontaine%29.pdf/b9573269‐b9dd‐4910‐8946‐2f909b132fed, accessed January 20, 2018.
  4. 4. http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/item‐detail.cfm?&item_id=51071, accessed January 20, 2018.
  5. 5. https://ec.europa.eu/digital‐single‐market/en/policies/shaping‐digital‐single‐market, accessed January 20, 2018.
  6. 6. https://ec.europa.eu/digital‐single‐market/en/europe‐2020‐strategy, accessed January 22, 2018.
  7. 7. https://www.theguardian.com/tv‐and‐radio/2016/jun/14/blokken‐tatort‐hadd‐ghalik‐hit‐tv‐shows‐in‐europe, accessed February 2, 2018.
  8. 8. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/20/netflix‐redefined‐american‐company‐culture‐will‐it‐do‐the‐same‐abroad.html, accessed January 26, 2018.
  9. 9. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/disney‐launch‐streaming‐service‐removes‐movies‐netflix‐subscription‐tv‐films‐a7883726.html, accessed January 26, 2018.
  10. 10. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflix‐just‐getting‐started‐europe‐ceo‐reed‐hastings‐says‐981638, accessed January 26, 2018.
  11. 11. https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/9/5/16254910/google‐controversy‐new‐america‐barry‐lynn, accessed January 26, 2018.
  12. 12. http://www.digitag.org/wp‐content/uploads/2015/01/0694‐Roadmap‐Report_web‐2.pdf, accessed January 27, 2018.
  13. 13. https://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/blog/where‐to‐expect‐pay‐dtt‐in‐eastern‐europe, accessed January 27, 2018.
  14. 14. http://www.obs.coe.int/documents/205595/264629/Must+Carry+Report+%28Dec.+2015%29/bb229779‐3fb2‐488d‐9c0e‐d91e7d94b24d, accessed January 27, 2018.
  15. 15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmRZlnnXm1o, accessed January 27, 2018.
  16. 16. https://www.euractiv.com/section/languages‐culture/opinion/media‐freedom‐and‐plurality‐is‐struggling‐in‐eastern‐europe/, accessed January 25, 2018.
  17. 17. http://mertek.eu/en/2016/05/25/european‐impacts‐on‐the‐development‐of‐the‐media‐systems‐in‐central‐and‐eastern‐europe/, accessed January 25, 2018.
  18. 18. http://www.aej‐bulgaria.org/eng/p.php?post=2519, accessed January 25, 2018.
  19. 19. Ibid.
  20. 20. https://www.ebu.ch/about, accessed January 28, 2018.
  21. 21. http://www.euronews.com/about, accessed January 28, 2018.
  22. 22. http://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/insidethebbc/whatwedo/aroundtheworld, accessed February 2, 2018.
  23. 23. Ibid.
  24. 24. Ibid.
  25. 25. http://www.movingpeoplechangingplaces.org/identities‐cultures/media‐migration‐diasporas.html, accessed February 2, 2018.
  26. 26. http://www.dw.com/en/turkish‐opposition‐tv‐starts‐broadcasts‐from‐germany/a‐38004868, accessed February 2, 2018.
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