Television across Europe 2008 – on the brink
The Open Society Institute releases the international overview to its series of "TV across Europe - Follow-up Reports 2008". It reviews and contextualises the findings of the reports and proposes a range of policy recommendations.
12 November 2008
In 2005, the Open Society Institute (OSI) published Television across Europe: regulation, policy and independence, a monitoring survey of broadcasting in 20 countries.
Widely acclaimed as unique in its range and rigour, the Television across Europe survey found that television stood on the brink of immense change – nowhere more than in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. However much they may have wanted to ignore it, traditional broadcasters as well as governments in those countries stood on the cusp of the digital revolution.
Since 2005, the pace of change in television has reached breakneck speed, affecting the patterns and models of production, transmission, consumption, marketing, financing and ownership. To take the measure of these changes, OSI revisited nine of the monitored countries: Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, the Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
The new reports map the main changes in broadcasting legislation, policy and markets over the past three years, and assess the progress – or lack of it – that these countries have made in improving the independence and pluralism of their broadcasting.
In most of the nine countries, our findings indicate that public service broadcasters face increasing political and financial pressure; commercial television is marred by insufficiently transparent ownership; regulators are also under political pressure, and are uncertain how to face the challenges presented by new technologies; while digitization is advancing at a fast pace, too fast for some. The country reports also include concrete recommendations for change.
The country reports are now available on this site in English and translation. As with the 2005 reports, they are addressed to policy makers, civil society activists and academics. All the reports are based on the same methodology.
All nine reports are shortly to be published in a single volume, Television across Europe 2008: more channels, less independence, along with an Overview that identifies and compares major trends revealed by the new monitoring, and proposes recommendations for reform.
This new publication is now already available online. You can also download the overview separately.
