Euronews
| Country | Several European |
|---|---|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | SOCEMIE |
Euronews is a multilingual and pan-European television news channel launched on January 1 1993. It covers world news from a European perspective,[1] in many languages.
In the fourth quarter of 2005 Euronews was distributed to 193 million households in 121 countries worldwide. It reached more than 167 million European households by cable, satellite and terrestrial. This compared with 119 million European households for CNN International, 73 million for BBC World News and 69 million for CNBC Europe.[2][3]
Euronews uses voice-over narration to accompany all news footage save for live coverage, and features a "No Comment" segment dedicated to reports which exclusively consist of visual content.
Selected by the European Commission for a "mission of European information"[4] from amongst seven candidates, Euronews produces and broadcasts news programs simultaneously in seven languages on issues that pertain both to the European Union as to the world. The channel receives €5 million of funding each year,[4] and 10% or more of its production must consist of information and debates which are directly related to issues regarding the European Union. The channel also devoted a significant amount of attention to EU related subjects prior to receiving this mandate due to its pan-European television network formation.
On 4 June 2008, Euronews redesigned its logo, on-air presentation and website.
Content
As a rolling news channel, headlines from both Europe as well as the world are broadcast at 30 minute intervals on Euronews. Brief magazine articles typically fill in the remaining schedule, which focus on market data, financial news, sports news, art & culture, science, weather, European politics and press reviews of the major European newspapers. These item slots will occasionally be displaced for breaking news or live coverages.
Euronews is currently broadcast in eight languages; English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic, however not all languages are available in all countries. This multilingual approach prevents the use of on screen anchors, leading Euronews to use voice-over narration to accompany its news footage. An optional and "silent" audio stream without this voice-over is additionally broadcast with some Euronews transmissions.[citation needed] Some items are displayed without commentary under the banner "No Comment", a segment which reports exclusively through visual footage.
Euronews recently expanded into Romania with a 30-minute Romanian-language newscast on Romanian second channel TVR 2, on weekdays at 9:15 AM.[5]
On June 6th 2008 it was revealed that Euronews will be re-launching its Arabic language service, which exsisted between the years 1996 until 1999 and was terminated back then due to financial reasons.
In an exclusive interview with Faisal Abbas - Media Editor of the London based Arab daily - Asharq Al-Awsat, Michael Peters - Managing Director of Euronews, confirmed that the launch event of the new Arabic channel be on the 12th of July 2008 and will take place at the "Institute Du Monde Arabe" in Paris.
Peters explained that Euronews has secured a Five-year contract with the European Commission to secure finances for the new project at five Million Euros a year..[6]
History and organisation
Euronews was originally founded in 1992 in Lyon as a European Broadcasting Union initiative by a group of 11 European public broadcasters:
It began broadcasting from Lyon on January 1, 1993.
In 1997, the British news broadcaster ITN bought a 49% share of Euronews for £5.1m from Alcatel-Alsthom. ITN supplies the content of the channel along with the remaining shareholders, which are represented by the SOCEMIE (Société Editrice de la Chaîne Européenne Multilingue d’Information EuroNews) consortium.[7] SOCEMIE is the actual operating company which produces the channel and holds the broadcasting licence. It is co-owned by the founders and:
The broadcast switched from solely analogue to mainly digital transmission in 1999. In the same year the Portuguese audio track was added. The Russian audio track appeared in 2001.
As of late November 2005, German TV channels ARD and ZDF were in negotiations about joining Euronews.[8]
On February 6 2006, Ukrainian public broadcaster Natsionalna Telekompanya Ukraïny (NTU) bought a 1% stake in SOCEMIE.[9]
Criticism and controversy
In a study conducted by Gallup Europe in 2004, respondents described Euronews as "boring" as well as "monotonous, slow, repetitive" and criticised the scarcity of breaking news coverage on the channel.[10]
Some viewers argue that the News block introduction tune (after June 2008 rebranding) very much resembling Dies Irae, a theme widely used as a symbolical reference to death in both classical and contemporary music.
The Russian press has repeatedly pointed out differences in the Russian version of Euronews coverage from the other language versions, perceived as suspicious due to the widespread misconception of Euronews being primarily English-language channel allegedly "mistranslated" in Moscow[citation needed]. Textual differences are only noticed with close inspection of stories sensitive for the Russian audience, despite being necessarily present in all news items of all the language versions.[11] Being the only international news channel available in Russian, Euronews is closely monitored by partisan media, with all parties habitually criticizing the outlet for allegedly biased coverage in favor of the opposite side.[12]
Euronews is partially funded by the European Commission,[4] which has on occasion raised questions about its ability to report impartially on politically sensitive issues.
The biggest Portuguese cable television operator (TV Cabo) originally broadcasted Euronews in the Portuguese language, but, after the creation of SIC Notícias and RTPN, this specific operator left Portuguese language broadcasting to start broadcasting English language broadcasting. All the other operators broadcast Euronews in the Portuguese language.
Programs
| File:Euronews logo globe.png |
|
Programs on Euronews include:
- News - Covering the top European and international news stories
- Press Review - A look at the front pages of various European titles every morning
- Economia - Financial news
- Markets - News on the world stock markets and commodity prices
- Headlines - A brief overview of the main news stories
- Europa - Covering European affairs
- Sport - Top sports stories
- No Comment - Short video(s) with no narrator
- Meteo/World Weather - International weather forecasting
- Interview - An interview with a noted individual
- Europeans - A look at the lives of European citizenry
- Mediterraneans - A look at the lives of European citizenry living around the Mediterranean Sea
- Pass - General information about EU matters
- Europinion - European continuous tracking survey
- Le Mag - Covering the arts, music, fashion, travel and culture
- Cinema - Recent films and movies
- Comment - Interactive comment of EU citizenry regarding key issues
- Space - A look at space technology
- Hi Tech - Focusing on science and technology studies
- Futuris - Focusing on futuristic technologies and theories
- Terra Viva - Stories related to the environment
- Agenda - Current cultural events in Europe
- Parlamento - News about the European Parliament
- Perspectives - Covers how different European channels broadcast current affairs
References
- ^ "Many Voices One Vision". Euronews Staff, www.euronews.net. Retrieved 2 January.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ http://www.bbccharterreview.org.uk/wp_responses/organisations/Euronews.rtf
- ^ Media Pack 2006 Q405 ENG
- ^ a b c "What is EuroNews?". European Commission's Audiovisual Service. Retrieved 21 April.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Template:Ro icon http://www.tvr.ro/articol.php?id=2638
- ^ EuroNews Set to Launch Arabic Channel Next Month Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)
- ^ "Circom Report April 2002". Circom. April, 2002.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ [Update] Euronews: ZDF bestätigt Interesse an einem Einstieg :: SAT+KABEL :: Digital TV - Medien - Breitband
- ^ Broadcasting - News - NTU becomes 20th Euronews shareholder - Digital Spy
- ^ Microsoft Word - caneuhearme_summary_press release mr.doc
- ^ Template:Ru icon ЦЕНЗУРА НА EURONEWS ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКИ НЕВОЗМОЖНА
- ^ Template:Ru icon Правда.ру