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Euronews

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Euronews
CountryEurope
Headquarters60, chemin des Mouilles
69130 Lyon-Écully, France
Ownership
OwnerSOCEMIE

Euronews is a pan-European multilingual news television channel launched on 1 January 1993 in Lyon. It covers world news from a European perspective,[1] and is available in ten languages.[2]

The channel claims to be available in 300 million households in 151 countries worldwide and be the most widely distributed news channel in Europe - though its claims are impossible to verify.

It is unusual in that it 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 to broadcast EU-related programming, the channel's function corresponds to a public national broadcaster for the EU.[3]. The channel receives 5 million of funding each year,[3] and ten percent 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. Most of its footage comes from national broadcasters through the European Broadcasting Union.

On 4 June 2008, the channel redesigned its logo, on-air presentation and website. On 11 January 2011, it redesigned its on-air identity and website.

Content

As a rolling-news channel, headlines from both Europe as well as the world are broadcast at thirty-minute intervals. Brief magazine articles typically fill in the remaining schedule, which focus on market data, financial news, sports news, art and 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. Some items are displayed without commentary under the banner "No Comment".

The channel broadcasts in ten languages; English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, and Persian, though not all languages are available in all countries. This multilingual format makes it impractical to use on-screen anchors, leading the channel 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 of its transmissions.[4]

It has expanded into Romania with a thirty-minute Romanian-language newscast on Romanian second channel TVR 2 and on Romanian news channel TVR INFO on weekdays at 9:15 a.m. [5]

Fifteen-minute Ukrainian-language newscasts are broadcast on Ukraine's UT1 at 15:15 on weekdays as of 16 November 2009. Full Ukrainian version is currently planned for 24 August 2011.[6][7]

History and organisation

File:Euronews logo globe.png
Logo used from 2000 to June 2008

Following the First Persian Gulf War, during which CNN's position as the main source of information was cemented, the European Broadcasting Union decided to establish the channel in 1992 to present information from a European perspective. It was first broadcast on 1 January 1993 from Lyon, with an additional broadcast centre set up in London in 1996. It was originally founded by a group of eleven European public broadcasters:

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In 1994, the British news broadcaster ITN bought a thirty-one percent share of Euronews for £5.1 million 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.[8] SOCEMIE is the actual operating company which produces the channel and holds the broadcasting licence. It is co-owned by the founders and:Template:Multicol

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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.

In 2003, ITN sold its stake in Euronews as part of its drive to streamline operations and focus on newsgathering rather than channel management.[9]

As of late November 2005, German TV channels ARD and ZDF were in negotiations about joining Euronews.[10]

On 6 February 2006, Ukrainian public broadcaster Natsionalna Telekompanya Ukraïny (NTU) purchased a one percent interest in SOCEMIE.[11]

On 27 May 2008, Spanish public broadcaster RTVE decided to leave Euronews to promote its international channel TVE Internacional. It also cited legal requirements to maintain low debt levels through careful spending as a factor influencing its decision to leave.[12]

In February 2009, the Turkish public broadcaster TRT became a shareholder in the channel, and joined its supervisory board.[13] TRT purchased 15.70% of the channel's shares and became the fourth main partner after France Télévisions (25.37%), RAI (22.84%), and RTR (16.94%).

Presentation

The channel employs an unusual presentation style: rather than using in-vision presenters, it only shows video footage with recorded voice overs. This aims to prevent bias; however, in a study conducted by Gallup Europe in 2004, respondents described the channel as "boring" as well as "monotonous, slow, repetitive" and criticised the scarcity of breaking news coverage on the channel.[14] In recent months, however, extended news items have featured in-vision reporters, including occasional pieces to camera.

The principal sources of footage come from APTN (Associated Press Television News) and Reuters TV, these being the partner agencies of the European Broadcasting Union. It also draws upon resources from Agence France-Presse, Italian ANSA, Portuguese LUSA, German DPA, Spanish EFE and Russian TASS.

Broadcast

The channel is available in 330 million households in 151 countries worldwide. It reaches more than 179 million European households by cable, satellite and terrestrial. It has also begun to secure availability on multimedia platforms such as IPTV and digital media.[2]

The following countries also broadcast Euronews through terrestrial channels: Template:Multicol

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The channel's programmes are also available by podcast, and it has also maintained a YouTube channel since October 2007.[15]

Programmes

Programmes on the channel include: Template:Multicol

  • news – covering the top European, Asian (mainly focused on Arab World) and international news stories
  • press – a look at the front pages of various European titles every morning
  • business – financial news
  • markets – news on the world stock markets, currencies, commodity and oil prices
  • wall street live – live opening and closing of the New York Stock Exchange
  • headlines – a brief overview of the main news and business stories
  • Europe – covers European affairs
  • sport – top sports stories
  • eurofoot – results of European football matches
  • no comment – short video(s) with no narrator
  • meteo Europe/world/airport – weather forecasting
  • interview – an interview with a noted individual
  • reporter – a look at the lives of European citizenry
  • agora – Aahead-to-head debate
  • sawa – a look at the lives of European citizenry living around the Mediterranean Sea

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  • questions for Europe (previously known as f.a.q.) – general information about EU matters
  • le mag – covering the arts, music, fashion, travel and culture
  • cinema – recent films and movies
  • you – interactive comment of EU citizenry regarding key issues
  • space – a look at space technology; produced in association with the European Space Agency
  • talent – ordinary people with extraordinary talents
  • science and hi-tech – focuses on science and technology studies
  • futuris – focuses on futuristic technologies and theories
  • rendez-vous – current cultural events in Europe
  • parlamento – news about the European Parliament
  • perspectives – covers how different European channels of Euronews broadcast current affairs
  • comment visions – interviews with thinkers, innovators and opinion leaders
  • World Cup Nation – FIFA World Cup 2010 News and scores

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See also

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References

  1. ^ Press release. "Many Voices One Vision". Euronews. Archived from the original on 28 December 2006. Retrieved 2 January 2007.
  2. ^ a b "Euronews Media Presspack" (PDF). Euronews. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
  3. ^ a b "What is EuroNews?". European Commission's Audiovisual Service. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
  4. ^ [1].
  5. ^ "EuroNews lansează un jurnal zilnic în limba română" (in Romanian). TVR. 27 September 2004.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  6. ^ "Euronews in Ukrainian Language To Appear on First National TV Channel". National Radio of Ukraine. 11 September 2009.
  7. ^ "EuroNews - українською". National TV Company Ukraine. 26 October 2010.
  8. ^ "Circom Report April 2002". Circom. April 2002.
  9. ^ "ITN Drops Out of Euronews Channel". Broadcast.
  10. ^ "Update] Euronews: ZDF bestätigt Interesse an einem Einstieg :: SAT+KABEL :: Digital TV - Medien - Breitband.][dead link]
  11. ^ "NTU Becomes 20th EuroNews Shareholder". DigitalSpy. 5 February 2006.
  12. ^ "TVE abandona EuroNews". El Mundo (in Spanish). 5 February 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  13. ^ "Turkey's TRT Joins Euronews Supervisory Board.
  14. ^ Microsoft Word - caneuhearme_summary_press release mr.doc.
  15. ^ Template:Fr"«No Comment» sur YouTube ? Affirmatif". Libération. 10 October 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2010.

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