The Role of the European Broadcasting Union

Abstract

The European elections ended at 22.00 (CET) on Sunday 10 June when polls closed in France, the FRG and Italy. Shortly thereafter — one or more television networks in each member state broadcast programmes on the results as they came in, tried to forecast the eventual outcome, interviewed prominent political personalities, and speculated on the directly elected EP’s future. Most transmissions lasted until the early hours of Monday 11 June, and continued at lunch-time or in the evening. Each television programme was essentially national in presentation, production and focus. Yet, all shared a common ‘European’ element drawn from a ‘programme’ sequence relayed from Brussels by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Although this programme was not seen by the public in the EC, it featured in each network’s programme. It represented the biggest and most complex venture in Euro-TV’s history and one that, in technical terms, outstripped the coverage of the Olympic Games, the World Cup and the Eurovision Song Contest.

From the early 1960s onwards, European politicians, whether in government or in opposition, became increasingly aware of the political importance of television, not only at election times, but as a running commentary on politics in between. They were aware, too, of the importance of their own access (and that of others) to the medium. Meanwhile, television broadcasters, like press journalists before them, became more professionalized, more enterprising and competitive in their operation — a subject of sharp criticism, particularly in West Germany — and more confident in their techniques, sure of their news values.¹