Contents - EBU

Contents 

Between 9,600 and 9,800 radio 

stations in the European Union. 

210 million listeners. 

1,100,000 people working in 

broadcasting, including 200,000 in 

radio: journalists, presenters, 

engineers, etc. 

100,000 people working in the 

manufacture of radio receivers and 

audio equipment. 

Annual turnover of the radio sector: 

€ 7.1 billion in 1999, up from 6.5 

billion in 1998. 

Annual turnover of audio equipment 

manufacturers: € 10.8 billion in 

1998. 

Meetings, seminars, debates on 

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) 

throughout Europe over the past few 

months. 

All these figures and the highly 

topical nature of radio have 

naturally prompted us to publish a 

special dossier on the future of DAB 

and the issues raised by it. 

But television has not been 

forgotten! This edition includes 

several articles discussing 

developments in television today. 

I hope you find it interesting. 

Patrick Jaquin 

Editor-in-Chief 

DIFFUSION EBU – AUTUMN 2000 

Lucerne: EBU 1950 – 2000 

Souvenir photos 

Speech of Albert Scharf 

EBU President 

Declaration of Arne Wessberg 

Director General, YLE 

Dossier: DAB 

Statements, suggestions . . . 

Failure or success? 

Philip Laven, Technical Director, EBU 

What’s in a name? 

Thomas Alexanderson, Radio Director, EBU 

WorldDAB and lobbying 

Michael Green, Chairman, WorldDAB European Committee 

Satellite DAB 

Paul René Heinerscheid, Managing Director, Global Radio SA 

DAB and Internet 

François Le Genissel, Director General for Southern Europe, 

SBS Broadcasting SA 

The killer application 

Leif Lonsmann, Managing Director – Radio, DR 

Radio Vaticana: Jubilaeum 

Rev. Father Pasquale Borgomeo, Director General, Radio Vaticana 

The Mole 

Michiel Devlieger, Co-Creator and Presenter, VRT 

Kultura TV 

Tatiana Paukhova, Director General and Editor-in-Chief, Kultura TV 

MTV: the corporate image 

Andras Monory Mesz, Creative Director, Magyar Televizio 

CanalWeb.net 

Interview: Jacques Rosselin, Chairman and Managing Director 

Information: EBU Training Seminar 

Golden Prague 

Interview: Jiri Pilka, Director of the Festival 

Prix Jeunesse extends its reach 

David W. Kleeman, Executive Director, ACCM 

Kids’ news 

Pauline Hubert, former head of RTBF’s Youth and Education Service 

2 

4 

8 

10 

19 

24 

27 

31 

35 

38 

41 

44 

47 

50 

52 

54 

56 

58 

62 

1

LUCERNE: EBU 1950–2000 

Lucerne 

The EBU celebrated its 50 th birthday on 1 July 

2000 in Lucerne (Switzerland) immediately 

following a General Assembly hosted by SRG SSR 

idée suisse. 

The Assembly elected Arne Wessberg 

of YLE to succeed Albert Scharf as 

EBU President from 1 January 2001, 

together with three new Vice- 

Presidents to join Boris Bergant 

(RTVSLO) for two-year terms from 

the same date. The Assembly was 

preceded on 29 and 30 June by a 

meeting of the presidencies of the 

World Broadcasting Unions. 

New Vice-Presidents 

The anniversary celebrations – music 

and speeches in the new Lucerne 

congress centre, followed by a gala 

dinner and show – were attended by 

distinguished guests from all over the 

world. 

Klaus Berg (ARD), Michèle Cotta (France 2) and Roberto Zaccaria (RAI) Some highlights of the gala evening 

2 DIFFUSION EBU – AUTUMN 2000 

Contents


The General Assembly and the counting of votes to renew the Administrative 

Council and elect a new Presidency 

Speakers: 

Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission, 

Adolf Ogi, President of Switzerland, 

Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva, 

Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of Unesco, 

Albert Scharf, President of EBU. 



3



Albert 

Speech made at the 

50 th anniversary gala 

evening of the EBU. 

Lucerne, 1 July 2000 

Albert Scharf, President of the EBU since 1 January 1983 has announced his 

intention not to seek a tenth term. His term expires on 31 December 2000. 

4 DIFFUSION EBU – AUTUMN 2000



Scharf 

Lucerne 2000 

“While others excessively celebrate 

the millennium, the European Broadcasting 

Union is humbly looking back 

on its 50-year history. But these 50 

years have been very special. They 

cover exactly the second half of the 

outgoing 20 th century, a century full 

of hope and tragedy, upheaval and 

expectations, pain and danger. 

They were years when challenges 

and new horizons were abundant. 

It has been a century of great 

prosperity and deep poverty, of 

incredible progress in science and 

technology, and of inconceivable 

barbarism, tyranny and slavery. And 

this century, unlike any other in the 

history of mankind, has been 

influenced by mass media: both 

good and bad. The media have 

brought enlightenment and 

knowledge by providing extensive 

information to everybody; they have 

been a mediator and a factor for 

cultural and social identity; preserving 

and integrating plurality and diversity. 

The powerful influence of the media 

was, however, used also to 

indoctrinate, manipulate and oppress 

men and peoples. In 1950 the Iron 

Curtain was about to divide European 

nations and peoples into free and 

totalitarian societies. It was this sad, 

depressing experience and outlook 

that stimulated the founding fathers 

to stand-up for free and independent 


broadcasting, to join forces beyond 

national borders, to unite for freedom 

and peace in Europe. The EBU was 

created at the onset of the Cold War, 

and the media soon became 

implicated. The media, on both sides 

of the curtain, defined the diverging 

structures: free and democratic 

development in the West, and 

dictatorship in the East. But the role 

of the media cannot be underestimated 

in the process of shaping 

public opinion and which finally 

resulted in raising the Iron Curtain 

and breaking down the walls. 

Remarkably, and despite all the upsand-downs 

and many detours taken 

by countries, the history of the EBU 

is associated with a peaceful 

dissolution of the deadly tensions 

between political blocs and superpowers. 

Tonight is not the time to recall the 

history of these 50 years in detail. We 

all have our own memories; mine go 

back some 30 years. Our thoughts go 

to all our colleagues who created and 

worked on EBU activities, and who 

made these past 50 years a success. 

We cannot even number our 

predecessors, but we remember them 

– respectfully and gratefully. And we 

are very happy that a great number 

of them have joined us tonight to 

celebrate this anniversary. It is their 

achievements which enable us to look 

back with immense satisfaction and 

pride. 

The principles, values and virtues, 

make the EBU what it is, and are of 

undiminished importance and 

validity: 

· reputation for the highest possible 

· orientated towards the future, 

· political neutrality and unbiased 

· strength by creative cooperation, 

· an esprit de corps, a community- 

professional standards; 

flexible, open to new 

developments; 

objectiveness; 

mutual assistance and solidarity; 

and 

mindedness based on common 

interests and experience, on 

shared ambitions and hopes, on 

professional collegiality and 

largely on a cordial friendship. 

Sure, times have changed 

continuously since 1950, and even 

more radically and quickly over the 

last decade than ever before. But the 

EBU has always succeeded in adapting 

to changes in the audiovisual, social 

and cultural environment, to adapt to 

new challenges without giving up the 

5


principles, values and virtues I 

mentioned. This, indeed, will be the 

key to any success in the future. From 

my long experience, I am convinced 

that this mixture of open-mindedness, 

flexibility, a pro-active position for the 

future, and the observation of 

traditions will be a promising recipe 

for the years to come. 

The years to come will be difficult, 

full of pitfalls, challenges and 

opportunities. It will be difficult for 

members to be both public service 

broadcasters at home and to work 

together as a common EBU platform 

making a joint effort to cope with the 

fascinating challenges of a new media 

world created by digital technology. 

The turmoil that we are experiencing 

is the consequence of the new 

technology used to communicate, and 

communicate around the world. 

Globalization, and globalization of 

the media by its distribution and 

content, is not just a striking 

catchword, it is a reality. Information, 

education and entertainment that is 

readily available and accessible to all 

is no longer science-fiction or wishful 

thinking, it is here. And our mission, 

our duty, is to make the best possible 

use of it – the best for our client, the 

man in the street whom we, public 

service broadcasters, are addressing as 

a member of society rather than as a 

mere consumer whose sole purpose 

is to increase turnover and profits of 

commercial businesses. We care about 

society. 

Some enthusiasts of the ‘new 

information age’, with all its 

commodities targeted at individualized 

communication, try to make 

us believe that the time of mass 

communication and, in particular, the 

time of public service broadcasting is 

over. I really do not think so. And I 

observe daily a growing public and 

political consensus all over Europe 

that public service broadcasting is not 

at all outdated, but on the contrary 

Xavier Gouyou-Beauchamps, senior Vice-President of the EBU presents the EBU Award to Albert Scharf 

it is needed more than ever: as a stable 

and reliable guarantor of pluralism; 

for diversity and free flow of 

information on all subjects of 

relevance for private and public 

opinion; a free flow of information 

to all citizens not just to the ‘netizens’ 

who use the mass of information of 

bits and bytes that have been 

arbitrarily thrown together on the 

World Wide Web. 

A number of declarations and 

resolutions of the European 

Parliament, the Council of Europe, 

and of several Ministerial Councils of 

the European Union express this 

opinion. It is the common 

denominator and backbone of 

European media policy. We are 

grateful for this recognition and 

support. It should encourage us to use 

more aggresively these new communications 

tools to supplement, 

enhance and individualize our core 

offers in radio and television which 

will remain, in such an unpredictable 




future, the basic and preeminent 

sources for information, education 

and entertainment for the large 

majority of the audience. By their very 

remit, public service broadcasters can 

rely upon a great asset: they are near 

to their customers, to their audiences, 

near to their real problems, concerns 

and expectations, familiar with their 

real needs and mentalities. For the 

average listener and viewer the ‘global 

village’ is as distant and strange as 

ever. What counts for them is what 

happens in their own political, social, 

cultural, environment and in the 

economy they live in and are 

dependent of – despite all the 

globalization of new economies. 

The new digital age of the media 

broadens horizons and vastly 

increases the amount of information. 

But the more information we see, the 

less we are able to process. The larger 

the mass of information, the less clear 

it becomes. And the more we try to 

take in what is happening around the 

world, the less we see what is taking 

place near to us. If we keep looking 

at ever widening horizons we risk 

losing sight of who we actually are 

and where we come from. What is, 

therefore, the remit, the mission of 

public service broadcasting? It is to 

provide a foundation, to guarantee 

transparency and to lead us in a 

certain direction. 

Perhaps these are too serious thoughts 

for a festive evening, but these are – 


The congress centre at Lucerne 

according to 50 years experience 

devoted to communication in society 

– the real topics for today and 

tomorrow. And for me, this is the last 

opportunity to speak about them in 

such a distinguished gathering. 

It remains for me to express our 

cordial welcome to all of you who 

have been kind enough to celebrate 

with us tonight the EBU’s 50 years. 

I welcome in particular the 

President of the Swiss 

Confederation, Federal Councillor 

Adolf Ogi. Mr President, your 

presence is a great honour for us and 

shows the tremendous and enduring 

interest Switzerland and all Swiss 

authorities, federal and cantonal, 


have shown to the EBU over these 

past five decades. Switzerland was 

chosen instead of Brussels as the 

permanent seat for the EBU in 1950 

by a small majority, and the EBU has 

never had reason to regret this 

decision – on the contrary. 

We feel very much part of the 

international community in 

Switzerland, which gives us the right 

platform for neutral and 

independent supranational cooperation. 

This is a good occasion to express 

our deepfelt thanks for the Swiss 

hospitality we are enjoying here in 

Lucerne, as well as in Geneva.” 

7


Arne Wessberg, director general of 

YLE and president of Eurosport will 

succeed Albert Scharf, director 

general of the Bayerischer Rundfunk 

(Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation) 

who completes his ninth consecutive 

two-year term as EBU President on 

31 December 2000. Arne Wessberg 

is 57-years-old. 

Vice-presidents 

Boris Bergant, deputy director 

general of RTVSLO, Klaus Berg, 

director general of ARD/Hessischer 

Rundfunk, Michèle Cotta, director 

general of France 2, and Roberto 

Zaccaria, president of RAI were 

elected to the four offices of vicepresident. 



Arne W 

The directors general of 

Europe’s public service 

broadcasters have elected 

Arne Wessberg as President 

of the European Broadcasting 

Union. 

First declaration 

“Thank you for your confidence; it 

is certainly a great privilege and 

honour to be elected to serve as the 

president of this great Union 

specially by the General Assembly 

gathered to celebrate 50 years of 

EBU’s history. 

This is a demanding opportunity. 

Change has been our challenge and 

change will face us during coming 

years; change in technology, change 

in legislation and in the competitive 

environment. 

The history of the EBU – and of 

course of its members – is the history 

of influencing development and 

adapting to change. 

We as the Union have been privileged 

to face these challenges under the 

successful presidency since 1982 of 

Albert Scharf and the dedicated and 

skilful staff in Geneva. 

The last decade underlines this; 

public broadcasters and the EBU have 

re-invented themselves rather 

successfully to meet the challenges of 

developing technology and of 

changing operational environment. 

The predictions have failed that 

public service broadcasting would be 

marginalized with the explosion in the 

choices of delivery. The public service 

broadcasters are still the guarantors 

for plural sources of information, for 

developing national cultures and 

talent, and for meaningful content on 

the new distribution platforms. 

This decade, with the convergence of 

telecoms, IT, Internet and broadcasting, 

will be revolutionary. 

The mission of public broadcasters, 

however, must remain as important 

as it has always been. It is of utmost 

importance in times of increased 

ownership concentration in media 

that public broadcasters are 

guaranteed a level playing field to 

secure choice of information for the


audiences; they must have access to 

the richness of national cultures, and 

they have to provide equal access to 

the services made possible by new 

technology. 

All this will mean formidable tasks 

for the EBU on European as well as 


on national levels during the coming 

years. 

At the same time, the EBU must also 

be there to initiate creativity among 

the members, to ensure that the 

members can offer their listeners and 

viewers attractive programmes 


essberg 

EBU President, 2001 – 

through joint acquisitions, coproductions 

and an exchange of ideas 

and programmes, and to guarantee 

competent advice on legal affairs and 

on technological development. 

To be able to influence development 

one must also develop; this is certainly 

true also for the EBU. 

To streamline common decisionmaking, 

to ensure that our voice will 

be listened to, and to guarantee that 

the EBU is at the forefront acting in 

the best interest of the audience 

during the years of convergence will 

certainly require a great deal of 

innovative thinking and swift 

decision-making from all of us. 

Personally, I welcome this challenge 

and I look forward to successful cooperation 

with you.” 

9

DAB 

DOSSIER: DAB 

This article contains a 

summary of statements and 

suggestions on the future of 

Digital Audio Broadcasting 

(DAB), as expressed in various 

documents between January 

and May 2000. 

The list of sources at the end of the 

article serve as an aid in understanding 

which documents are at the 

origin of the various excerpts in the 

summary. 

The digital future 

Quality is what in the end will sell 

DAB. 

(Lisbon) 

Analogue technology will be 

inevitably substituted by digital 

platforms . . . The future of radio will 

be digital . . . DAB responds to the 

needs of sound broadcasting in the 

future . . . DAB-T is presently the only 

platform that guarantees the 

transition from analogue to digital 

technologies . . . Digital radio will be 

a multimedia platform . . . Points of 

contact between digital radio and the 

Internet are an important capacity . . . 

DAB will be a global success if it 

succeeds in overcoming the challenges 

now faced by Europe . . . Radio in 

the future will only exist in a digital 

environment. 

(Lisbon) 

Migration to digital is essential for 

radio . . . the use of multimedia, as an 

optional additional element, will be 

an important and attractive feature of 

digital radio. 

(Stockholm) 




2000DOSSIER: DAB 

Radio will . . . also need to change and 

its transition from the analogue to the 

digital era is a major change . . . In 

Eureka 147 (DAB), radio has developed 

such a technology which enables public 

and private broadcasters to deliver new 

services, new radio stations, crystalclear 

sound quality: a steep change in 

the value they can deliver to audiences. 

(Jenny Abramsky, BBC, the EP 

hearing) 

Radio broadcasting is a major and 

irreplaceable element in the lives of 

European consumers . . . Radio is at 

the cutting edge of the digital 

revolution, offering new types of 

multimedia services as well as 

improved audio quality . . . Radio is 

the most effective portable and 

mobile broadcasting medium. DAB is 

the technology most able to satisfy 

these requirements and to enhance 

the future of radio. 

(DAB Task Force) 

Digitization re-invents radio as an 

entirely new medium . . . Digital audio 

is better audio . . . Digital radio is 

enhanced radio . . . Digital radio is 

integrated data-casting. 

(Prognos 2000) 

Obstacles 

Problems of scarcity of the radioelectric 

spectrum which impedes the 


statements, suggestions 

transition of FM to DAB for all 

interested operators . . . problems of 

possible inequalities in the sharing of 

frequencies . . . lack of coordination 

with equipment manufacturers which 

are slow to produce receivers in a 

sufficient quantity to enable a rapid 

reduction of equipment costs . . . lack 

of commitment of national and 

regional public administrations in 

promoting the development of digital 

radio and resolution of technical and 

administrative questions . . . absence 

of radio issues in the agenda of the 

European institutions, in particular of 

the European Parliament and 

European Council. 

(Lisbon) 

Lisbon Final report from the DAB Conference 

organized by the Portuguese EU 

Presidency, Lisbon, 6–7 April 2000 

DAB Task Force Final report from the DAB Task Force to 

the EBU Radio Assembly Session, Madrid, 

13–14 April 2000 

Final Declaration, Stockholm DAB: The Winning Strategy, EBU 

conference hosted by STR/SR, Stockholm, 

18–19 May 2000 

EP Hearing Radio in the Digital Age: Sphere of 

Activity of the European Union, public 

hearing organized by the Committee on 

Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and 

Sport of the European Parliament, 

Brussels, 24 May 2000 

Prognos 1998 Digital Radio, Industry and Market, report 

by the Swiss consultant Prognos, 1998 

Prognos 2000 The Prospects for Digital Radio, report by 

Prognos, 2000 

11

DOSSIER: DAB 

Lack of a coordinated timetable for 

the launch of digital radio across EBU 

Member organizations . . . no 

coherent strategy amongst EBU 

Members for the introduction of DAB 

. . . the market context is different 

from State to State and broadcasters 

hold different views. 


Radio’s digital transition . . . is risky 

and expensive . . . The situation is not 

helped by the lack of public policy 

lead from Europe. 

(Jenny Abramsky, EP hearing) 

Today . . . radio is going through its 

digital transition as are other media, 

and the process is not easy because of 

lack of concerted action among the 

different players but also because of 

the lack of the necessary regulatory 

frameworks in the different Member 

States. The situation implies a clear 

risk of market failure. 

(Sergio Natucci, AER, EP hearing) 

Substitute technologies are currently 

not considered as viable alternatives 

to DAB . . . (but) irrespective of their 

technical inferiority for the medium 

of radio, they are prepared to take 

over, if DAB is not launched now. 


Frequency spectrum 

Regional access is essential in order 

to implant news services . . . Satellite 

systems could provide synergies with 

T-DAB in . . . coverage … Claims of 

more efficient spectrum usage by 

means of an ‘improved’ coding 

scheme were not substantiated . . . 

The assertion that terrestrial services 

would be a niche to a satellite 

mainstream have been refuted. If 

anything the two systems would have 

to co-exist . . . Wiesbaden to be 

revised as there is room for 

improvement. 

Problems of scarcity of the radioelectric 

spectrum . . . problems of 

possible inequalities in the sharing of 

frequencies, especially in Band III and 

Band L . . . important to attribute new 

frequency bands that will help resolve 

technical and legal obstacles . . . 

(Lisbon) 

National administrations must 

recognize that, unless more frequency 

spectrum is made available for digital 

radio, it will not succeed, and the 

consequences for European culture 

and economy will be dramatic. 


balance the overall benefits to 

national culture and the economy of 

radio services against other users of 

the spectrum. 

(Stockholm) 

If national governments believe 

that radio needs to move up the 

priority list, they will keep this in 

mind when allocating radio spectrum. 

(David Wood, EBU, EP hearing) 

(The) Eureka 147 DAB . . . pan- 

European standard is ready for 

market implementation. It is 

supported by the highest number of 

countries worldwide: virtually all 

European countries and Canada, 

Singapore, Mexico, India and 

Australia are testing the system or 

have decided to implement this 

standard. 


Regulatory issues 

Appropriate legal framework (is 

needed) for all Member States. 

(Lisbon) 

Among obstacles: lack of commitment 

of national and regional 

public administrations in promoting 

the development of digital radio and 

resolution of . . . administrative 

questions. Participants in the 

Conference on Digital Radio expect 

national and regional administrations 

and European institutions and 

authorities to provide attention and 

support in order to ensure the viability 

of DAB. 

(Lisbon) 

National governments could take 

special measures to encourage digital 

franchises for radio stations, to 

encourage them to start new and 

innovative services – which will in 

turn make the digital radios a more 

attractive purchase. 

(David Wood, EP hearing) 

Investments made 

A recent survey among just 12 of the 

EBU’s 69 Active Member organizations 

has shown that, to date, they 

have together made investments in 

DAB amounting to 230 million 

euros. This is a very considerable 

sum . . . 

(Thomas Alexanderson, EBU, 

Lisbon) 

. . . Some broadcasters in Europe are 

running out of cash . . . 


. . . Some 430 million euros had been 

spent by 1998 for the technology 

(including receivers and transmitters, 

tests and experiments, initial 

broadcasts and the establishment of 

first transmission networks all over 

Europe). This estimate is based on a 

questionnaire circulated to 130 

European companies concerned with 

DAB . . . of these, up to 400 million 

euros would have to be written off if 

DAB fails. 


New services 

The future of digital radio is intimately 

connected to the need to produce 

specific multimedia or original content. 

(Lisbon) 

If it is to succeed, the digital radio 

offer must provide new services, and 

within a reasonable timeframe, 

including all currently available 

analogue services. Public, private and 

community broadcasters must work 

together to achieve this. 

Content – for example: the 

development of compelling content 





formats [must attract] young people. 

(Stockholm) 

Business and trade 

DOSSIER: DAB 

Any free-to-air services are likely to 

have difficulties in identifying an 

appropriate business model . . . The 

transition of FM to DAB . . . 

endangers the future job security of 

over 100,000 professionals of around 

9,600 European radio stations . . . (An 

obstacle is the) lack of coordination 

with equipment manufacturers who, 

in the opinion of operators, are slow 

to produce receivers in a sufficient 

quantity to enable a rapid reduction 

of equipment costs compatible with 

consumer interests . . . Inter-captivity 

and trade via digital radio are 

competitive advantages that 

complement digital radio technology. 

(Lisbon) 

Public awareness of the potential of 

digital radio must be increased by the 

concerted efforts of broadcasters and 

manufacturers. Clear and substantial 

awareness campaigns are needed. 

(Stockholm) 

The EBU must actively promote DAB 

and stimulate decisive action from key 

groups: industry (consumer electronics 

manufacturers plus computers 

and telecommunications) . . . Some 

manufacturers were prepared to 

discuss their plans for introduction of 

DAB products with individual 

broadcasters. However, for reasons of 

commercial confidentiality, the same 

manufacturers would not release any 

information to larger groups such as 

the EBU or the WorldDAB Forum. In 

these circumstances it is difficult for 

the EBU to facilitate any meaningful 

dialogue with manufacturers. 


Manufacturers must bring receivers 

at affordable prices to a mass market 

on a pan-European basis. A substantial 

concerted effort is now required 

from all stakeholders – broadcasters, 

manufacturers . . . 


13

DOSSIER: DAB 

When set makers think of investing 

in the mass production of digital freeto-air 

radios . . . they must worry. To 

have the courage to surmount the 

obstacles, the European Community 

has to build confidence in the value 

of radio, and its place in the 

information society . . . 

Digital radio is a multi-billion euro 

business with high market potential. 

Several leading consumer electronics 

brands have launched digital radio 

receivers: Blaupunkt, Clarion, 

Grundig, JVC, Pioneer and Sony offer 

digital car radios; Arcam, Cymbol, 

Meridian, Technics and TechniSat 

launched (or intend to launch soon) 

hi-fi tuners for digital radio. PC cards 

produced by Bosch Multimedia, 

Radioscape, TechnoTrend and 

Terratec are on sale. 


“For us DAB is dead.” 

(Said by Nokia and Philips executives 

in an informal conversation with 

David Wood.) 

The right time 

The window of opportunity for the 

market implementation of digital 

radio opens when the following are 

achieved: a minimum of 60% of the 

population is covered by digital radio 

signals; at least as many digital radio 

stations as are currently available on 

AM/FM are operational; when more 

than one digital radio receiver model 

per market segment (home, car, 

portable, PC card) is readily available 

in retail shops. 

The window of opportunity . . . closes 

when another digital technology 

offering mobile reception of digital 

radio signals (most likely DVB-T) 

achieves mass penetration in key 

markets. This is expected to happen 

in 2002. Although there is still a fair 

chance of failure, a comprehensive 

assessment of the market chances is 

characterized by significant interest 

and firm commitment. High 

investment needs to be justified by 

market success but among market 

players confidence in digital radio 

technology is high. 


European Union 

The EU should create appropriate 

legal framework for all Member 

States . . . support at EU level should 

be aimed at: coordinated migration 

strategy, the provision of more 

frequencies and the funding of SMEs 

in start phase. 

(Lisbon) 

Among various obstacles which 

endanger the normal development of 

digital radio: absence of radio issues 

in the agenda of European 

institutions, in particular of the 

European Parliament and the 

European Council . . . Participants in 

the Conference on Digital Radio 

expect . . . European institutions and 

authorities to provide attention and 

support in order to ensure the viability 

of DAB. 

(Lisbon) 

European Administrations need to be 

convinced that a migration timetable 

from analogue to digital radio 

broadcasting is needed. Broadcasters 

and manufacturers need to encourage 

national administrations to establish 

appropriate plans. The European 

Community must help and encourage 

this process. 

(Stockholm) 

We urge the European institutions to 

recognize the unique character and 

importance of radio in Europe, to 

support radio’s digital transition and 

to assert through its audiovisual 

programmes and strategies that radio 

will be, in its own right, a key industry 

in the information society. 


In order to secure a broad 

introduction of this technology (mass 

production) and therefore of the 

economic potential that it represents, 

there is a need for broad and 

concerted European action . . . the 

European success story of GSM (a 

technical standard supported by the 

EU) in the field of (mobile telephone) 

communication technology could be 

mirrored in the broadcasting domain 

by a success story for digital radio. 

(Hamed Amor, Thyssen-Krupp, EP 

hearing) 

Efforts to help television through 

MAC and HDMAC by the Community 

(backing it) years ago did not 

succeed . . . the argument goes that 

since these efforts were unsuccessful, 

the future of the media must be left 

to market forces alone . . . Why make 

the same mistake again? The answer 




is that we do not have to. This time 

we can do it with the benefit of 

hindsight . . . We do need to examine 

why policies in the past failed, and so 

to make better models of the future – 

and get better advice in the future. 

But doing nothing is not the right 

thing to do – it is too easy. The 

European Community must take this 

matter seriously. 


What measures are needed at 

European level? First of all, the 

recognition of the importance of the 

radio sector and its inclusion in the 

Community’s definition of audiovisual 

. . . This is not just a detail since 


all political decisions are taken based 

on this definition. 

(Sergio Natucci, EP hearing) 

European Commission 

Financial support for the additional 

costs for simulcasting might have to 

be considered but its nature and 

timing is ultimately linked to the 

timing of the analogue switch-off, 

which will vary from country to 

country . . . 

Any action . . . should have to be 

decided in due course and take into 

account not only any possible market 

failure but also to ensure that Member 

States are not discriminated against 

on the basis of their technological 

development and therefore their 

capacity to respond to any potential 

programme of support . . . as regards 

the Communication on the European 

Radio Industry and its transition to 

digital, I considered that the time was 

not ripe for such a proposal . . . the 

situation on spectrum is changing as 

we speak . . . it is imperative that, at 

the very least, existing services should 

be afforded the possibility to migrate 

to digital . . . As most existing services 

concern many relatively small local 

operators who, by their very nature, 

need to have access to frequencies 

allocated for terrestrial use, it is 

essential that a preference be shown 

for such use. However, there are 

many ways of alleviating this scarcity 

and a change in the frequency 

planning at this point in time, 

particularly as it concerns the L-band, 

may not be the best . . . 

The sector . . . has, so far, not been 

able to demonstrate the market failure 

which could justify Community 

action. I should point out that such 

failure should not be general and 

theoretical, but rather very precise in 

both nature and timing . . . The radio 

sector has been able to operate 

without creating the economic deficits 

prevalent in other parts of the 

audiovisual . . . As the saying goes: if 

it is not broken, don’t mend it . . . 

DOSSIER: DAB 

We will respond positively to any 

proven need for action at European 

level. 

(Costas Daskalakis, Media Programme 

– speaking on behalf of 

Nikolaus van der Pas, Director 

General, Education and Culture, 

European Commission, Lisbon) 

. . . Because so far the (radio) sector has 

run smoothly in the analogue world, no 

measure has ever been foreseen to 

support this sector at European level . . . 

Despite the operators’ requests, the 

European Commission continues in the 

view that the radio sector does not need 

any action at European level since the 

market failure has not been 

demonstrated. 

(Sergio Natucci, EP hearing) 

The Commission has not changed an 

inch. . . 

(EBU Brussels office’s report on EP 

hearing) 

Commission experts were . . . 

negative with respect to radio’s needs 

for an EU intervention, be this of a 

financial or regulatory nature, since 

none of them recognized the sector 

was at crisis level. 

(Anna Zanotto’s report, WorldDAB 

Europe, on the EP hearing) 

European Parliament 

. . . The event was a success . . . The 

MEPs present were certainly willing 

to support us. 

(EBU Brussels office’s report on EP 

hearing) 

. . . The speeches were well coordinated 

and informed well the 

MEPs . . . MEPs did not have the 

instruments either to respond (to 

what the Commission representatives 

said) or to question them. As no 

formal conclusion was drawn, I 

believe we should pick it up from 

here, and give those answers to the 

MEPs. Overall, a positive event, and 

politically a strategic one. 

(Anna Zanotto’s report on the EP 

hearing) 

15


DOSSIER: DAB 

Appeal 

In May 2000, European broadcasters and 

electronics manufacturers called for joint action 

to promote Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), 

which they said was vital to the future of radio. 

The appeal was issued following a meeting on 

DAB in Stockholm of public service, commercial, 

and community radio broadcasters and 

representatives of the European Association of 

Consumer Electronics Manufacturers (EACEM). 

The meeting was organized by the EBU and 

Swedish Radio. 

DAB offers high-quality sound and 

multimedia to listeners, mobile or 

stationary, but it has been held back 

by the unwillingness of manufacturers 

to cut the price of receivers (and of 

broadcasters to fund special 

programmes) in the absence of a mass 

market, and by the reluctance of 

listeners to buy DAB until it is cheaper 

and offers additional content. DAB is 

available only patchily in Europe. 

Participants in the Stockholm 

meeting, entitled “DAB – the winning 

strategy”, stressed the need for a joint 

approach on DAB, including: 


· concerted moves by public and 

· concerted action by European 

· the development of a plan with 

· national action to provide 

private broadcasters calling on the 

European Union to help and 

encourage national regulators to 

make available adequate spectrum 

space for digital radio, and to 

create the regulatory framework 

needed for its success; 

broadcasters, large and small, to 

launch their DAB services in a 

coordinated way, ensuring the 

largest possible market for 

receivers; 

large European receiver manufacturers; 

adequate licences for commercial 

radio stations to offer digital 

services; and development of new 

programme formats for DAB, 

including the use of multimedia 

and interactivity.


of European broadcasters and manufacturers 

“Migration to digital radio is 

essential for radio. European 

public, private, and community 

radio broadcasters, and the 

manufacturing community, are 

prepared to work together with a 

common purpose to ensure its 

success. 

Radio broadcasting is a mass 

medium with unique attributes, 

simultaneously serving a mass 

audience, which will not be 

replicated by on-line Internet 

delivered services. However the use 

of multimedia, as an optional 

additional element, will be an 

important and attractive feature of 

digital radio. 

If it is to succeed, the digital radio 

offer must provide new services, 

Declaration 


and within a reasonable 

timeframe, include all currently 

available analogue services. Public, 

private, and community 

broadcasters must work together 

to achieve this. These services must 

be more than pilot or test services. 

Public awareness of the potential 

of digital radio must be increased 

by the concerted efforts of 

broadcasters and manufacturers. 

Clear and substantial awareness 

campaigns are needed. European 

administrations need to be 

convinced that a migration 

timetable from analogue to digital 

radio broadcasting is needed. 

Broadcasters and manufacturers 

need to encourage national 

administrations to establish 

appropriate plans. 

DOSSIER: DAB 

The European Community must 

help and encourage this process. 


recognize that unless more 

frequency spectrum is made 

available for digital radio, it will 

not succeed, and the consequences 

for European culture and economy 

will be dramatic. National 

administrations must balance the 

overall benefits to national culture 

and the economy of radio services 

against other uses of the spectrum. 

Renewed energy needs to be 

expended by broadcasters to 

devise content formats which 

make full use of digital radio, and 

may use multimedia.” 

17

DOSSIER: DAB 

Action plan 

broadcasters, 

WorldDAB, 

industry 

Public and private broadcasters have 

formed an alliance with electronics 

manufacturers to lobby the European 

Commission in favour of digital audio 

broadcasting (DAB). 

The alliance hopes to persuade the 

Commission to include radio on its 

audiovisual agenda and give official 

support to Eureka 147, the technical 

norm chosen for DAB. The 

technology offers high-quality sound 

and multimedia, mobile or stationary, 

but has been held back by the initially 

high price of receivers, a lack of 

spectrum and DAB programming, the 

current patchiness of DAB transmissions 

in Europe, and other factors. 

The EBU, the association of Europe’s 

public service broadcasters, hopes 

that the new action alliance - with 

AER (the association of commercial 

radio broadcasters), EACEM (the 

European Association of Consumer 

Electronics Manufacturers), and the 

London-based lobbying group 

WorldDAB – can bring about a 

breakthrough for DAB. 

As a first step the group has asked to 

meet the European Commissioners 

responsible for media, industry and 

consumer affairs. This will be 

followed up by action directed at the 

European Parliament. 

The need for cooperation on DAB 

between public and private broadcasters 

and radio set manufacturers 

was highlighted in expert reports and 

a series of international conferences 

and hearings earlier this year. 

Full and official support from the 

European Commission and European 

Parliament would greatly enhance the 

chances of DAB. The European 

Parliament has already expressed a 

positive attitude to the technology, 

and it is hoped that joint action by 

the alliance will succeed in gaining 

support from the Commission. 




The future of radio is 

obviously digital. Radio 

broadcasters throughout the 

world have welcomed the 

opportunities offered by 

digital broadcasting. 


Back in 1995, the BBC and Sveriges 

Radio pioneered the practical use of 

the Eureka 147 DAB (Digital Audio 

Broadcasting) system. Since then, 

many EBU members have built 

transmitter networks for DAB and 

created new programme material. 

Despite considerable investment by 

the broadcasters, it is regrettable that 

DAB receivers are not readily 

available for purchase in shops. 

Numerous manufacturers have 

launched DAB receivers, but they 

remain very expensive – thus 

deterring potential purchasers. In 

these circumstances, it is reasonable 

to ask, “Will DAB be a success or a 

failure?” 

The technology 

Before answering this question, we 

should address a further question: “Is 

the DAB system already out of date?” 

This latter question was addressed in 

the Winter 1998 edition of the EBU 

Technical Review, which can be 

downloaded from the EBU web site 

at http://www.ebu.ch/trev_278laven.pdf. 

This article compared the 

Eureka 147 DAB system with its 

potential competitors, including 

DVB-T (digital terrestrial television) 

and the Internet. 

In particular, the article highlighted 

the fact that many of the newer 

systems for delivery of digital audio 

have not been designed to satisfy the 

needs of mobile and portable users. 

At first sight, this omission may seem 

trivial – but, in the analogue world, 

much radio listening is either ‘mobile’ 

(e.g. in cars, buses or trains – or whilst 

walking or jogging) or ‘portable’ (e.g. 

moving a radio from room to room 

or having several radios scattered 

throughout your home). Radio 

listening has evolved from the time 

when listeners gathered around their 

only radio to listen attentively to the 

programme of their choice. 

Nowadays, most radio listening is 

done whilst doing something else, 

such as driving a car, reading or doing 

household chores – in the computer 

world, this is known as ‘multitasking’! 

One of the great strengths 

Failure 

Philip Laven 

Technical Director, EBU 

DOSSIER: DAB 

or success? 

19

DOSSIER: DAB 

of analogue radio broadcasting is that 

it can accom-modate these diverse 

patterns of use. 

Mobility and portability are essential 

requirements for any system aiming 

to replace analogue radio broadcasts. 

The Eureka DAB system was 

expressly designed from the outset to 

provide perfect reception on mobile 

and portable receivers – even in the 

most difficult reception environments. 

It is important to emphasize that some 

digital radio systems are not direct 

competitors to DAB. 

For example, DRM (Digital Radio 

Mondiale) is developing a digital 

system to operate within the AM 

bands. As the AM radio channels are 

very narrow (9 kHz or 10 kHz in 

comparison with the 1500 kHz 

channels of DAB), such systems 

cannot match the range of services 

offered by DAB. In fact, it is difficult 

for DRM to offer much more than a 

single audio channel of moderate 

quality. DRM is widely supported by 

EBU members because it will offer a 

significant improvement over the 

quality offered by existing AM 

transmissions, especially in the short 

wave (HF) bands. It is likely that 

some EBU members will adopt both 

DAB and DRM technologies because 

they are complementary and address 

very different requirements. 

Without repeating the detailed 

technical arguments about the merits 

of the various digital radio systems, 

it is sufficient to reproduce the 

following extracts from the 

conclusions of the 1998 article: 

“To be successful, digital radio 

systems must give significant benefits 

to broadcasters and consumers, when 

compared with analogue systems. In 

particular, digital radio must offer 

excellent reception on portable and 

mobile radios, as well as providing 

additional capacity for extra audio 

services and/or multimedia services.” 

Given that the DAB system developed 

by the Eureka 147 consortium is now 

a mature technology, it is certainly 

appropriate to ask whether this 

system is out of date. Although there 

are many ‘newer’ digital radio 

systems, it is surprising that none of 

the new systems can compete with 

DAB in delivering multiple high 

quality audio services to mobile and 

portable receivers. Numerous 

systems have been devised to deliver 

services to ‘fixed’ receivers. This 

limitation makes life much easier for 

system designers, but it does not 

reflect real life where consumers 

expect radio to be constantly available 

to them wherever they are. 

DAB is the only system offering high 

data-rates that can be readily received 

on mobile and portable radios . . . 

Radio is essentially a mobile or 

portable medium. 

We must pay tribute to the 

tremendous foresight of the 

individuals in the Eureka 147 

consortium which, from its earliest 

days, recognized the need to deliver 

digital audio services to mobile and 

portable receivers – even under the 

most difficult reception conditions. 

They successfully meet this 

challenge – and also developed a 

superb flexible mechanism for 

delivery of high data-rate multimedia 

services. 

Given that we live in an era of rapid 

technological developments, it is 

rather surprising to discover that the 

Eureka DAB system has stood the test 

of time. If we were re-inventing DAB 

today, we might choose a different 

technique for audio compression 

because there have been major 

improvements in this area over the 

past five years. However, recent 

investigations by EBU experts suggest 

that changing to a new audio coding 

scheme would bring very little benefit. 

Hence, we can fairly conclude that 

the technology of DAB is not out of 

date. 

Factors for success 

What will consumers expect from the 

next generation of radios? There are 

two key principles: 



successor failure?


· digital radio services must not be 

· digital radio services must offer 

inferior in any respect to analogue 

radio services; and 

significant benefits for consumers. 

These principles may seem selfevident, 

but the designers of new 

digital systems have often ignored 

them. 

Over the past 20 years, there have 

been numerous debates about ‘the 

future of broadcasting’. Almost all 

of these debates have concentrated 

on the choice of delivery 

technologies, despite the fact that 

most members of the public are 

simply not interested in technology 

per se. Even so we are currently 

being bombarded by publicity about 

WAP technology – which promises 

to deliver the Internet to mobile 

telephones. In the author’s opinion, 

the public will soon discover that 

they cannot actually use the tiny 

grey-and-white screens of mobile 

telephones to read anything other 

than short e-mails, never mind being 

able to ‘surf the web’. The lesson to 

be learnt is that ‘content’ is far more 

important than the delivery system. 

In the early days of DAB, some EBU 

members naively assumed that the 

technological benefits of the DAB 

system would be so attractive to 

consumers that they simply replicated 

Clarion DAH 9500z 


their existing AM and FM services on 

DAB. 

Arguably even more important in 

driving consumer demand for digital 

audio broadcasting is the range of 

services offered by the new 

technology. Some people will be keen 

to obtain digital simulcasts of 

analogue services, but even more 

would be attracted by additional 

‘digital-only’ services. Until DAB 

receivers are in widespread use, it is 

difficult to justify the production of 

new DAB-only services – because the 

cost per listener would be exorbitant. 

Unfortunately, without some 

additional DAB-only services, 

listeners have little incentive to 

change to DAB. 

It is true that DAB offers excellent 

audio quality. DAB can also 

overcome the reception problems 

experienced on FM – especially in 

areas where multipath reception 

causes rapid fluttering on car radios 

or, at its worst, extreme distortion of 

the audio signal. Such problems are 

non-existent with DAB. However, 

few people are prepared to pay € 800 

or more for a DAB receiver just to 

overcome such problems. 

Digital systems must permit 

simulcasting of all, or most, existing 

services – including public service and 

commercial broadcasters. In 

addition, digital systems must also 

Cymbol C 

offer attractive new services, such as 

additional audio programming and/ 

or multimedia services. 

In some European countries, the only 

services available on DAB are those 

provided by EBU members. Without 

denigrating the wide range and high 

quality of radio services offered by 

EBU members, we need to recognize 

that, in developed radio markets, 

typical listeners are promiscuous in 

that they generally listen to several 

radio services. Sometimes they may 

listen to ‘demanding’ programmes, 

whilst listening at other times to radio 

services that are no more than audible 

wallpaper. Without commercial radio 

services being available on DAB, 

potential purchasers of DAB radios 

will undoubtedly say, “I will wait until 

all of my favourite radio stations are 

available on DAB.” 

Returning to the original question 

about whether DAB will be a success 

or a failure, it is important to 

recognize that the ‘best technology’ 

will not necessarily win the battle for 

adoption by consumers. For example, 

the battle between the three formats 

for consumer VCRs in the 1980s 

(VHS, Betamax and V2000) resulted 

in the success of the system that 

offered the worst picture quality! 

Similarly, the analogue PAL TV 

system triumphed over the 

technologically more advanced MAC 

system. In other words, the fact that 

Grundig Prototype 

DOSSIER: DAB 

21

DOSSIER: DAB 

DAB is still the best technology gives 

no guarantee that DAB will be a 

success. 

The way forward 

Broadcasters have already made 

substantial investments in DAB 

transmitter networks, which covered 

more than 185 million people at the 

end of 1999. The total investment in 

DAB to date is about €500 m. 

Investment is continuing at a 

substantial pace as broadcasters 

extend the coverage of their DAB 

transmissions, add further DAB 

multiplexes and produce ‘digital-only’ 

programming. 

It would be easy for broadcasters to 

blame the consumer electronics 

industry for the continuing problems 

with price and availability of DAB 

radios. It is immensely frustrating 

that the industry has failed to live up 

to its promises of “DAB receivers will 

be in volume production within 20 

months of commitments to introduce 

DAB services by a major broadcaster.” 

From the viewpoint of industry, there 

is concern that the broadcasters’ plans 

for roll-out of DAB services have been 

inadequate. In some countries, more 

than 70% of the population live in 

areas served by DAB transmissions, 

but in many other countries the 

coverage is much less. Manufacturers 

are reluctant to sell DAB radios, 

especially DAB car radios, if the public 

is going to complain that the service 

is restricted to one part of a country. 

One area of perennial concern has 

been that German broadcasters have 

been reluctant to invest in widespread 

DAB transmissions. Although this 

particular problem now seems to have 

been resolved, manufacturers 

repeatedly stressed that Germany was 

the single largest market in Europe 

and that, hence, they could not 

support DAB as a major product 

unless Germany was seen to be 

wholeheartedly supporting it. 

We should remember that the need 

for early investment in DAB occurred 

at a time when several of the large 

European manufacturers had suffered 

from the fiasco of the failed European 

HDTV system HD-MAC. Their 

subsequent reluctance to invest in 

high technology products could not 

have come at a worse time for DAB. 

By the late 1990s, these manufacturers 

recovered their nerve to 

invest in digital TV products, but only 

because many of these products were 

being subsidised by the operators of 

pay-TV services. Such deals were 

attractive to manufacturers because 

there was little or no risk that they 

would be left with unsold products. 

By comparison, DAB radios are much 

riskier. Everybody recognizes that, in 

the long term, DAB will be a highvolume 

product because every AM 

JVC kt DB 1500 Kenwood KTC 959 Sony XT 100 

and FM radio will eventually need to 

be replaced by a DAB radio. The 

immediate demand for DAB receivers 

is less predictable than that for digital 

TV – and, crucially, the profit margins 

are much lower! 

The introduction of DAB in certain 

countries is being constrained by the 

lack of a suitable legislative or 

regulatory framework. The existing 

laws covering analogue broadcasting 

are generally not appropriate for 

regulation of digital broadcasting. It 

is imperative that existing broadcasters 

should be encouraged to 

introduce DAB, but it can be difficult 

to persuade commercial broadcasters 

to make long-term investments. Some 

regulators, such as those in the UK, 

have been able to offer substantial 

incentives to commercial broadcasters, 

such as an automatic 

extension of analogue radio licences 

for those broadcasters that introduce 

DAB services. 

Spectrum allocations are crucial to the 

success of all radio-based technologies, 

including DAB. It is clear 

that when the current problems of 

receiver availability have been solved, 

DAB will face yet another obstacle – 

that of a severe shortage of suitable 

spectrum. 

Harmonized frequency allocations for 

DAB across Europe would give a 

major boost to the prospects for DAB. 




It is interesting to note that the GSM 

standard for mobile telephones would 

probably have been a failure without 

the direct intervention of the 

European Commission to harmonize 

frequency allocations. The key 

document was Council Directive 87/ 

372/EEC of 25 June 1987, which 

reserved frequencies for pan- 

European digital mobile telephone 

services. This states: 

“Member States to ensure that 905- 

914 and 950-959 MHz frequency 

bands, or equivalent parts of the 890- 

915 and 935-960 MHz bands, are 

reserved exclusively for a public pan- 

European cellular digital mobile 

communications service by 1 January 

1991 . . . The whole of 890-915 and 

935-960 MHz bands are to be made 

available as soon as possible.” 

Why has the EC taken no similar 

action on DAB? In this respect, it is 

regrettable that the European 

Commission has adopted a stance of 

technological neutrality towards 

DAB. This attitude stems from their 

bitter experiences over their 

endorsement of the failed MAC and 

HD-MAC TV standards in the early 

1990s. Consequently, EC officials are 

now reluctant to ‘pick winners’. In 

the case of MAC and HD-MAC, there 

was substantial opposition to the 

imposition of these standards. 

However, as DAB is universally 

supported by broadcasters, manu- 


facturers and network operators, the 

neutrality of the EC is not necessary. 

Even worse, the EC’s position is often 

perceived to be negative, rather than 

neutral. 

Success or failure? 

There is no evidence to support the 

idea that DAB is a failure. Nevertheless, 

there is a possibility that DAB 

could become a failure. 

With the benefit of hindsight, we can 

see that optimistic forecasts about 

consumer adoption of DAB were 

rapidly replaced by pessimism. In 

practice, even the most successful 

consumer products suffer from slow 

adoption by consumers in the early 

years. For example, 10 years after 

the introduction of the audio CD, less 

than 30% of homes had a CD player. 

Even worse, one year after its launch, 

there were many reports that no-one 

could afford the CD players, let alone 

the expensive but limited repertoire 

of CDs. Given the huge success 

subsequently achieved by the audio 

CD, such doom-laden predictions are 

reminiscent of the words of Mark 

Twain: “Reports of my death have 

been greatly exaggerated.” 

Broadcasters need to be realistic about 

the length of time that it will take 

before, say, 50% of homes have a DAB 

receiver. Success will not be achieved 

overnight. 

TAG T32R Technics ST-GT 1000 VDO dayton MS 4000 

DOSSIER: DAB 

What can broadcasters do to give 

DAB the best chance of success? The 

success of DAB requires cooperation 

between broadcasters and industry – 

not an atmosphere of mutual 

recrimination. To put it simply, there 

is no point in crying over spilt milk. 

EBU members also need to encourage 

commercial broadcasters to 

implement DAB services. Public 

service broadcasters and commercial 

broadcasters are very different. There 

are many reasons why it will not be 

easy for competitors to work together 

– but the success of DAB must become 

a common goal for all broadcasters. 

In summary, DAB could become a 

failure if broadcasters take a passive 

role. The success of DAB will require 

concerted action by all of the 

stakeholders, namely broadcasters 

(public service and commercial), the 

consumer electronics industry, 

network operators, regulatory 

authorities and spectrum regulators. 

The success of DAB is important to 

all of these stakeholders because it is 

undoubtedly the future of radio. 

23


DOSSIER: DAB 

What’s 

Thomas Alexanderson 

Director of Radio, EBU 

“What’s in a name?” says 

Juliet in Shakespeare’s 

Romeo and Juliet. 

Yes, what’s in the name of 

DAB – Digital Audio 

Broadcasting? There are a 

great number of things: 

enthusiasm, pioneer spirit, 

hope and great expectations 

as to what it might bring the 

audience and the 

broadcasters. 

But there are other things as well: 

frustration, disappointment, disillusion 

sometimes verging on despair 

as to how and when DAB will 

experience its real breakthrough on 

the European market. 

Let us first recall what role radio plays 

on the European continent. Around 

210 million Europeans listen to radio 

at least three hours every day. 

Programmes are transmitted by 9,600 

stations which, between them, 

employ a staff of some 100,000 

persons. The annual turnover of radio 

is € 7 billion, and its credibility among 

the public, as demonstrated by 

audience research, is as high as 65%. 

In conclusion, radio broadcasting is a 

major and irreplaceable element in 

the lives of European consumers. 

We are thus talking about a considerable 

force in the European media 

landscape and one whose importance, 

impact and ambitions must be taken 

very seriously. 

Despite the stiff competition to radio 

from television since its emergence in 

the mid-1950s, radio has shown itself 

to be remarkably flexible and 

sustainable, notably in adapting itself 

to transmit universally on the Internet 

and by exploring options for 

cooperation with mobile telephone 

networks. 

24 

DIFFUSION EBU – AUTUMN 2000


DOSSIER: DAB 

name? 

in a 

In cultural and social programming 

terms, radio’s publicly-funded variety 

represents world-renowned top-ofthe-market 

quality. Its privatelyfunded 

arm, meanwhile, provides an 

indispensable outlet for advertising 

and sponsoring by European 

commerce and industry. 

As a medium, radio continues to 

exploit its unique features: it is cheap, 

easy to handle and is the most 

effective portable and mobile 

broadcasting medium. In addition, it 

is a ‘warm’ and intimate medium, 

creating a close and personal link with 

its consumer that no other electronic 

medium can. It could be said, indeed, 

that radio is the most democratic 

electronic medium of all. 

Radio is also at the cutting edge of 

the digital revolution, offering new 

types of multimedia services as well 

as improved audio quality. DAB is the 

technology which is best able to satisfy 

these requirements and to enhance 

the future of radio. But the success of 

DAB requires coordinated pan- 

European action by all actors 


involved, among them broadcasters 

as well as the electronics industry and 

the spectrum regulators. 

So far radio has not been the focus of 

the European authorities – and maybe 

for good reasons. Although it is a 

transfrontier medium par excellence, 

its largely word-based programme 

output makes it comprehensible only 

to listeners with a common spoken 

language, and its impact as regards, 

for example, programming which 

might be inappropriate for children 

or which might cause offence is far 

from comparable to that of television 

pictures. For these and other reasons, 

there have been no particular motives 

for the European authorities to 

interfere in the regulation of radio. 

And yet there should be very good 

reasons for them to get involved in 

one particular radio area, namely the 

area of DAB. 

DAB technology was developed by 

the Eureka 147 project and was 

allotted frequency spectrum in 1995 

following a lengthy debate on 

technical standards, pitting Europe 

against the United States. To radio and 

to listeners, DAB means a revolutionary 

development, possibly more 

important than the introduction of 

transistor technology many years ago. 

Its superior sound quality as well as 

its ability to transmit text, graphics 

and other data, as well as multimedia 

services, will profoundly change the 

world of European radio consumption. 

Yet it is meeting with formidable 

obstacles in its pursuit of a genuine 

breakthrough. 

In frequency terms, too few channels 

are available to satisfy the needs of 

public as well as private broadcasters. 

This leads to a number of European 

broadcasters being hesitant to invest 

in DAB hardware and programming 

for fear that such investments may, 

later on, prove to have been made in 

vain. Nevertheless, a substantial 

number of European broadcasters are 

in the process of making DAB 

investments, hoping that, in the end, 

they will be worthwhile. In that 

respect, they adhere to what George 

DAB – Digital Audio Broadcasting 

25

DOSSIER: DAB 

Bernard Shaw said that people 

marrying for a second time is “the 

triumph of hope over experience”! 

A recent survey among just 12 of the 

EBU’s 69 active member organizations 

has shown that, to date, they 

have together made investments in 

DAB amounting to € 230 million. This 

is a very considerable sum and, given 

that they are publicly funded 

broadcasters, it represents money 

from the pockets of European 

citizens, who should have every 

reason in the world to expect the 

European authorities to take an 

interest in seeing to it that their money 

is well spent. 

But there are other obstacles as well. 

Regulatory authorities, at national 

or regional level, are sometimes far 

too disinterested or slow in issuing 

tenders to potential licensees or they 

fail to take a clear position with 

regard to measures easing the 

introduction and promotion of 

DAB. 

Such slow action and hesitation 

constitute obstacles in developing 

markets which, in turn, make the 

manufacturers of DAB sets unwilling 

to invest sufficiently in producing and 

marketing sets in numbers large 

enough, according to the law of 

economics of scale, to bring down the 

price for DAB sets to reach a level that 

is affordable to the ordinary 

European. 

Thus the scene is very much one of a 

vicious circle: too few DAB channels, 

hesitant regulatory authorities, some 

broadcasters unwilling to invest in 

DAB programming, no markets 

developing, not enough sets being 

produced and marketed to make them 

affordable – and thus no proliferation 

of DAB for the benefit of the 

European consumers. 

The time it is taking for DAB to 

penetrate might not seem so long 

compared to what other technologies 

have faced in the past. After all, in 

order to reach a 40% penetration of 

US households, it took colour TV and 

the Internet 10 years, electricity and 

air conditioning 25 years and the 

telephone 40 years. But there is one 

big difference: this time other 

prospective users of the channels, 

designated for DAB use, are lurking 

round the corner, waiting for the DAB 

scenario to collapse so that they can 

move in and take over the frequencies 

for other purposes. 

Here is where the European authorities 

could play a crucial role by 

committing themselves to make full 

use of all the possible means and tools 

at their disposal in order to stimulate 

and promote a breakthrough of DAB. 

For a start they could, definitely and 

forcefully, put radio and DAB on their 

agenda and lend their moral and legal 

support, encouraging and prodding 

the parties concerned to cooperate in 

order to achieve the broad introduction 

of DAB all over Europe. 

The EBU believes that it would be of 

capital importance for its members 

and, ultimately, for European radio 

listeners, that the European Commission 

and the European Parliament 

engage in active and constructive 

work for this goal to be achieved. 

But it has to be done soon. In fact, it 

should be done now. 

26 




WorldDAB 

Michael Green 

Chairman, WorldDAB European Committee 

and lobbying 

Lobbying in Brussels is not a 

job for the faint-hearted. 


When I first took over the chair of 

the European Committee more than 

two years ago, I was struck by three 

things: 

· the low level of awareness and 

· the complete absence of radio in 

· a failure to appreciate that DAB 

interest in radio as a medium and 

in the challenges facing it in the 

digital era; 

the European Commission’s 

audiovisual policies and programmes; 

and 

requires transmission platforms 

for both public and private 

broadcasters and represents a 

shared risk between them and 

manufacturers. 

There seemed to be little appreciation 

of the social and cultural importance 

of radio in the 21 st century, of the 

economic significance of an industry 

which employs an estimated 300,000 

people in the European Union, 

according to WorldDAB research, and 

DOSSIER: DAB 

of the need to create licensing 

structures and provide sufficient 

spectrum in all Member States if DAB 

is to happen. The radio – and 

particularly the DAB – message was 

falling on deaf ears. 

WorldDAB went looking for a local 

champion and found one in the shape 

of DG X, the Culture Directorate of 

the Commission. DG X developed the 

notion of a Communication on Radio 

as a first step towards a full-fledged 

EC policy. WorldDAB warmed to the 

proposal and worked hard to support 

it. 

However, the unpublished Communication 

‘died’ with the Santer 

Commission and it was clear last 

autumn that there was no appetite in 

the new Prodi Commission to pick up 

the baton. The view from Brussels was 

that radio was managing very nicely 

by itself: notice the very resilient 

listening figures throughout Europe, 

they said, observe the buoyant 

advertising revenues and rising share 

prices of the leading commercial 

companies; radio, it was said, had 

fewer problems than any other 

medium and certainly no content 

deficit with the US, the factor which 

seems to drive a great deal of 

audiovisual policy-making in Brussels; 

radio had no European dimension 

since it serves almost exclusively local 

27

DOSSIER: DAB 

audiences. Its digital future could be 

perfectly well left to the competence 

of Member States. We were once 

again kicking against a brick wall. 

Faced with these attitudes at the most 

senior levels of the Commission, we 

turned our attention to Parliament. 

We hoped that Euro-MPS, perhaps 

more sensitive to the political value 

of radio, could be persuaded that the 

market alone, unsupported by 

licensing regimes and spectrum 

provision, might not guarantee the 

safe arrival of radio in the digital era. 

The breakthrough came when the 

Parliamentary Culture Committee 

voted earlier this year to hold a 

hearing on radio, the first time the 

medium had been given a formal 

political platform to argue its case. 

The opportunity was well taken by 

colleagues from the BBC, AER, the 

EBU and the manufacturing industry. 

The ripple effect of that occasion has 

been very significant. Two subsequent 

developments are worth noting. 

First, the inclusion of radio in 

MEDIA Plus, the Community’s 

financial programme in support of the 

audiovisual industry. When it first 

appeared, this dossier contained no 

reference to radio whatsoever. Thanks 

to amendments introduced by the 

German Euro-MP Ruth Hieronymi 

with the support of other members 

of the Culture Committee, radio will 

now be eligible for financial help for 

pilot projects to digitize the archives 

and for professional training in digital 

technologies. 

Even more important, in my view, is 

the report by the Italian Euro-MP 

Walter Veltroni, the rapporteur for 

the Culture Committee on the Commission’s 

“Principles and Guidelines 

for the Community’s Audiovisual 

Policy in the Digital Age”. Again, this 

document was published without 

specific reference to radio. Veltroni 

argues that the particular characteristics 

of radio must be safe-guarded 

and the move to digital broadcasting 





facilitated. His report calls on the 

Commission to carry out a study of 

the socio-economic impact of radio 

in Europe, focusing in particular on 

the role of local broadcasters, and to 

promote a move to the DAB standard. 

The emphasis on local broadcasting 

is particularly pleasing, given the 

importance of this tier of output to 

the radio industry and to the raison 

d’être of DAB. 

These developments represent a real 

shift in the political support for radio 

in Brussels and are very welcome. But 

how will the Commission respond? 

It’s clear that the policy of 

‘technological neutrality’ means a 

‘hands-off ’ approach to DAB, leaving 

the market alone to drive its 

implementation. Those golden days 

of EC support for systems like GSM 

are unlikely to return. Beyond this 

general stance, there are three other 

negatives in the Brussels mind-set 

which the radio industry has still 

failed to dislodge. First, the argument 

that questions why radio needs to 

become a digital medium at all in the 

short-term if the market and 

consumers are not driving it forward. 

We need to go back to basics, to 

remake the case for the digital 

transition – consumer problems with 

AM and FM, the technical constraints 

and finite capacity of analogue 

spectrum, the clear demand for new 

services (witness the growth and 

success of new analogue services 

throughout Europe in recent years: 

France Info, Radio 5 Live, Classic FM 

to name but three) and the 

impossibility of radio remaining in the 

black and white era, as it were, when 

everything else is in colour. 

There is then the question: WHY 

DAB rather than other technologies? 

We need to demonstrate once again 

why DAB meets radio’s particular 

needs, why terrestrial delivery is head 

and shoulders above satellite because 

it addresses radio’s core need to 

deliver local services and does so with 

great effectiveness for mobile listening 

in particular. A third and related 

DOSSIER: DAB 

argument is that convergence will 

allow any service to be run on any 

platform. Why broadcast at all if you 

can use the Internet is a common 

refrain? Once again, we need to 

restate the arguments: radio will of 

course exploit new platforms such as 

the Internet as valuable but 

complementary means of reaching 

consumers but they are not 

replacement technologies. Nor are 

they free. 

The rather dismissive view of DAB in 

some corners of Brussels is 

undoubtedly coloured by the fact that 

after several years in development, 

radio receivers are still not available 

in large numbers at affordable prices. 

Officials argue that consumers are 

well able to balance costs and benefits 

in respect of new technologies and 

that while listeners value radio, they 

won’t buy into it at any price. And 

here of course we get to the heart of 

the matter. The digital television and 

telephone business models won’t 

work for radio. Radio does not – 

cannot – inhabit the world of 

subscription, pay-per-view and 

subsidized hardware. DAB needs 

other mechanisms to get it moving. 

Above all, its needs a pan-European 

market if unit prices are to come 

down sufficiently to generate a mass 

launch. 

At the moment, that market doesn’t 

exist. Only a handful of countries 

have licensing structures and 

sufficient spectrum to allow digital 

radio to happen, and only in the UK, 

according to the most recent Prognos 

analysis, are the essential criteria for 

market launch in place for roll-out 

this year. It is no surprise therefore if 

manufacturers, surveying this 

fragmented landscape, continue to see 

DAB as a slow burner. It’s a landscape 

the European Commission could do 

much to improve, simply by 

encouraging governments to match 

best practice and provide the 

necessary environment for digital 

radio to start. This is not about 

endorsing DAB. It doesn’t require 

29

DOSSIER: DAB 

money. It requires a clearly stated 

policy in the public interest – and 

political will. 

How do we press the case further? 

Within the WorldDAB ‘college’, our 

manufacturing and transmission 

colleagues have in my view been 

relatively silent partners, at least as 

far as lobbying is concerned, and yet 

their voices carry more weight than 

most in the corridors of Brussels. In 

recent months, my committee has 

opened up a dialogue with DG 

Enterprise of the Commission, with 

the people at the interface with 

the consumer electronics 

industry. As one official put it 

to us: “If the manufacturers 

had shouted, we would 

have taken notice.” 

WorldDAB is now 

working with EACEM, 

the manufacturers’ 

trade association, to 

present the industrial 

argument for political 

support and leverage 

at the European level. 

As we go forward, with Parliament 

asking more searching questions of 

the Commission about an EC radio 

strategy, it is vital that the DAB family 

holds tight. The new digital radio 

economy is about interdependence, 

between and across nations. Progress 

is determined by partnerships and 

collaboration between all players in 

the value chain and the whole 

structure may be threatened by one 

player losing his nerve. The 

frustration among broadcasters, 

particularly those in the public sector 

who have been in the front line for 

so long, is understandable. Some, 

after all, have spent millions of euros 

which they’re finding increasingly 

difficult to justify to their licencepayers 

and political stakeholders. 

My own personal view is that 

despite the frustrations of the 

marketplace, broadcasters must 

continue to take the risk, investing 

in those new services which are 

crucial to radio’s digital future. 

Radio is only about content; merely 

duplicating the analogue world will 

not produce the revolution. As our 

lobby for DAB intensifies this 

winter, Brussels will be watching to 

see how firmly we are all still 

clinging to the faith. 




Satellite ? 

DAB 

Paul René Heinerscheid 

Managing Director, Global Radio SA 

It has taken some time to 

define and develop DAB as a 

product, and several of its 

components still need to be 

clarified. 


DOSSIER: DAB 

For the most part, the development 

effort has been spearheaded by 

terrestrial broadcasters or by 

organizations representing them, and 

they do deserve much credit for the 

progress to date. Unfortunately, two 

early satellite DAB projects failed to 

get funding, and withdrew from the 

active scene. Yet their early designs, 

while not optimized for the 

requirements of the market, had 

merits that should not be discounted. 

Global Radio’s project intends to 

build on this early S-DAB experience, 

and apply some of the lessons learned. 

Meanwhile, satellite digital radio 

projects developed on four other 

continents, and the technical and 

financial communities started to 

validate the viability of these projects, 

particularly in the United States. In 

many respects, the European 

environment offers more favourable 

prospects. 

It is our opinion that any satellite 

radio system covering Europe will 

have to take into account the cultural 

and linguistic diversity of each region 

or country. This implies distinct 

regional coverage beams. At the same 

time, such a system needs to reach a 

large enough universe to attract 

sufficient listeners during the early 

ramp-up phase to survive financially. 

That requires a high channel capacity. 

31

DOSSIER: DAB 

Because most of Europe lies in 

northern latitudes, elevation angles 

and line of sight to any delivery 

system are crucial. Finally, we clearly 

prefer a single receiver standard for 

the consumer, hoping that the Eureka 

147 based terrestrial DAB receivers 

will also be able to receive satellite 

DAB as proposed by Global Radio. 

Based on the foregoing criteria and 

on other considerations, Global 

Radio determined that its system 

should satisfy the following 

objectives: 

1. cover all of Europe, including 

Eastern Europe; 

2. have a high channel capacity, 

and be preferably based on the 

EU 147 standard; 

3. offer regional beams for distinct 

cultural and linguistic content; 

4. be complementary, not 

competitive to terrestrial DAB; 

5. offer very good technical 

service, and provide high 

elevation angles. 

The system filed by Global Radio with 

the Luxembourg authorities, and 

through them, the International 

Telecommunication Union (ITU), 

satisfies these criteria. It will offer a 

minimum of 50 programme channels 

to most of Western and Central 

Europe, delivered by four satellites 

placed into a highly elliptical orbit 

(HEO). Elevation angles will be 

higher than 75 degrees, and in the 

most populated parts of Europe, 

exceed 80 degrees. Eight separate and 

partially overlapping beams will 

service different linguistic com- 

munities, while making programming 

from one country available in many 

others. For the first time, a pan- 

European radio service will be 

available to mobile users, even in the 

most remote areas. The European 

listener will end up with more variety 

of programming, and more choice. 

Expatriates will be able to hear radio 

services from their home country, and 

the European music enthusiast will 

hear his favourite music with news 

and weather in his home language. S- 

DAB will truly be an improvement in 

choice and service level for the 

average radio listener. 

The issue of the complementarity of 

T-DAB and S-DAB is often misunderstood. 

Essentially, I believe that 

terrestrial DAB, which so far, by the 

admission of its own proponents, has 

not been very successful, will better 

succeed as a new medium if it gets a 

boost from the (compatible) satellite 

component of DAB. 

European consumers will embrace 

DAB only if additional new programming 

choices, including 

auxiliary data services, are offered, 

and moreover, with uninterrupted 

coverage. Merely broadcasting 

existing programmes in digital mode 

is not a strong enough incentive to 

switch to DAB, even if the signal 

quality may be better. Support from 

consumer electronics manufacturers 

and automobile companies will 

materialize in earnest only if their 

interests can be met. Automobile 

manufacturers know the consumers’ 

needs as well as we do, and in 

addition, they need continuous 




coverage to install some of their 

proprietary data services in their 

vehicles. 

The satellite radio operator will not 

seriously threaten local DAB radio, 

since local services, including local 

advertising, are out of its reach. The 

national or regional networks, 

carried on terrestrial DAB transmitters, 

will maintain their role as 

mainstream programme providers. 

S-DAB will have to find specific 

‘market niches’ to attract early 

adopters, either by offering 

specialized programming (music, 

special interest programming) or by 

offering uninterrupted coverage to 

the travelling listener. Realistically, 

this kind of coverage cannot be 

achieved by terrestrial L-band 

networks. 


The existence of satellite-DAB, 

however, is seriously threatened by a 

CEPT initiative, supported by the 

EBU and certain national administrations, 

to ‘reallocate’ a portion 

of the L-band frequency spectrum 

provisionally reserved for satellite 

services to terrestrial DAB users, 

essentially reducing the available 

spectrum from 14 to 7 ‘blocks’. If 

this effort should succeed, one of two 

outcomes is likely: either the satellite 

operators will walk away from the 

risk of such a huge investment because 

of the severely reduced capacity, and 

DAB will fare for the worse in Europe. 

Or the satellite proponents will decide 

that the only way to achieve the 

necessary channel capacity is to use a 

more efficient encoding standard than 

EU 147 (which is very spectrum 

inefficient and not satellite friendly), 

and Europe will once again have a 

battle of conflicting standards. In that 

case the satellite and the terrestrial 

worlds will indeed compete, and any 

notion of complementary services will 

be lost. 

We must find a middle ground, 

allowing those broadcasters who have 

already started terrestrial service to 

continue with the existing Eureka 

147, while working diligently on an 

evolution of the encoding techniques. 

We cannot jump-start a new industry 

with a standard that’s clearly obsolete. 

Future consumer receivers must be 

software upgradeable, and will 

probably incorporate more than one 

decoding chip. If spectrum is as 

precious and tight as it appears to be, 

we need to review the planning tools 

used to distribute it. Various pro- 

DOSSIER: DAB 

posals are currently before panels of 

the CEPT and other organizations, 

and we need to consider them with 

an open mind. 

I realize that change is always 

uncomfortable, particularly if the 

current baseline took so long to 

develop. But doing nothing will 

surely result in a serious setback for 

the radio industry. 

For my part, I am honoured to be part 

of this challenge. 

Paul Heinerscheid is one of the 

founders of Global Radio, a 

Luxembourg-based venture to 

develop and operate a Satellite-DAB 

system. He was the founder and 

CEO of US-based Satellite Network 

Systems, Inc. (1990–98) and 

contributed to the development of 

USSB (a high power DBS venture) 

and Conus Communications (the 

first Satellite Newsgathering [SNG] 

Cooperative) within the Minnesotabased 

Hubbard Broadcasting Group 

(1983–1990). From 1978–1982, he 

was Project Manager for DBS at 

Luxembourg-based CLT (now RTL 

Group). He holds a civil engineering 

degree from the Swiss Federal 

Institute of Technology-Zurich and 

an MBA from the Harvard Business 

School. He is a Luxembourg citizen, 

and has recently returned to 

Luxembourg after 18 years in the 

United States. 

33




DAB and 

Internet 

François Le Genissel 

Director General for Southern Europe, SBS Broadcasting SA 

In most European countries, 

digital radio – a European 

technology – is still more of a 

topical media issue than an 

economic reality. 


DOSSIER: DAB 

Although France initially experienced 

a very strong voluntary uptake in the 

digital sector, followed closely by 

Germany, it is the UK which is now 

producing the most positive results in 

this area. 

A look at data from the WorldDAB 

Forum shows that the UK has a digital 

coverage rate of 60%, with significant 

investments being made by private 

groups alongside public service radio. 

The Netherlands has a coverage rate 

of 45%, followed by Germany with 

30%. Spain has 30% coverage and 

this figure is due to increase 

significantly over the next few years, 

with 10 national DAB licences granted 

recently. It is interesting to note that 

some of the operators granted licences 

come from outside the radio industry. 

Depending on your viewpoint, this 

can either be seen as an opportunity 

35

DOSSIER: DAB 

for digital radio to quickly gain a 

foothold in Spain or a threat, in that 

the existing radio sector may find 

itself marginalized as a result. 

According to the WorldDAB Forum, 

France is credited with a coverage of 

26–30%. Next in line is Italy with 

10%, but in reality the rate is 

undoubtedly closer to 20%. Italian 

public service radio aimed to cover 

60% of territory by 1999, but, 

although funding has been provided, 

that goal is still a long way away. In 

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, 

Ireland, Portugal and Sweden, tests 

are currently underway to establish 

coverage. 

In short, the majority of the largest 

EU countries in terms of population 

already have significant DAB 

coverage. It is now a question of 

finding listeners for the digital 

programmes and associated services 

– an issue which we have been 

addressing for some months now. 

On the other hand, where national 

legislation facilitates a harmonious 

balance between the public and 

private sector, digital radio is making 

significant progress. We should also 

not forget the dramatic rise in the 

presence of radio on the Internet 

within the EU over the last two years. 

For commercial stations, which have 

to make a profit, this presents an 

obstacle to investment in digital 

technology. 

The most important factor for any 

new website is ensuring that people 

get to know about it. Radio is 

welcome in the new economy because 

it generates as much traffic on 

Internet sites as television, if not 

more. In fact, for a long time radio 

has had a very interactive relationship 

with its listeners. 

It was therefore natural that European 

radio stations should also want to set 

up their own websites, in contrast to 

their North American counterparts 

which have often delegated this 

activity to specialized companies. For 

example, SBS has radio stations in 

Sweden and Finland, whose populations 

are some of the world’s most 

active Internet users. On average, 

60% of the population in these 

countries surf the net several 

times a week, if not every day. 

In other words, it is vital for 

any radio station to have a 

website. Over the last two 

years, SBS’s Finnish radio 

station, Kiss, has been one of 

the most visited sites in 

Finland. 

In Sweden, more money will 

be spent advertising on the 

Internet this year than on radio. 

Moreover, the country has just 

announced an investment programme 

worth € 2 billion over the next four 

years to give almost all Swedes high 

bit-rate access to the Internet via 

cable. This is now a necessary reality 

which also has consequences for our 

investments in technology. We know 

that digital radio has many 

advantages, a major one being its 

mobility. However, from a financial 

point of view, an operator analyzing 

the pros and cons of various 

investment possibilities will not take 

long to make up his mind. 

For radio stations, there are a number 

of reasons why an investment on the 

Internet is preferable: 

· an Internet site boosts interactivity 

· a good website can be produced 

· an Internet site will quickly 

with listeners and increases the 

amount of information and 

entertainment on offer. It also 

improves the possibilities for 

marketing and promoting a 

station; 

at a reasonable price; 

procure additional sources of 

income, in particular via ecommerce, 

which radio stations 

have not had access to until now. 

The next phase will be to create 





services which can be accessed via 

mobile phones, and here again the 

investment will pay for itself very 

quickly. 

Incidentally, there are a number of 

funding options available for these 

activities. Just discussing them will 

cause ‘business angels’ to materialize 

offering sponsorship or causing share 

prices to increase dramatically. What’s 

more, it is not even necessary to make 

a profit straight away. 

During the last European seminar 

organized by our colleagues from the 

North American Broadcasters 

Association (NABA), one of the 

sessions involved a discussion 

on whether digital radio could 

survive the effects of the 

Internet revolution. Although 

the theme was somewhat 

provocative, especially considering 

that the American 

radio industry has not always 

demonstrated a perceptive 

approach to new technology, the 

question of competition between the 

Internet and digital radio is very 

relevant, particularly as regards 

funding. 

Looking on the bright side, by 

entering the world of the Internet, 

radio stations are preparing themselves 

for digital radio, particularly in 

the area of associated data. Specialist 

teams, databases and various online 

services are being set up which will 

undoubtedly prove useful for DAB, 

even if at present we still seriously lack 

experience and a proper national or 

European structure for this muchvaunted 

associated data. 

During the many meetings on the 

subject of digital radio, representatives 

of commercial radio stations 

have often referred to the difficulty 

of covering transmission costs in both 

FM and DAB, while there are still so 

few households equipped with digital 

radio receivers. However, their 

concerns have not always been 

addressed and, as a result, they are 

now giving priority to investments on 

the Internet for the reasons indicated 

above. 

Questions 

The following issues need to be 

addressed: 

· Will the Internet overshadow 

· We are all aware of the incredible 

DOSSIER: DAB 

digital radio and curb its 

development among a public 

already being subjected to 

numerous technological demands? 

People are expected to 

purchase new computers, 

decoders, television sets and 

mobile phones with modified 

standards – and all on a limited 

budget. The manufacturers of 

audio equipment will have to 

address this issue. 

potential offered by digital radio, 

as pointed out on so many 

occasions. However, one thing is 

certain: digital radio will not 

develop without the private 

sector. The governments of some 

countries have already recognized 

this fact and are granting licences 

on conditions acceptable to 

private operators. These conditions 

must be standardized at 

European Union level. 

I would like to see the expertise and 

know-how of radio organizations 

remain focused on the development 

of digital radio. Therefore, when 

granting licences they must be given 

priority in order to ensure the 

development of this European 

technology. 

37

DOSSIER: DAB 

Many broadcasters seem to 

be looking for the DAB killer 

application in data services, 

advanced technical gadgets 

and moving images on poor 

displays. 

But DAB’s killer application is right 

before our ears. It is – RADIO! 

Almost a hundred years ago the 

technological conditions for the 

breakthrough of analogue radio were 

in place. Voices and sounds could be 

recorded, transmitted and received. 

Penetration was limited. The radio 

sets, aerials and transformers were 

big, primitive, and expensive. Sound 

quality was poor. And content? Well, 

it consisted mostly of scratchy 

greetings from radio amateurs (the 

geeks of the day) as they swapped 

technical details about ‘the brave new 

medium’. 

Anyway, all the technological 

preconditions were there. The 

legislative ones, too, as the area was 

relatively unregulated. Transmitters 

were built and receivers manufactured. 

And the radiophile futurists 

of the day predicted the imminent 

breakthrough of radio as a new mass 

medium. 

Yet few receivers were sold: the killer 

application was lacking. Does this 

sound familiar? 

Pre-breakthrough era 

DAB is now in the same prebreakthrough 

era as analogue radio 

was at the start of the last century. 

The technological and legal 

preconditions are in place. 

Frequencies have been allocated, and 

most countries have started erecting 

transmitters. The radio stations are 

equipped with digital transmission 

equipment. Production of receivers 

has begun, and the first models are 

on the market. Yet very few are being 

sold. Why? 

The situation is reminiscent of the 

childhood of analogue radio in the 

1910s and 1920s. Sets are expensive 

and unsexy. Transmitters don’t cover 

the entire country. Reception in some 

locations is still unstable. And 

content? Well, it is either identical 

with what’s available through the 

cheap, sexy FM radio receivers, so 

why make the switch? Or it comprises 

unintelligible technical experiments in 

which the technophile DAB 

departments of broadcasting 

corporations test dubious data or 

image services unsuitable for 

reception on small grey displays. The 

world’s worst television displayed on 

the world’s best radio! 

For consumers, the situation is the 

same as it was 80 years ago: 

expensive, technically primitive 

receivers with no real user value. And 

content obtainable cheaper elsewhere 

or only of interest to technophile 

front-runners and radiophile geeks. 

The vicious circle 

Everyone is waiting for everyone! The 

engineers are reluctant to approve 

technical standards. Governments are 

reluctant to abolish analogue 

transmissions before the digital ones 



killer app 

Leif Lonsmann 

The 

Managing Director – Radio, DR


are on the air. Manufacturers are 

waiting for demand from retailers. 

Retailers are waiting for sellable 

receivers and persuasive sales pitches. 

Public service broadcasters are 

waiting for commercial partners who 

will share the costs of development. 

Commercial stations are waiting for 

public service broadcasters to activate 

the initial development costs. Both are 

waiting for receivers to reach 

consumers. 

And the consumers? Well, they have 

every reason for not seeing the point 

of investing in expensive new 

receivers. This is the deadly vicious 

circle, as was the deadlock of 

analogue radio in the early 1920s. 

The kammersanger 

What exactly broke the vicious circle 

and sparked the breakthrough of 

analogue radio in the last century? 

Fascination with the possibilities 

afforded by the new technology? 

Hardly. Sound quality? No! Price? 

Definitely not! User-friendliness, sexy 

user interfaces and aesthetic design? 

Absolutely not! 

It came to pass in the years around 

1925. In my country, Denmark, the 

State – as it did in many other 

European countries – decided to take 

the lead in (or rather control of) 

developing the new medium. From 


among a motley crew of mandarins, 

artists, political figures, and engineers, 

the State decided to appoint a famous 

Danish kammersanger (a chamber 

music singer) to head the new state 

broadcasting organization. 

The kammersanger was possessed by 

an idée fixe. He wanted to use the new 

medium to take music (his music, of 

course) to the people. To put the 

concert hall live in people’s living 

rooms! To suspend the necessity of 

physical presence in a concert hall if 

you wanted to enjoy live music. 

Listeners welcomed the kammersanger’s 

vision with open arms. Music 

to your home became the killer 

application for analogue radio. In the 

years from 1925 to 1935 the number 

of receivers increased almost 

exponentially. In just ten years cutting 

edge technology was in everyone’s 

hands, and the deadly vicious circle 

was broken. Producers started 

producing user-friendly applications. 

Prices fell. The state broadcasting 

organization expanded its broadcasts. 

Transmitters provided nationwide 

penetration. Analogue radio became 

a mass medium! 

Functionality sells 

This is where DAB is today. I don’t 

believe that fascination with technological 

potential, sound quality or 

sundry data services and 

screen images will get 

people to embrace DAB 

radio. Technology and 

sound quality are not 

what sells radios. 

The radio of the 

1920s did not 

sell thanks 

to sound quality but because it 

represented a brand new 

functionality – you could go to 

concerts without leaving your 

armchair. The transistor radio did not 

make its breakthrough thanks to 

improved sound quality or the 

technical gadgets, but simply because 

you could take it to the beach! The 

CD player didn’t vanquish the 

gramophone because of improved 

sound quality alone, but because 

users could pick the tracks they 

wanted more quickly and easily – and 

because they could carry their player 

on their belt. The MP3 player is not 

a hit because of sound quality or 

user-friendliness, but because via the 

Internet you can choose precisely the 

music you want, in the order you 

want. Functionality is what sells. Not 

bits of equipment. 

lication 

39

DOSSIER: DAB 

Digital listeners 

So what can digital radio do that no 

other technology can achieve – and 

which will persuade consumers to 

choose digital next time they buy a 

radio receiver? As I say, it won’t be 

sound quality or semi-professional 

display and image services. In the 21st 

century people expect sound, data, 

and visual quality to be tip-top – on 

analogue receivers, too. Quality on its 

own doesn’t sell. Anyway, in my view 

the most fascinating potential in 

digital radio signals isn’t quality either 

but the fact that digits (noughts and 

ones) can be checked, coded, and 

thereby retrieved more easily. Beside 

the traditional analogue flow channels 

(which will be receivable on digital 

sets too) we could have a range of 

thematic channels offering round the 

clock precisely the programme type 

desired: news, current affairs, 

children’s radio, educational, jazz, 

folk, dance, etc. Through its concert 

broadcasts analogue radio liberated 

listeners from being tied to a physical 

location. Through more channel 

choices digital radio will liberate 

listeners from being tied to a certain 

time of broadcast. 

Power to decide 

I know listeners 

appreciate being able 

to decide for themselves 

what to hear when 

they turn on their radios. When 

we tested the first DAB receivers with 

a test panel, this feature was the one 

that represented the most noticeable 

improvement for listeners. We 

transmitted a news 

service in which 

the hourly news 

programmes were repeated in a digital 

loop so that whenever you liked, you 

could press the ‘news’ button on your 

DAB set and listen to the latest news 

programme – which was never more 

than an hour old. Being able to get 

into your car and switch on the 

latest radio news whether it’s 

half past, on the hour, 11.38 

or 17.20 is a functionality that 

analogue radio seldom provides. 

Being able to put on children’s hour 

when it suits the child rather than 

when it suits a given radio station to 

broadcast children’s programmes is a 

fundamental departure from analogue 

radio listening. Being able to 

choose jazz, folk, or dance combined 

with news programmes and traffic 

reports (or whatever combination you 

happen to want) is a third functionality 

that analogue radio does not 

provide. 

More choice 

The task for public service radio 

organizations is simple. The killer 

application is right before our ears. 

Quite simply, RADIO will sell digital 

radio receivers: more radio to choose 

from, and radio when it suits each 

listener. 

Producing digital listener’s choice 

radio is easy and cheap. Most of the 

material is already produced for 

the basic analogue channels. 

All the radio station 

needs is digital 

packaging that 

combines 

programmes by theme and genre 

rather than a time-determined flow. 

Entirely new radio channels (such as 

music channels by genre) can be preproduced 

digitally. One voice, i.e. a 

single employee, can pre-produce 24 

hours of radio in one eight-hour 

working day. 

Where analogue radio abolished the 

geographical separation of broadcaster 

and listener, digital radio will 

abolish the bonds of time between the 

two, thus giving radio listeners the 

privilege that newspapers gave their 

readers long ago: the option of leafing 

through the different sections and 

choosing the themes users want to 

devote their time to, when they want 

to do so. 




Jubilaeum 

Radio Vaticana 

Rev. Father Pasquale Borgomeo 

Director General, Radio Vaticana 

More than a year before the 

start of the Great Jubilee of 

the year 2000, Radio Vaticana 

(RV) began preparing special 

services for pilgrims and 

tourists coming to Rome. 


RADIO 

After various studies and hypotheses, 

RV finally chose to launch two 

information channels, each served by 

two frequencies (MW and FM). 

Jubilaeum 1 was set up for English, 

French and Italian, and Jubilaeum 2 

for Portuguese and Spanish, with 

some slots set aside for German. A 

third service radio channel had been 

planned in cooperation with RAI, but 

the latter was unable to allocate a 

frequency to it. RV’s two Jubilaeum 

channels were therefore obliged to fill 

in the resulting gaps with service 

information (weather, transport, 

traffic, useful addresses, events, health 

care, etc.), down to the most practical 

advice imaginable, all in the abovementioned 

languages. 

The end result has been an expansion 

of Jubilaeum’s range of information, 

from general international news, and 

religious and Jubilee Year information 

to cultural, music, sports and service 

information. 

The originality of this radio 

programming lies primarily, 

however, in its format, and it is not 

for nothing that it is spurring the 

interest of such international radio 

organizations as the European 

Broadcasting Union. 

It should be mentioned first and 

foremost that all Jubilaeum’s 

41

RADIO 

broadcasts are live, except for one 

hour daily devoted to a programme 

of classical music. Moreover, the 

various presentations do not follow a 

rigid sequence but rather create an 

overall continuity whose pace and 

spontaneity seem to overcome any 

language barrier. In the worst case 

scenario, this presumes having 

journalists who at least understand the 

languages in which their colleagues 

are speaking. In the present case, 

however, many of the journalists 

actually succeed in speaking in one 

or more languages other than their 

own, giving the broadcasts a 

somewhat exotic flavour. Another 

secret of the programming’s success 

is the good working relationship 

between the studio and the 

production team. In the latter, the 

technicians and the newsroom 

coordinator are on exactly the same 

wavelength, which helps transform a 

complex multilingual and multimedia 

operation into a free and easy, goodhumoured 

dialogue, interspersed with 

a judicious selection of musical 

excerpts appropriate to the topics 

discussed. 

Another winning characteristic of 

Jubilaeum is studio participation by 

major figures from various 

backgrounds (the Church, culture, the 

arts and sciences, journalism and 

sport). There is enough time for a 

relaxed exchange of views, skills and 

experience. The best results are, of 

course, obtained when the studio 

guests can speak – albeit at differing 

levels – in all three languages of the 

programme concerned, which helps 

prevent a loss of rhythm which occurs 

when the discussion stops while the 

guest’s comments are summarized. 

Internet presence 

Another explanation for the lively 

nature of Jubilaeum’s programming 

is its interactive nature. The broadcasts 

are transmitted throughout the 

Rome area, but they are also 

accessible via the Internet. This means 

that telephone calls and e-mails are 

received in the studio from all over 

the world and can be commented on. 

These worldwide reactions are quite 

fitting for a programme that, while it 

was set up primarily to serve a specific 

area, has as its mission to proclaim 

the universal character of the Jubilee 

Year, not only through its themes and 

content but also by its truly crossborder 

format, as it strives to 

overcome linguistic and cultural 

barriers. 

Last but not least, Radio Vaticana’s 

Jubilaeum is characterized by its 

youthful aspect, owing both to the age 

of its programme-makers and by 

specifically targeting some of its 

features to young audiences. Jubilaeum 

employs some 80 young volunteers 

from throughout the world, chosen for 

their spiritual motivation as well as 

their experience in journalism and 

radio. During the Jubilee Year, each of 

these young people swill spend around 

two months in Rome. After 

appropriate orientation, their task will 

be to work on site, covering all the 

venues of the celebrations, 

interviewing pilgrims, tourists, native 

Romans, other young people (often 

their compatriots), and then to bring 

some to the studio, either physically 

or by telephone. This makes Jubilaeum 

truly an audience-participation 

programme, thus demonstrating that 

its writ is not only to talk to the 

pilgrims but also to let the pilgrims 

themselves talk about their personal 

and spiritual experiences. 

A new look 

There is no doubt that a programme 

like Jubilaeum represents a major 

innovation for a venerable institution 

like Radio Vaticana, which will be 70 

years young by the end of the Jubilee 

Year. 

In the light of the incredibly modest 

resources with which Jubilaeum has 




been launched, it is no exaggeration 

to say that it is a courageous undertaking, 

and a challenging one. At the 

same time, it reveals the surprising 

vitality of an organization which 

manages to meet concrete needs with 

original and creative solutions. 

Another indication of this vitality was 

the special programme in Italian and 

Albanian (along with other Balkan 

languages) during the tragic war in 

Kosovo. 

In the case of Jubilaeum, RV is 

particularly blessed – and not for the 

first time – by the enthusiasm and 

creativity which are the direct result 

of the Jubilee Year. For instance, the 

more grizzled veterans among the 

staff can still recall Quattrovoci (Four 

Voices), RV’s programme in English, 

French, Italian and Spanish during the 


1975 Holy Year, which broadcast 

information and news for pilgrims 

and tourists. Directed by Don 

Pierfranco Pastore (now Secretary of 

the Pontifical Council for Social 

Communication), this programme did 

not disappear with the end of the 

Holy Year but developed further, 

eventually sowing the seeds for the 

major transformation in RV’s news 

and information sector in the 1980s. 

Who knows what repercussions this 

latest innovation by Radio Vaticana 

will have after the Jubilee Year? What 

is already clear, however, is that it 

gives the ‘Pope’s Radio’ a revolutionary 

new look. This transformation 

is also taking place within the 

organization’s newsrooms and 

technical sectors, which are discovering 

previously unexpected 

RADIO 

possibilities, not to mention flexible 

and original solutions, which do not 

run counter to rigorous professional 

standards but rather reconcile formats 

and languages with new demands. 

Amidst all the dates and deadlines, the 

Jubilee Year thus represents not only 

a major operation for Radio Vaticana 

but also a period of real hope for the 

present and promise for the future. 

Jubilaeum 1 

Frequencies: 

FM 105 or MW 527 

E-mail: 

105fm@vatiradio.va 

Jubilaeum 2 

Frequencies: 

FM 96.3 or MW 1260 

E-mail: 

96.3fm@vatiradio.va 

43

TELEVISION 

The winner of this year’s 

Golden Rose, The Mole (VRT), 

has already been sold to the 

Netherlands, Sweden and 

Australia. 

The Mole brings together 10 

contestants who have never met 

before, one of whom is an undercover 

agent (or mole) that the others have 

to identify. The group is given various 

Netherlands but has seen spin-offs all 

over Europe, are somewhat 

voyeuristic in nature. 

Patrick Jaquin: 

What is the main difference – in 

spirit or conception – between 

The Mole and other 

programmmes like Big Brother? 

Michiel Devlieger: 

I think the main difference is that The 

Mole is primarily a game, although 

it’s a long and intense game. 

Programmes like Big Brother are 

completely focused on people living 

together, on their irritations and their 

conflicts. As for The Mole, this aspect 

is minor to the game: completing the 



The Mo 

Interview: Michiel Devlieger 

Golden Rose 2000 

challenges and at the end of each 

episode the contestant who has won 

the least points is eliminated. This 

programme and others such as Big 

Brother, which was originally from the 

Co-Creator and Presenter, VRT


assignments and finding the mole are 

the most important. This difference 

is well illustrated by the reason why 

people have to leave the programme. 

In Big Brother and Survivor the 

le 


contestants are voting each other 

home; as for The Mole, the contestants 

have to leave the game because 

they have the lowest number of 

correct answers in the final round of 

each episode. 

Voyeurism? 

Any programme that shows people 

living and working together is subject 

to some degree of voyeurism. In 

principle there’s nothing wrong with 

that. Still I believe that we can speak 

of real voyeurism when you ‘expose’ 

people, when you make them cross 

emotional boundaries for the sake of 

the programme. We tried really hard 

to avoid this. That’s one of the 

reasons why there was always a 

psychologist present on the set, 

someone who was available to talk 

to at any moment. 

TELEVISION 

What gave you the idea for such 

a show? 

Originally, we wanted to make a semifictional 

travel show in which two 

presenters would travel to different 

countries, each by different means. In 

one of the episodes we developed the 

idea that they would have to join a 

group on a holiday. In that group 

there would be a person always 

working against the group. Eventually, 

we didn’t do the travel show for 

all kinds of reasons. But we elaborated 

the idea of this mole. 

Why has The Mole been such a 

success? What makes it a hit? 

Because it combines elements of 

different television genres. First of all 

it’s a game show with different 

challenges: physical, intellectual as 

45

TELEVISION 

well as psychological. It’s also a 

thriller, a whodunnit in eight 

episodes. It’s a kind of travel show: 

the landscape varies from episode to 

episode. There are ‘soap’ elements: 

you get to know different characters, 

you watch them making decisions, 

you empathize with them, there are 

heroes and anti-heroes. 

Finally it’s also a reality show where 

you watch 10 strangers getting to 

know each other and having to live 

and work together. When these 

elements are well balanced in one 

show, it’s very likely to appeal to a 

vast majority of viewers. 

What does the audience get 

from such a production? 

This is the kind of programme people 

talk a lot about afterwards because 

every viewer tries to be Sherlock 

Holmes. Everyone has his or her own 

main suspect for different reasons. 

There are different websites on which 

people exchange their opinions and 

their theories about the programme. 

Some of the viewers even spend a lot 

of time looking for hidden messages. 

A mole, someone who’s working 

against a group and tries secretly to 

sabotage things, is something a lot of 

people recognize. And that makes 

them very eager to unmask that mole... 

Big Brother – 

Germany 

The principle: five men and five 

women, cut off from the rest of the 

world in a Cologne apartment, are 

filmed 24 hours a day. The 

apartment contains 28 cameras and 

47 microphones. The contestants live 

together and are placed under 

constant scrutiny, even in their most 

private moments. A 45-minute 

review of their day’s events is 

broadcast every evening on RTL2. 

Every 15 days, one contestant is 

eliminated by the viewers and the 

other contestants. The winner 

receives DM250,000 (€127,823). 

Big Brother has been sold in 

Germany, France, the United 

Kingdom and the USA. 

EBU Format Contest 

2000 

At the Golden Rose in Montreux, 

the EBU announced the launch of 

the EBU Format Contest 2000, a 

competition for projects of 

innovative television entertainment 

programmes. 

In 1999, the light entertainment 

division of the EBU’s television 

department created the competition 

with the aim to identify projects 

which could either lead to coproductions 

between EBU members 

or whose formats could be 

reproduced in different countries. 

Light entertainment professionals of 

EBU members examine the 

submitted projects and decide 

whether their organization has a 

preliminary interest in producing or 

co-producing any of the entries. 

The winner is the proposal that 

receives the highest number of 

expressions of intent, and is 

awarded financial support for the 

further development of the project 

with interested broadcasters. Two 

projects from the1999 edition are 

presently in development. 

This year’s deadline for proposals is 

31 December 2000. 

Contact: 

www.ebu.ch/tv-ent_frm.html 




Kultura 

Tatiana Paukhova 

Director General and Editor-in-Chief, Kultura TV 

The creation of a national TV 

channel that gives viewers 

the possibility of watching 

live Russian and worldwide 

culture programmes 

16.5 hours a day is a unique 

event. 


TV 

In Russia, a country with very rich 

cultural traditions, people have been 

waiting for the creation of such a 

channel. It was not by pure chance 

that its concept and launch was down 

to our brightest representatives in the 

Russian world of art and science e.g. 

distinguished musician Mstislav 

Rostropovich, scientist and academic 

Dmitry Likhachev, and others. The 

aim of the new TV channel was quite 

serious: to preserve and revive the 

moral and artistic values of our 

country, and to acquaint viewers with 

Russian and other culture masterpieces 

as well as new scientific 

achievements. 

Seventy million people in 48 regions 

of Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia and 

Kazakhstan are able to watch our 

programmes. In the near future the 

channel will cover 98% of the 

population of Russia and the 

countries of the Commonwealth of 

Independant States. 

16.5 hours a day 

TELEVISION 

Today Kultura TV has eight 

departments. This allows the channel 

to be on air for 16.5 hours a day and 

show about 5,000 premieres a year. 

Russian culture and the most 

important international events are 

covered by the information program- 

47

TELEVISION 

me Cultural News, as well as live 

interviews with famous scientists and 

artists. The weekly programme 

Spheres is dedicated to the review of 

the latest events in international 

cultural life. 

Our TV channel gives millions of 

people the opportunity to meet with 

outstanding contemporaries. Artists 

who have earned international 

recognition such as the ballet star 

Vladimir Vasiliev, the brilliant 

musician Yuri Bashmet, and many 

others cooperate with Kultura. This 

season, and for the first time on TV, 

the memoirs of our greatest scientists 

were broadcast. Amongst them were 

academic B. Raushenbach, one of the 

authors of the Soviet space 

programme; A. Yanshin, creator of 

the tectonic map of Europe; V. 

Ginsbourg, one of the fathers of the 

Soviet hydrogen bomb; G. Marchuk, 

mathematician; the last President of 

the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; 

diplomats O. Troyanovsky, the USSR 

representative at the UN, and A. 

Dobrynin, former ambassador to the 

USA; and V. Kirpichenko, deputy 

chief of the Soviet secret service. Their 

memories about the past and their 

lives are extremely interesting. 

Another project called Thirteen is 

underway. It is about Russian 

scientists awarded the Nobel Prize; 

currently there are thirteen. 

Every day the audience of Kultura TV 

(made up of people of all ages and 

status) has the unique opportunity to 

become acquainted with the best 

examples of literature, theatre and 

cinema, to learn more about the past 

and the present, and to participate in 

important cultural events all over the 

world. 

Cooperation 

Kultura TV has a wide range of 

international contacts. It participates 

in joint projects with leading 

companies such as the BBC, RM 

Associates, RAI, ORF, INA, and buys 

their best programmes. Thanks to 

this, viewers will be able to watch 

programmes next year on extraordinary 

conductors (Herbert von 

Karajan, Leonard Bernstein), famous 

singers (Placido Domingo, Mirella 

Freni, Kiri Te Kanawa), choreographers 

(Maurice Béjart, Rudolf 

Nureyev) and other great artists. 

Cooperation with the German-French 

cultural channel Arte promises to be 

very fruitful and we have already 

offered some of our programmes. In 

the future we expect Kultura TV to 

participate in Arte as an associate 

member. 

We welcome all kinds of international 

cultural exchanges. The French and 

Dutch documentary weeks as well as 

the retrospective look at British and 

Chinese documentaries were a great 

success. 

One of the most interesting activities 

of Kultura TV is the broadcasting of 

cultural events of international 

importance. We have shown a 

number of different concerts: the final 

concert of the Combined International 

Youth Orchestra (Israel, 

Austria, USA) under the baton of V. 

Gergiev on Red Square during the 

International Youth Forum of 

Symphonic Orchestras; the concert of 

the Youth Orchestra of the 

Philharmonic of the Nations conducted 

by Justus Franz; concert of 

Montserrat Caballe for handicapped 

children on Red Square; two concerts 

From Heart to Heart, Japan-Russia 

with the participation of the Japanese 

Symphonic Orchestra, conductor Seiji 

Ozawa, soloist Mstislav 

Rostropovich; and the Millenium 

Concert organized by the BBC which 

shows the 500 th performance of the 

Soloists of Moscow conducted by Yuri 

Bashmet. 

Open to the world 

Kultura TV covered the 11 th 

International Music Festival in 

Tatiana Paukhova 




Colmar (France), organized by the 

famous violinist Vladimir Spivakov. 

Based on this recording, a series of 

four documentary programmes called 

Colmar, Opus 11 were produced and 

presented at the 37 th Golden Prague 

International Television Festival. This 

year we are planning to film the 

International Festival at Elba, 

founded by Yuri Bashmet, considered 

the greatest viola player in the world. 

For over two years our audience has 

enjoyed opera and ballet from around 

the world. We show the best 

performances from La Scala, Covent 

Garden, the Arena di Verona, Opéra 

de Paris and other famous opera 

houses. 

This year we participated in the work 

of the International Music Centre, 

organized under the auspices of the 

EBU. At the Vienna TV Award 

Competition, Kultura presented two 

music programmes Ivan’s Passion 

(opera by S. Slonimsky, conductor M. 

Rostropovich) and The Tzar Box, the 

story of the Mariinsky Theatre and 

its stars. In June our channel sent to 

the 10 th Eurovision Grand Prix for 

Young Musicians a 16-year-old 

pianist, Nikolai Tokarev, who went on 

to win third prize. 

Kultura TV works on some 

international projects with the 

Russian Fund for Culture. These 

include the monthly programme 

Russian Music Salon in Paris which 

has covered the concerts of Russian 

musicians at the Paris headquarters of 

UNESCO and a project called Opera 

Antique which assembles singers from 


all over the world to perform 

Mozart’s opera Il Rè Pastore (The 

Shepherd-King). 

During the two-and-a-half years of its 

existence, Kultura TV has managed 

to win audience recognition. It is also 

worth mentioning that Kultura TV is 

the only non-commercial national 

channel in the country to have 

received the prestigious Russian 

professional award TEFI from the 

Academy of Television Art. 

Today Kultura TV is quickly 

developing and continues to seek new 

forms of artistic expression. The 

channel plans to create a cultural 

centre where meetings with outstanding 

artists and scientists, 

exhibitions, presentations and the 

channel’s other types of activity will 

be held. We even dream of acquiring 

a theatre of our own. 

Kultura TV would like to increase its 

international contacts and hopes for 

fruitful cooperation with members of 

the European Broadcasting Union. 

Kultura TV 

TELEVISION 

The all-Russian state-owned 

television company Kultura TV was 

established on the edict of the 

President of the Russian Federation 

on 25 August 1997 and started 

broadcasting on 1 November 1997. 

The President appointed Tatiana 

Paukhova as Director General and 

Editor-in-Chief. 

This year the creators of Kultura TV 

were the laureates of the State Prize 

of the Russian Federation, the highest 

Russian award given by the country’s 

President. This award was in honour 

of the academic Dmitry Likhachev 

(given posthumously), Tatiana 

Paukhova and Mikhail Shvydkoy for 

the artisitic development of Russian 

television and the creation of Kultura 

TV. 

Culture and popular science programmes 26% 

Films (both series and animation) 33% 

Documentaries 8% 

News 10% 

Classical music 9% 

Entertainment and music programmes 5% 

Children’s programmes 4% 

Sport 1% 

Other programmes 4% 

49

MTV 

Andras Monory Mesz 

Creative Director, Magyar Televízío The corporate image 

The birth of MTV’s new 

corporate image marks the 

end of a period of crises and 

the beginning of a new phase 

of future-oriented 

development . 

As of 1997, MTV experienced – like 

many of its counterparts in the region 

– a critical period due to the emergence 

of commercial competitors. MTV 

suffered a drastic fall in its viewing 

figures coupled with a significant loss 

of its advertising market share. These 

problems were aggravated by the 

political debate surrounding the future 

of the organization. 

However, the competitive environment 

did not have only adverse effects 

on the public service broadcaster. It 

forced MTV to react to changes in 

the media market and implement a 

series of long-awaited restructuring 

measures. 

Commercial competitors invested 

huge amounts in state-of-the-art 

equipment to enable them to create 

and constantly update their image. 

MTV made several attempts to 

transform the image of the 

corporation, however, these efforts 

were fruitless due to frequent 

management changes, and the viewer 

was left with a confusing screen. 

Restructuring 

The first results of the restructuring 

process finally enabled MTV to 

operate under more stable conditions. 

The development of a new image is a 

crucial element in the implementation 

of MTV’s strategy, i.e. it should not 

be seen as just another of the several 

face-lifts that the organization was 

given in the past few years. 

In developing a new corporate 

identity, a number of considerations 

were given priority. First of all, the 

new image had to come up to the 

standards of a 21 st -century European 

public service channel. Secondly, it 

had to reflect a uniform picture of 

MTV, which is balanced, open and 

human. Thirdly, it should be easily 

identifiable. Fourthly, it should be 

attractive and refined especially as 

one of the tasks of public service 

television is to spread and develop the 

visual culture of the audience. Finally, 




the new identity had to take into 

account the technological means of 

MTV. 

The management decided to create a 

new position: Creative Director . I 

and external adviser, László Zsótér 

(the man behind the image of several 

major Hungarian companies and 

former Director of the Master 

Training Institute of the School of 

Applied Arts) shaped the artistic 

concept of MTV’s new corporate 

identity. The motion picture layers 

were replaced by a uniform graphic 

background which gave the advantage 

of allowing the image to be constantly 

renewed without compromising its 

basic characteristics. 

I invited seven Hungarian artists to 

design a new corporate image. The 


winner was Balázs Varga, who created 

a simple, transparent and easily 

adaptable design. 

The new image 

One of the greatest challenges Varga 

had to face was to find visual elements 

that reflect the same ideas both onscreen 

and on printed communication 

material (publications, letter-heads, 

vans, etc.). The new identity was 

applied first to the on-screen image. 

Other areas will follow later. 

It is in every television station’s basic 

interest to dress up programme 

content in seductive attire. As one of 

the designers commented: “Many 

would not even guess how vital are 

the tiny elements of the on-screen 

image, just a few seconds in length, 

TELEVISION 

and their harmony to the entirety of 

the programme. These elements – like 

minor characters in a play – determine 

the atmosphere of a channel and 

provide a link between the different 

programme items.” 

The first surveys have shown that the 

new on-screen image is widely 

accepted both by the viewers (more 

than 90%) and by the profession. The 

successful implementation of the new 

system, however, does not mark the 

end of my work: the exploitation of 

the possibilities offered by 

convergence and the adaptation of the 

system to the digital era will be the 

key to its continuing success. 

51

CONVERGENCE 

CanalWeb 

Interview: Jacques Rosselin 

Chairman and Managing Director, CanalWeb 

Although still in its infancy, a 

medium has arrived on the 

scene – Internet television. 

The screen may be small and the 

picture mediocre, yet this new 

medium looks set to develop over the 

next few years. CanalWeb, which was 

launched in 1998, is the market leader 

in Internet television, with theme 

channels and plans for 200 new 

programmes by the end of 2000, not 

to mention subsidiaires due to open 

in London, Berlin and Barcelona. 

Patrick Jaquin: 

You say that you are Europe’s 

first Internet television operator 

– is this just a publicity statement 

or is it a fact ? 

Jacques Rosselin: 

Well, CanalWeb was set up in 

September 1998 so we were the first 

on the market, chronologically 

speaking. But we also come top 

in terms of size because we have 

more staff and capital than any 

other European operator of 

Internet television. 

We employ just under 120 

people for our technical 

platform, administration, 

programmes, studio, 

marketing and advertising. 

What’s more, CanalWeb 

recently saw a FRF130 

million increase in its 

capital as a result of 

investments by Swiss and Dutch 

partners and by Parisbas. 

PJ: Do you intend to 

revolutionize the way people 

watch television – after all, the 

screen is small and the picture is 

not yet all it should be. 

JR: There is no need for a revolution 

as this has all been happening of its 

own accord. For around 20 years now, 

television has been evolving from a 

relatively uniform, one-channel 

offering into à la carte or multichannel 

television, with increasingly 

specialized bouquets. Internet 

television is part of a continuous 

evolution which has been taking place 

ever since the birth of theme 

television, particularly on cable. 

PJ: And is the Internet 

accelerating this phenomenon? 

JR: Yes. The Internet is simply 

accelerating a phenomenon which is 

already strongly anchored in the 

media. Television is helping to 

personalize the media and divide 

audiences up into interest groups. 

PJ: So this dictates content – for 

example, specialized theme 

channels, channels with a more 

general focus or community 

channels? 




JR: That’s right, these are specialinterest 

or ‘narrowcast’ channels 

which are now taking full advantage 

of technological developments in 

picture distribution. So although you 

are right, the quality of the picture is 

very mediocre, this will improve in 

years to come. The Internet, like 

television, is a new medium of 

delivery which will provide new 

content and new clients for television. 

Today’s viewers increasingly find 

themselves courted by a plethora of 

television channels and have ever 

more selective viewing habits. The 

Internet also has a role to play in this 

evolution and in a few years we hope 

to have our own share of the 

European television market, given 

that we are essentially developing 

theme channels and interactive 

channels. 

PJ: Are you optimistic that highbit-rate 

Internet connections will 

soon be installed in France and 

Europe? 

JR: I have to be, in that the speed at 

which high–bit–rate television is 

deployed is vital to the future of our 

profession. Unfortunately I have no 

influence over this, as the speed is 

determined by the telecom operators 

and cable operators and they are 

working very slowly. 

PJ: You take a particularly active 

interest in this area. Have you 

been lobbying for these 

connections? 

JR: No, I wouldn’t call it that. If we 

are asked, we take part in high-bitrate 

television broadcasting 

experiments. For example, we are 

currently working alongside the local 

cable operator in Nancy on a project 

which carries funding from the 

Ministry of Industry. We are happy 

to take part in experiments of this 

kind but the problem is that funding 

is currently not available and investors 

are not keen to put money into 

experimental platforms. Cable/ 

satellite or telecom operators should 


pay the suppliers or producers of 

theme channels to participate in highbit-rate 

experiments. 

PJ: Is the situation the same in 

other European countries or is it 

like this only in France? 

JR: There are other companies 

offering Internet television in Europe 

but nothing which can be compared 

with what we are doing here in 

France. For example, there is Virtua 

TV, based in London, which is one of 

the largest Internet television 

companies. However it only 

broadcasts live concerts and music so 

it targets a very specific audience. 

PJ: You are setting up 

subsidiaries in Berlin, Barcelona 

and London – what stage are 

they at? 

JR: We opened the Barcelona branch 

in July and the production studio for 

programmes from Barcelona is due to 

open in October. We have opened a 

subsidiary in Berlin called CanalWeb 

AG with one full-time employee who 

is looking for a partner to set up a 

joint venture in Germany. In 

Barcelona, a joint venture has already 

been set up with a company called “evideo”. 

This company produces 

Barcelona TV, the city’s local 

television station. In London we are 

close to finalizing an agreement with 

two investors. 

A basic browser such as Netscape 

Navigator or lnternet Explorer is 

insufficient for listening to radio 

programmes or watching videos 

live on the Internet. Plug-ins have 

to be installed for these new 

functions. These can be 

downloaded free of charge from 

the website of the company which 

created them. 

There are a number of 

incompatible software programs on 

the market. You therefore need all 

of these to be able to watch 

Internet television. The most 

popular is Real Player, by RealMedia 

(www.real.com). Microsoft has its 

own software, Media Player 

(www@microsoft.com/downloads). 

In contrast to the other two 

programs, QuickTime (from Apple) 

also allows you to download videos 

and store them on your computer’s 

hard disk (www.apple.com/ 

quicktime). 

To ensure that the software is up to 

date, you will need to download 

the latest versions regularly. 

Large software libraries with search 

engines are also available to 

Internet users, e.g. 

www.download.com and 

www.shareware.com 

Jacques Rosselin 

CONVERGENCE 

53


Inform 

FORMATION 

“This seminar gave me the 

opportunity to discuss problems 

which we encounter on a daily basis 

in our profession as well as enabling 

us to develop our skills. It gave me a 

greater understanding of the role and 

importance of my profession. The 

seminar demonstrated the pitfalls of 

having an incomplete set of facts, what 

our responsibilities are, and how to 

cover events.” 

An Algerian journalist 

“For a journalist, it is particularly 

interesting and useful to see how other 

journalists work and in the future I 

will be able to use a great deal of what 

I have learned here. It has also given 

me a unique opportunity to meet 

other journalists from all over 

Europe!” 

Divs Reiznieks, Latvia Television 

“Taking part in this seminar and 

listening to the experts talk about their 

experiences was a great opportunity 

for me. I was also able to learn how 

European public service broadcasters 

work and think and to talk about the 

problems I face in my country.” 

Erdem Günter, (TRT correspondent 

in Antalya) 

These comments, gathered at random 

from the workshops, demonstrate, if 

proof is required, how much the 53 

participants from 22 countries 

appreciated the “Information Week” 

seminar organized by the EBU and 

HRT (Croatian Radiotelevision) in 

July. The seminar, which took place in 

Opatija, Croatia, was devoted to the 

practical problems faced by journalists 

in southern, central and eastern 

Europe, the Maghreb countries, Egypt 

and Israel. 

A new generation 

The course participants, the new 

generation of journalists, are looking 

for tools to assist them in their work. 

Finding themselves confronted with a 

wealth of information, for example on 

the Internet, they lack the background 

and experience which comes through 

discussions with veteran colleagues 

(and all that can only be learnt from 

mistakes made over many years of 

working as a journalist). 

The seminar, in the form of intensive 

workshops rather than a formal series 

of lectures, gave the participants an 

opportunity to contribute directly to 

high-level discussions which always 

resulted in very creative solutions. 

A broad spectrum of issues was covered 

in the three days, ranging from the 

fundamental elements of journalism to 

ethical questions which a journalist 

rarely has the chance to consider in his 

daily routine. The debates involved 

experts from DR, ZDF, RTE, Radio 

Netherlands, SR, Swiss Radio 

International, the Tilburg Academy of 

Journalism, TV Consulting and 

Training, and of course the EBU, with 

Tony Naets, EBU’s head of news, 

chairing the sessions. 

Ethics 

One area which had a particularly 

strong impact on the participants was 

the difference in approaches to 

reporting. This showed them what it 

is possible to do, the fact that there are 

many different reporting styles, and 

that even professional, and experienced 

organizations can make mistakes. 

The seminar revealed not only the 

strong interest in new technologies but 

also the fact that what is often lacking 

is a clear editorial line – a journalistic 

context for the development of these 

new techno-logies. According to Eric 

May of TV Consulting and Training: 

“All too often, good production 

methods or the latest technology 

disguise the fact that no moral code is 

being applied.” 

Discussions focused on the difficulties 

faced by journalists, from the simplest 



ation 

FORMATION 

to the most complex issues. For 

example, sources: whether or not 

these should be corroborated or 

divulged, the risk associated with 

anonymous sources, and the danger 

of the journalist being manipulated. 

Other issues tackled were the 

problems of journalists working in 

isolation; working as a local 

correspondent; combined television 

and radio journalism; the new 

profession of Internet journalist, and 

how to cover an international event 

– or the importance of not running 

out of fuel when you are on a job and 

how vital it is to have accreditation. 

Lively debate 

The seminar was a lively affair, 

alternating between question-andanswer 

sessions and practical 

workshops e.g. an exercise on the 

coverage of an IMF summit: was it 

necessary to attend? If yes, why and 

what should be covered? 

During the seminar, the most active 

participants made the most of the 

open discussions, coffee breaks, 

lunches and dinners to exchange 

viewpoints and experience on these 

fundamental issues and on professional 

matters in general. From the 

replies to the questionnaire and the 

reactions of the trainers it is clear that 


EBU Training Seminar 

this opportunity was much appreciated 

by all those involved. 

This is the second training seminar 

organized for journalists, one of the 

EBU Training Unit’s target groups. 

After each seminar, possible future 

themes are examined carefullyon the 

basis of feedback from speakers and 

participants. These seminars have 

highlighted the importance of 

creating a network of journalists 

among EBU members as well as the 

need to obtain a better profile of the 

participants beforehand. 

Your opinion on this seminar 

Excellent Very good Good Average 

24% 48% 26% 2% 

Has the seminar live up to your expectations? 

Yes, totally On the whole,yes Fair 

18% 50% 22% 

Jens Linde (DR), one of the speakers 

Will it help you on your work? 

Yes, totally On the whole,yes Fair Not really 

24% 44% 20% 1% 

The seminar was held at the International Centre for Journalistic Studies in 

Opatija, with the support of the Council of Europe and HRT. (HRT did an 

excellent job, and our thanks go to Kresimir Macan from HRT’s external 

relations department). 

Countries represented 

Romania, Macedonia (FYR), Czech Republic, Croatia, Algeria, Turkey, Libya, 

Bulgaria, Poland, Latvia, Hungary, Austria, Russia, Estonia, Slovenia, Ireland, 

France, Slovakia, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Yugoslavia (Kosovo). 

55

Patrick Jaquin: What are the 

strong points of this year’s 

Golden Prague? 

Jiri Pilka: 

There are several. We want to show 

to broadcasters (directors, artists, 

producers, cameramen) productions 

made by other companies. People can 

come to Prague and for four days 

they can view many programmes 

from lots of different producers. 

Some of the visitors will buy these 

programmes later, some of them are 

looking for new, good directors or 

cameramen. This is one reason why 

contact between people is very 

important. We may have wonderful 

technology but human contact is the 

most important thing: sometimes 

you are looking for a partner and 

your partner must be like your 

brother. This is a little bit idealistic 

but it is important to have good 

partners both on a personal and a 

professional level. Many people 

come to view the productions and 

also to make contact not only with 

artists and producers but also 

businessmen. 

Golden Prague is also important 

because it promotes serious music 

ventures which are minority 

programmes on TV and which have 

a difficult position in nearly all 

countries. 

But I like to think that serious music 

programmes on TV can be compared 

to vitamins. You only need small 

amounts but it is essential to have 

them. We have therefore set up 

seminars and workshops in 

collaboration with the EBU’s Music 

and Dance Group. For example, there 

is one tomorrow with the title “Music 

on Television in 2005. What does the 

future hold?” Amongst subjects 

discussed are problems, new 

technology, the Internet, and the ways 

to face these issues over the next five 

years. 

PJ: What is Golden Prague to 

you? Is it more an exhibition or a 

market? What is the most 

important part of this festival? 

JP: It’s more an exhibition. The 

market comes second. We are not a 

special-ized market, we only provide 

an entry into the marketplace. For 

example, a producer from Munich 

saw a very modern opera produced 

by Arte and said, “Yes, I will put it in 

my catalogue, I will try to sell it all 

over the world.” So the first step is 

made here: the recognition of a good 

programme. Many contacts such as 

this are made here but not many 

contracts are drawn up. 

PJ: Is the fact that the festival is 

open to the public a plus point? 

JP: Yes it is. The festival is an 

opportunity to show the public what 

is produced around the world for TV. 

In four or five days the public can see 

programmes that they would not 

normally have the chance to view. For 

example, young dancers can see 

extraordinary programmes from all 

over the world with superb 

choreography. In four days people see 

what is happening elsewhere in the 

world, from China, Japan, Pakistan 

and the USA to Europe, Scandinavia 

– everybody is here. 

PJ: How many countries and TV 

companies are here? 

JP: We have 53 producers from 28 

countries, so it’s quite a large representation. 

We are starting to have 

the Far East and the Orient attending 

the festival. These countries show 

only one or two programmes, but all 

of Europe is here and of course, the 

USA. South America is not yet here, 

which is a pity. During the next six 

months Czech TV will broadcast 

every programme that has received 

a prize. 

PJ: You said that these type of 

programmes – cultural 

programmes – are like vitamins 

for TV. Do you believe in the 

future of programmes like dance 

and music on television? 



FESTIVALS 

Golden 

Interview: Jiri Pilka 

Director, Golden Prague Festival


PragueFESTIVALS 

JP: I personally think that they are 

really very important. The situation 

is very complicated and many of our 

partners wonder how they can survive 

next year. Of course, it is a very 

complicated situation and ‘popular’ 

programmes are in the majority. But 

from time to time not only old people 

but also young people discover that 

there are beautiful pieces of serious 

music that can express wonderful 

questions and problems. In the 

coming years people will need new 

ideas, new emotions, a little idealism. 

PJ: Do you think that commercial 

TV can make these kinds of 

programmes? 

JP: We are one of the festivals that is 

open to all – unlike certain festivals 


such as Prix Italia, which is only for 

public TV. Golden Prague is organized 

by Czech TV, which also finances it 

heavily. We show programmes from 

both public and private companies. 

This combination of private, 

commercial production and public 

TV is very important for the future. 

It is a pity that commercial TVs 

produce very few programmes and, 

unlike public service broadcasters, are 

not obliged by law to cater for 

minorities. 

PJ: How do you see the year 

2005? 

JP: I’m not a prophet, but I believe 

that there will be a lot of new 

technological developments, and that 

technology such as the Internet will 

create new opportunities. But in the 

end it always comes down to man and 

his feelings, and these don’t change 

much. The question remains: what 

will the content be? I am rather 

optimistic. This is an occasion for all 

of us to produce something 

interesting, modern. Some people are 

rather pessimistic and believe that TV 

will no longer exist as such, that 

everything will be private and, 

through laser technology, that 

everybody will be making their own 

programmes. But I don’t think this is 

very realistic: try doing this everyday 

– what will you do, what information 

from all your different sources will 

you choose? In the end, having good 

producers will continue to remain 

important and therefore I am very 

optimistic. 

For 2001, the EBU Music and Dance Experts Group has accepted Czech Television’s invitation and will hold its plenary 

meeting in Prague on 5–6 May; a collaboration which will bring more than 40 EBU heads of department and 

commissioning editors of music and dance programmes to the Golden Prague Festival. Several workshops are currently in 

development e.g. co-productions between eastern and western European countries and broadcasting strategy for cultural 

events. 

“On behalf of the Group, I would like to underline the importance of the Festival which not only actively encourages 

collaborations between Eastern and Western EBU members, but also during its friendly meetings lays the foundations for a 

more comprehensive music collaboration among all EBU members. The EBU looks forward to working with Czech 

Television and with Jiri Vejvoda, director of Golden Prague 2001.” 

Katharina Von Flotow, Head of Music and Documentary, EBU 

57

FESTIVALS 

350 participants, 214 entries, 

86 telecasters, 53 countries 

make this 19 th biennial 

competition a success. 

By any measure, it was a remarkable 

year for Prix Jeunesse, the 

international children’s television 

festival. In a time of proliferating 

conferences and markets, the Prix 

Jeunesse dates are written in 

permanent ink on many producers’ 

and programming executives’ 

calendars. In large part, that’s due to 

the festival’s core elements. The 

opportunity to screen dozens of 

programmes from around the world, 

and to debate their strengths and 

weaknesses in a thoughtful, critical 

and constructive environment, is like 

visiting a brain spa. Every Prix 

Jeunesse participant takes home in his 

memory a unique portfolio of ideas 

and inspirations drawn from the 

outstanding, innovative, and 

sometimes even failed entries shown 

in Munich. The general consensus at 

the 2000 festival was that programme 

quality was strong and innovation on 

the rise; frequently mentioned were 



Prix Jeu 

David W. Kleeman 

Executive Director, American Center for Children and Media 

unique approaches to youth-made 

videos, exciting new animation forms, 

and unusual twists in children’s 

drama. 

There’s another explanation for 

Munich’s stature as the world capital 

of children’s TV for a week every 

other year. Prix Jeunesse has 

extended its geographic and 

technological reach, without losing its 

sharp focus on high-quality, culturally 

appropriate content. 

Step into my web 

Since 1996, Prix Jeunesse Secretary 

General Ursula von Zallinger has 

commissioned a seminar during the 

competition week on the growing role 

of new media in children’s lives. 

Mindful of the festival’s expertise and 

mission, von Zallinger has been 

careful to focus on fostering creative 

collaboration and emphasizing


Ursula Von Zallinger and Steffen Seibert (ZDF) at the award ceremony of Prix Jeunesse. Prize-winners 

common goals between TV and new 

media. 

The revolutionary pace of change in 

the industry is reflected in the fact that 

the first seminar – just four years ago 

– focused entirely on CD-ROM 

software. The Internet was mentioned 

only in passing. By contrast, for the 

first festival of the new millennium Prix 

Jeunesse sponsored its first-ever Web 

Prize competition. 

Telecasters were invited to enter one 

website linked to a specific children’s 

programme (i.e. not their broad 

channel site), with the prize going to 

the one that best supported and 

enhanced its television counterpart. 

The Web Prize criteria mirrored the 

TV contest’s evaluation of idea, 

script, realization and target 

audience, but were adapted to reflect 

the Internet’s unique possibilities, 

such as quality of interactivity, ease 

nesse 

extends its reach 


of interface and frequency of 

updates. 

The 19 Web Prize entries were 

reviewed and discussed online by a 

pre-selection jury of experts from 

South Africa, Germany, Singapore, 

the US and Chile. Their top five sites 

were referred to jurors from 

Singapore, the US and Norway who 

conversed online, then met in Munich 

to choose a winner after considering 

comments from Prix Jeunesse 

participants, who could review the 

nominated sites throughout the 

festival. 

Winners 

In a close competition, the winner was 

Zoom from the US (www.pbskids.org/ 

zoom). The television programme is 

built around games, jokes, recipes, 

drawings and more sent in by viewers, 

and the website both gathers ideas 

FESTIVALS 

from children (the one-millionth 

submission arrived recently) and lets 

young people seek ideas to do at 

home. 

Runners-up were In The Mix, US 

(www.inthemix.org), Die Sendung 

Mit der Maus, Germany (www. 

wdrmaus.de), Teletubbies, UK 

(www.bbc.co.uk/teletubbies), and 

Willem Wever, Netherlands (www. 

willemwever.nl). 

“The Web Prize was a way to think 

about how our 35 years of 

experience defining excellence in 

children’s TV can contribute to 

building high-quality online 

experiences for kids,” notes von 

Zallinger, “It also prepares Prix 

Jeunesse – and our participants – for 

the growing convergence of TV and 

the Internet.” 

59

FESTIVALS 

At a seminar on the festival’s last day, 

the Web Prize jurors reported on the 

finalists’ strengths, weaknesses, 

opportunities and needs. Jury Chair 

Carla Seal-Wanner from the US 

coined the phrase “high tech with 

high touch” to describe sites that use 

substantial technology but don’t let 

it get in the way of a personal 

connection with kids. 

The jury also discussed age targeting, 

a debate that runs throughout the TV 

competition. There, the question is 

often raised whether a programme is 

‘for’ children or ‘about’ children. The 

web, by contrast, offers the 

opportunity to serve multiple 

audiences from one site, providing 

compelling and appropriate content 

for children and for parents or 

educators. 

Older youth, especially, consider 

community-building via the Internet 

to be very important. The In the Mix 

site provided focused, thoughtful 

opportunities for teens to interact. 

Willem Wever offered powerful tools 

for creativity and self-expression, 

enabling young people to build and 

share their own websites. 

For now, the jurors saw these 

communities as the principal form of 

convergence: TV/Internet connections 

made not by the technology 

but by the users. Projecting ahead, 

the jurors expect to see more cases of 

similar content and activities existing 

in both media and playing off one 

another. 

The jury also predicted that future 

sites would more often connect 

children across cultures. One model 

was demonstrated at the seminar. 

Passport Kids (www.passportkids. 

com), a joint project of Sesame 

Workshop and Intel that is not linked 

The First Snow of Winter, (BBC/United-Kingdom), Prix Jeunesse 2000. Up to 6/Fiction 

to a television programme, enables 

young people worldwide to create 

pages about themselves from prescripted 

content. Not only does this 

guarantee that the site won’t include 

inappropriate information, it enables 

the children’s profiles to be 

translated into multiple languages 

with correct idiom. So, a Chinese 

child can seek similar (or different!) 

children worldwide, and read about 

them in Mandarin. 

Regional initiatives 

Also unique to Prix Jeunesse 2000 

was a two-day pre-festival 

conference with organizers of 

initiatives (whose launch or growth 

was assisted by Prix Jeunesse) that 

meet unique needs and employ 

unique resources primarily in Africa, 

Asia and Latin America. Where the 

festival’s focus is on individual 

programmes, these projects improve 




the broader professional environment 

for creating culture-specific 

children’s television. Opening the 

conference, Ursula von Zallinger 

said: “Creating partnerships, coproductions 

and exchanges, this is 

what is needed for preserving quality 

in children’s television all over the 

world.” 

In Asia, where few broadcasters have 

specific children’s programming 

departments, professional training is 

essential. Representatives of the Asia- 

Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) 

reported on the growth of their item 

exchange for children’s magazine 

programmes, modelled after the EBU 

Saarbrücken Exchange. The exchange 

is a cost-effective source of content, 

but it also serves as a producer 

training ground. Prix Jeunesse has 

helped link the ABU and EBU 

exchanges, so items are now traded 

across as well as within regions. These 


Prix Jeunesse Winners 2000 

Up to 6/Fiction – The First Snow of Winter (BBC/UK) 

Up to 6/Non-Fiction – Blue’s Clues (Nickelodeon/USA) 

6 to 11/ Fiction – The Daltons (NOS/VPRO/Netherlands) 

6 to 11/Non-Fiction – Spot Light (VRT/Belgium) 

11 to 15/Fiction – Microsoap (BBC/UK) 

11 to15/Non-Fiction – Sale (SVT/Sweden) 

Light Entertainment – My Sister’s World (NRK/Norway) 

Web Prize – Zoom (WGBH and PBS/USA) 

Children’s Jury Prizes – Big Treasure Chest for Future Kids: Tibet (TCV Cable 

Network/India); The Secret of Kineret (Keshet Television/Israel) 

UNICEF – Off Limits: Strong Language (Channel Four/UK) 

UNESCO – White Cap (Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina) 

BMW Prize – Tuli (Namibian Broadcasting Company) 

successes prompted the Union of 

National Radio and Television 

Organizations of Africa (URTNA) – 

the African states’ broadcasting union 

– to seek guidance from ABU, EBU 

and Prix Jeunesse on establishing an 

African exchange. 

In Africa, where production facilities 

and funds are extremely scarce, Prix 

Jeunesse secured funding from BMW 

for Pen Pals, a pan-African coproduction 

creating realistic, 

affirming images of and for African 

children. Each programme takes the 

form of a diary that reveals one child’s 

culture and rituals. Five episodes are 

completed, with a sixth nearly done 

– two each from South Africa, Nigeria 

and Kenya. Discussions are underway 

to add more countries. The programmes 

are intended primarily for 

Africa, but may be acquired 

elsewhere. 

Contacts 

FESTIVALS 

In Latin America, where commercial 

broadcasters and state-owned 

channels predominate, it has been 

difficult to identify dedicated 

children’s producers. Prix Jeunesse is 

helping to launch sub-regional centres 

or foundations to connect professionals 

and provide a meeting point 

for planning co-ventures. The centre 

may launch a Latin American 

competition similar to the worldwide 

festival. 

A detailed conference report is available from Prix Jeunesse 

(info@prixjeunesse.de). 

The 20th Prix Jeunesse will take place on 5–11 June 2002. Updates on the next 

festival and other international children’s media conferences and projects are 

available on the festival’s website: www.prixjeunesse.de 

David Kleeman: dkleeman@mcs.com 

61

Kids’n 


Pauline Hubert 

Former head, Youth and Education Service, RTBF 

Member, Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) 

Two French-speaking 

television channels have 

launched news bulletins for 

children. 

In so doing, RTBF and France 3 have 

joined the ranks of BBC, RAI, ZDF 

and SVT. Supported by its news service 

and in cooperation with the television 

channels of Belgium’s French-speaking 

community, RTBF launched its daily 

news round-ups for eight to twelveyear-olds, 

Les NIOUZZ, in March 

1999. Meanwhile, France 3 began 

broadcasting its daily news bulletin, A 

TOI L’ACTU@, for children aged 

between six and ten, on 4 September 

2000. The programme makes use of 

news coverage from France 3’s 

national newsroom, 24 regional desks, 

a European and video news desk and 

the picture agency of the France 3 

network. 

Sign of the times? 

Are these news programmes a bid by 

the channels to offer children more 

interactive television, using new 

technology such as the Internet? Or 

do they represent a change in attitudes 

in response to the topical question: 

“Should television offer children a 

more comprehensible version of 

current affairs?” 

This question has cropped up time 

and again in discussions among 

professionals over the last 30 years. 

The public service has already 

addressed the issue on many oc- 



ews 

CHILDREN 

casions, in particular during EBU 

workshops and seminars 1 and in the 

course of specialized sessions 

organized by the Prix Jeunesse 

(children’s programming festival) in 

Munich.Halloran, a British researcher, 

reported the results of a 

1970 study of Danish children which 

established that they did not 

understand news and current affairs 

as presented in news programmes for 

adults. If children do not grasp the 

message they do not learn anything, 

however motivated they may be. Yet 

they need information because 

without it they cannot develop 2 . At 

the time, despite the results of this 

research, opinions were far from 

unanimous and there are undoubtedly 

still fierce opponents of this view, 

even if the present situation aids our 

understanding of the issue. 

Eleven channels, all EBU members, 

among them RTBF and France 3, 

have therefore been experimenting in 

this area and some of them for a long 

time now. Between them they offer 

various types of children’s news 

programmes across Europe. 


Although not all of them attempt to 

answer the question posed above, 

they are nonetheless aware of the 

issue. Depending on the channel, 

different formats are offered, for 

example a weekly magazine dealing 

with subjects familiar to children: 

animals, the environment, traditions, 

culture, sport, etc. This format 

enables members to take items from 

news exchanges, reducing production 

costs, and aims to broaden 

children’s horizons. Some, such as 

the BBC, favour the idea of a daily 

children’s news bulletin dealing 

mainly with international subjects or 

general news. Others discuss the 

latest topical issues and have no 

qualms about covering domestic 

politics. This is the format chosen by 

RTBF and France 3, with both 

channels prepared to face all the 

problems created by this approach. 

Les Niouzz 

There has already been a great deal 

of discussion about Les Niouzz. 

Created amid difficulties of all kinds, 

this news programme has given rise 

1) “Les programmes d’information à la Télévision pour les enfants de 7 à 12 ans”, 1976, Remscheid. 

to enthusiasm and disappointment, 

but despite having to overcome a 

number of teething problems, its 

producers have not lost faith. It 

encourages children to respond, to 

interact by sending in letters and 

drawings, and to express their 

viewpoints and ideas. 

Les Niouzz was born out of initiatives 

developed in Belgium’s Frenchspeaking 

community by the Media 

Education Committee and supported 

by strong political pressure. The 

public authorities, convinced of the 

need to provide children with an 

image of the world which is as close 

as possible to reality, and aware that 

there were good grounds for doing 

so, invited the channel’s executive 

directors to create a programme to 

meet these demands. 

à toi l’actu@ 

The story of France 3’s news 

programme is slightly different, even 

if in France the CLEMI 3 is pursuing 

the same aims as Belgium’s Media 

Education Committee. 

2) Pauline Hubert, ‘La télévision pour enfants’, Collection univers des sciences humaine (Ed. A. De Boeck, 1981), p.61 

3) Centre for Liaison between Teaching and Information Media 

63

France 3’s objective, which is very 

similar to that of RTBF, is to cover 

breaking news, to provide the keys to 

understanding and to choose subjects 

of interest to children while offering 

them the chance to discover the world 

and its institutions. 

Here too, children must be able to 

get involved, to shape the programme 

to suit their needs and to interact 

by sending letters, faxes or e-mails. 

The programme has also been put on 

the Internet to allow genuine 

interactivity. 

Obviously it takes time to go from 

planning a project to launching it and 

finally achieving results, but are we 

being too optimistic in thinking that 

the tide is turning in favour of this 

type of programme and if so, why? 

Or is it that circumstances are simply 

more favourable now? 

We have always known that the 

broadcasting media plunges children 

into a whirlpool of confusing 

information and emotions from a very 

early age. What is worse is that more 

often than not, this information is not 

suitable for their young minds. 

Coupled with this fact is the 

unfortunate awareness at present that 

children between the ages of six and 

thirteen in urban environments are 

spending increasing amounts of time 

unsupervised, tempting us to put the 

blame on current educational 

practices 4 . This problem is 

compounded by the growing number 

of television channels and the capacity 

to receive theme channels which are 

unconcerned as to whether their 

subjects are easily understandable and 

therefore exclude a section of the 

public. 

In addition, we are used to watching 

fast-paced series, with lots of action, 

special effects, invincible heroes, 

artificial values and a variety of 

atrocities. Fiction programmes are 

designed to resemble reality, while 

reality itself is often hard to 

distinguish from fiction. 

The media, which are increasingly 

becoming a part of our social 

environment, are also an important 

element of youth culture and play a 

major role in forming a child’s 

attitude towards society and the 

world around him 5 . Given the extent 

to which the physical and the psyche 

are linked, would it not be expedient 




to help children to decode this 

excessive information load, digest the 

many different visual stimuli, diversify 

their access to information and teach 

them to analyze it and put it into 

perspective? 

Obviously this should not be done 

through disinformation or by 

attributing responsibility for this 

exclusively to parents and schools. 

The media themselves can un- 


doubtedly contribute – the question 

is: how? 

We are well aware that television 

cannot fulfil all the roles assigned to 

it: to entertain; educate; inform; 

interest; provide a source of role 

models to look up to; act as an alter 

ego for the frustrated; be a ‘nanny’ 

for children with busy parents; 

provide social contact for those who 

live in isolation; act as a catalyst for 

the expression of aggression, etc. It 

cannot possibly attempt to do all this 

and succeed. 

Yet we do not have to go that far. Is it 

not simply time for us to help children 

to understand the various media, to 

distance themselves, and to consider 

events with a critical mind? 

Would it not be an idea to design a 

television programme which is not 

only interesting but also encourages 

the child to think, to form opinions 

on social issues, to be an active 

spectator, and to contribute to the 

world of media communication? 

If schools keep children virtually 

ignorant of political reality, and if 

television offers them only an inane 

artificial world which has no relation 

to their daily life and does not enable 

them to achieve their growth 

potential, then both these institutions 

are essentially holding children back 

in a crucial period of development. 

It is clear that children’s development 

is linked to their environment and 

that television is an important part of 

this. If television can play a more 

important educational and social role 

for children for example by providing 

4) Laurent Ott, Les enfants seuls – Approche éducative (Edition Dunod, 2000) 

5) L’éducation à l’audiovisuel et aux médias, Dossier de synthèse, 1996, Communauté française de Belgique. 

6) Thierry Desmedt, Unité de recherche en médiations des savoirs, UCL, Interview for La Libre Belgique by Jean-Claude Matgen, (June 

2000) 

CHILDREN 

news programmes which they can 

understand for example, it will help 

them become useful members of 

society. 

This requires journalists to be more 

explicit, to refer to ideas that children 

understand, to use a simpler vocabulary 

and to choose pictures which 

clearly illustrate what is being 

discussed 6 . In short, television must 

be more of a teacher. 

The challenge 

We must ensure that children are not 

isolated or manipulated, but that, 

instead, they are allowed to acquire 

knowledge and to become responsible 

citizens. On the other 

hand, the existence of a children’s 

television news bulletin, for 

example, must not lead to adult 

news producers ignoring children 

on the pretext that that they are 

unable to understand current affairs. 

In a genuine, pluralist democracy 

which is open to other cultures, 

news must be understood by 

everyone, and no groups should be 

excluded. 

This debate is set to continue for some 

time. However, we have a feeling that 

the TV viewers of tomorrow, 

educated differently, will be more 

active, more independent and more 

discerning with regard to the media. 

They will be in a better position to 

extract a maximum amount of news 

based on a personal view of a media 

document, by using broadcast news 

intelligently. 

65

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

31 

CALENDAR 

October 

GENEVA 2–3 

LIMASSOL 12–13 

BUDAPEST 

16–17 

LISBON 

18–21 

GENEVA 

19 

GENEVA 

16 

GENEVA 25–26 

PASADENA 

18–21 

November 

GENEVA 6–7 

ROME 9–10 

NEW YORK 16–17 

TALLINN 

20–21 

GENEVA 

20 

GENEVA 

21–22 

AMSTERDAM 25 

GENEVA 30–1/12 

December 

BASLE 2–5 


January 

GRONINGEN 5 

GENEVA 18 

CANNES 21–25 

BRUSSELS 30–31 

February 

March 

66 


METZ 

6–7 

METZ 

7–8 

BRATISLAVA 1–3 

GENEVA 26 

LJUBLJANA 29–30 



October NOTES 

GENEVA 2–3 

B/Broadcasting Multimedia on the Web 

LIMASSOL 12–13 

91st Ordinary Session of the Legal Committee 

GENEVA 16 

Meeting of International Broadcasting Group 

BUDAPEST 16–17 

EBU Training Plenary Meeting 

LISBON 18–21 

International Rostrum of Young Performers, Finals 

PASADENA 18–21 

142nd SMPTE Technical Conference and Exhibition 

GENEVA 19 

23rd Meeting of the Television Committee 

GENEVA 25-26 

18th Meeting of the EBU Technical Committee 

November 

GENEVA 6–7 

Seminar on Radio Orchestras 

ROME 9–10 

Training Seminar: Marketing & Public Service 

NEW YORK 16–17 

5th United Nations World Television Forum 

GENEVA 20 

10th Meeting of Radio Sports Programme Group 

TALLINN 20–21 

Training Seminar: Digital Broadcasting 


Forecast 2000 – the BMC Annual Specialized Meeting 

2nd Meeting of Radio Sports Specialized Group 

AMSTERDAM 25 

Documentary Bureau Meeting 

GENEVA 30–1/12 

107th Meeting of the Administrative Council 

December 

BASLE 2–5 

38th EBU International Seminar on School and Adult TV, 

Basle Educational TV Festival and Basle Prize 

GENEVA 13 

Radio News Programme Group 


4th Radio News Specialized Meeting 

January 

GRONINGEN 5 

Eurosonic 2001, the European Showcase Festival 

GENEVA 18 

24th Meeting of the Television Committee 

CANNES 21–25 

EBU Music and Dance Bureau Meeting 

BRUSSELS 30–31 

Meeting of Music Programmes Group 

February 

METZ 6–7 

Broadcast Systems Management Committee Meeting 

METZ 7–8 

EBU Management Broadcasting Research and Development Seminar 

March 

BRATISLAVA 1–3 

Youth Programming Conference 

GENEVA 26 

Euroradio Summer Festivals 

LJUBLJANA 29–30 

7th Ordinary Meeting of the Radio Assembly 


MAIN AUDIOVISUAL EVENTS 

67

NEWSBRIEFS 

Lucas takes over 

Richard Lucas, a former senior 

journalist and manager at the BBC, 

began work in Pristina in July as 

director general of Radio Television 

Kosovo. 

He succeeded Eric Lehmann, 

president of the Swiss Broadcasting 

Corporation. Lucas, 53, has worked 

in public service broadcasting for 30 

years. Since 1999 he has been a BBC 

adviser to an independent Albanianlanguage 

radio station in Kosovo and 

as BBC World Service training project 

director advising RTV Montenegro 

on an EU-funded project of 

modernisation, restructuring and 

training. 

One target for Lucas is to double the 

number of hours broadcast over the 

coming six months. 

Blue Sky Radio 

Under the new EBU mandate, Blue 

Sky Radio – a multilingual, largely 

Swiss-funded station set up in 1999 – 

has become RTK’s second radio 

channel, and both channels are 

managed by Richard Lucas. 

New Serb office 

Shortly after the arrival of Lucas, the 

European Union delivered camera 

equipment to Kosovo for the first 

regional news bureau of RTK, staffed 

by a local Serb team of three in 

Gracanica. 

It will be the first in a number of 

regional bureaux serving the different 

ethnic groups in Kosovo and 

enhancing news coverage from all 

parts of the territory. The equipment 

was funded by the European Agency 

for Reconstruction, in a €50,000 

project which will also equip a news 

bureau in northern Mitrovica. The 

equipment was handed over by EU 

Budget Commissioner Michaela 

Schreyer. 

RTPI and RDP on AsiaSat 2 

Eurovision, Italian 

football, Asia 

The EBU has signed a contract to 

deliver TV coverage of Italian 

national league football matches to 

Asia via Eurovision. 

The contract, concluded with Sport+ 

and RAITrade, covers matches of 

Italy’s Series A soccer league 

competition for two years from 

October 2000. The video feeds will 

be relayed through the Eurovision 

network to Asia on the capacity leased 

by the EBU on AsiaSat 2. 

“This contract is a sign of confidence 

in the EBU’s ability to reach beyond 

Europe into other parts of the world,” 

says Henri Perez, Director of 

Operations at the EBU. “This is the 

first major football league contract the 

EBU has been awarded for Asia, and 

more will follow. It is also a clear 

signal that the EBU is in Asia to stay, 

offering all Asian broadcasters the 

highest quality video contributions 

that have made the EBU’s reputation.” 

Radiotelevisão Portuguesa International (RTPi) and Radiodifusão Portuguesa 

(RDP) are new partners in the European Bouquet on AsiaSat 2. 

Starting from 22 January 2000, RTPi and RDP will transmit their Portuguese TV 

and two radio programmes in digital quality via Deutsche Welle’s transponder 

on AsiaSat 2. RTPi and RDP have been on AsiaSat2 for five years, but only with 

analogue signals. 

The European Bouquet is intended to help TV viewers and rebroadcasting 

organizations such as cable operators, hotels and local stations by supplying a 

package of unscrambled transnational quality programs from the same 

transponder, using the same technology. The group consists of top European 

television and radio broadcasters sharing one transponder (10B) on AsiaSat 2.

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