Europa TV

Europa TV

Country	West Germany Ireland Italy Netherlands Portugal
Broadcast area	Europe
Stations	ARD RTÉ RAI NOS RTP
Transmitters	ECS-1 satellite; cable; terrestrial network (Portugal)
Programming
Language(s)	English Dutch German Portuguese
Picture format	4:3 PAL
Ownership
Owner	Consortium (ARD, RTÉ, RAI, NOS and RTP)
History
Launched	5 October 1985; 39 years ago (1985-10-05)
Closed	29 November 1986; 37 years ago (1986-11-29)

Europa TV was a consortium of five European public service broadcasters from West Germany (ARD), Ireland (RTÉ), Italy (RAI), the Netherlands (NOS) and Portugal (RTP).^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

History

Development

Europa TV aspired to be pan-European not only with regard to its geographical reach but also its programming content.^[3] It came after the Eurikon experiment in 1982,^[3][6][7] that consisted on the production of an experimental television service which over a period of five weeks,^[8] was distributed in closed-circuit format.

The channel was financed through contributions from the Dutch government, the European Commission, the participating broadcast organizations and through advertising revenues^[6] within its initial three-year budget was 30 million ECUs. Europa TV studios were located in Hilversum in the Netherlands, and Klaas Jan Hindriks [nl] was appointed as general manager.^[6]

Operation

Europa TV started its transmissions on 5 October 1985^[9][3] and initially only available in the Netherlands,^[10] which expanded its reach to 4.5 million households across Europe via ESA and Eutelsat's ECS-1 satellite. This included access to 1.5 million households in Portugal where it was transmitted terrestrially on RTP2 (in other countries the signal was also distributed by cable).^[11][12]

To overcome language barriers, Europa TV transmitted on several sound channels within facilities for simultaneous translation (in English, Dutch, German and Portuguese) enabled audiences to receive the channel in their native tongue.^[3] In addition, subtitling in different languages was provided through teletext.

All of the co-operating broadcasters sent in their programmes to Europa TV, but some were produced especially for the channel.^[3] These included weather forecasts (covering EEC countries such as Norway, Sweden and Finland but excluding East Germany), current affairs (ex: Worldwatch) and music programmes (ex: Countdown, presented by Adam Curry).^[3][6]

Closure

On 29 November 1986, it was forced to cease operations having already exhausted its initial three-year budget.^{[13][2][9][3][14][15]}

Preservation

The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision started ongoing preservation efforts of Europa TV broadcasts on 29 August 2018,^[3] recovering recordings from about 300 VHS tapes from their archives, 400 Betamax tapes from RTP and documents from RTÉ, RAI and Klaas Jan Hindriks.^[6][16]

See also

• List of European television stations
• International broadcasting
• Arte
• BBC TV Europe
• Euronews
• Eurosport
• Music Box
• NBC Europe (formerly Super Channel)
• Screensport
• Sky Television

References

1. "STATEMENT BY MR CARLO RIPA DI MEANA ON EUROPA-TV". European Commission. 27 November 1986.
2. Theiler, Tobias (1999). "Viewers into Europeans?: How the European Union Tried to Europeanize the Audiovisual Sector, and Why it Failed". Canadian Journal of Communication. 24 (4): 1–30. doi:10.22230/cjc.1999v24n4a1126. hdl:10197/11973.
3. Smeets, Charley; Stapper, Marloes (2018-08-29). "Europa TV: The early experiment of a European channel". EUscreen. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
4. Papathanassopoulos, Stylianos (1990). "Towards European Television: The Case of Europa-TV". Media Information Australia. 56 (1): 57–63. doi:10.1177/1329878X9005600115. ISSN 0312-9616. S2CID 155441979.
5. Sandoz, Marie (October 2018). "Europa TV, 1985: Les essais précoces d'une télévision européenne". Au-delà du service public (in French). Retrieved 2023-03-23.
6. Agterberg, Bas (2018-11-21). "Europa TV: the European Broadcasting Dream". EUscreen. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
7. Baisn, Olivier; Marchetti, Dominique (2010). Producing "European" News - Case of the Pan-European News Channel Euronews (PDF). University of Delhi. p. 4.
8. "Europa TV". telenostalgie.de - Fernsehen von gestern …. 2014-03-13. Archived from the original on 2014-03-13. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
9. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Last transmission EUROPA-TV (29 november 1986). YouTube.
10. Union (EBU), European Broadcasting (2012-07-11). "Tributes flow following the loss of former EBU Vice-President". www.ebu.ch. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
11. "Europa TV • RTP2 • 05/05/1986" – via www.youtube.com.
12. "Time travel - RTP Virtual Museum". museu.rtp.pt. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
13. "EUROPA TV FALLS VICTIM TO DEBT, INSUFFICIENT ADS". Los Angeles Times. 1986.
14. Collins, Richard (2005-08-10). From Satellite to Single Market: New Communication Technology and European Public Service Television. Routledge. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-134-68128-0.
15. "Echec d'Europa TV - Sénat". www.senat.fr. 1987. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
16. "Saskia Cluistra awarded Media Studies Grant from FIAT/IFTA". Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. Retrieved 2023-03-23.