EU Channel Count Passes 6,500

STRASBOURG, October 16:
According to data from the European Audiovisual Observatory, there are more
than 6,500 TV channels available in the European Union and the candidate
countries of Croatia and Turkey.

The data comes from the
Observatory’s MAVISE database, which was set up last year and covers 29
markets. The database features information on 5068 active channels, with a
further 1,500 small local channels to be added in the future. The database
covers 381 national terrestrial services, 2,473 cable, satellite or IPTV offerings,
and 1,809 regional and local outlets.

The U.K. leads the pack
with 883 offerings, versus 300 in Germany, 284 in Italy, 252 in France and 199
in Spain. By genre, film and sport dominate, with 333 movie services, 324 for
sports, 269 for entertainment and 238 for music. Other key themes include news
and financial data (201), kids (189), documentary (135), lifestyle (110) and
home shopping (103).

—By Mansha Daswani