Report: Two-Thirds of Content on European TV Screens is Local

BRUSSELS, July 28: The
European Commission has released a report indicating that 65 percent of
European broadcasters’ schedules is made up of content from within the region,
with more than 37 percent hailing from independent producers.

The report assessed the
presence of local content on schedules in 2005 and 2006. The 2006 figures show
that Polish airwaves were the most dominated by European content, at 81
percent. Of this, however, just 26 percent came from the independent sector.
Second to Poland, at 80 percent, was the Czech Republic, where 35 percent came
from indie producers. The market with the lowest percentage of made-in-Europe
content was Sweden, at 45 percent.

Germany had the highest
ratio of independent production work on air, at 65 percent. The lowest was
Cyprus with just 6.5 percent.

The statistics are from
the European Commission's eighth report on the effectiveness of E.U. rules on
the promotion of European content.

“Today's figures
demonstrate the vitality of the E.U. audiovisual industry and the equal
commitment of all E.U. member states (old and new) to cultural diversity,” said
Viviane Reding, the Information Society and Media Commissioner. “With the
application of the Television without Frontiers Directive, the E.U. and the
member states are proving their commitment to cultural diversity, which
continues to benefit from the major presence of European programming on
European TV. Of course, our audiovisual industry will need to continue its
efforts with the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive of 2007 and offer
rich and innovative European content for the take-up of new media services such
as mobile TV and video on demand, which can in turn boost European content and
culture in general.”

Reporting on gains made by
the Television without Frontiers Directive, the study notes that in the 25 E.U.
member states, the average broadcasting time for European content rose from
63.52 percent in 2005 to 65.05 percent in 2006. The average share of
independent producers’ works broadcast by all European channels in member
states increased from 36.44 percent in 2005 to 37.59 percent in 2006. This is
well above the 10 percent set by the Television without Frontiers Directive.

—By Mansha Daswani