At 50, the EBU Looks Back at Its Accomplishments.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is the largest professional association of national broadcasters in the world. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and representing members in the European arena, the EBU negotiates broadcasting rights for sporting events, operates the Eurovision and Euroradio networks, organizes program exchanges, stimulates and coordinates co-productions and offers a full range of other operational, commercial, technical, legal and strategic services. At its offices in Brussels, the EBU represents the interests of public-service broadcasters before the European Union.

The EBU was founded in February 1950 by radio and television pioneers throughout Western Europe. It merged with the OIRT -- the former union of Eastern European broadcasters -- in 1993. Apart from its active members in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, the Union has 48 associate members in 30 countries. On a global level, the EBU collaborates with sister unions on other continents, including the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the North American Broadcasters' Association (NABA), the Union of National Radio & Television Organizations of Africa (URTNA), the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) and the Organizacion de la Television Iberoamericana (OTI).

The Eurovision permanent network (broadcasting up to 30 digital channels on a Eutelsat satellite) carries exchanges of news and programs. Every day, a dozen multi-item exchanges provide material for national news bulletins. Around 25,000 news items and 7,700 hours of sports and cultural programs are transmitted. The individual TV station's coverage (for both members and non-members) are also channelled via the Eurovision network. In 1999, more than 100,000 transmissions were routed by the EBU's operational staff

Television cooperation is also important in other areas ranging from educational programs, documentaries and co-productions of animation series to competitions for musicians, directors and screenwriters, including traditional light entertainment such as the Eurovision Song Contest and Juex Sans Fronti[grave{e}]res. Music Bank -- a library of European music productions -- is entering its pilot phase.

Radio co-operation is a multifaceted activity: incorporating music, news, sports, educational fare, youth programs and traffic and travel information. In 1998, the EBU launched the first inter-broadcaster European music channel playing only classical music (Euroclassic-Notturno).

Currently the EBU aims to become a major player in popular contemporary music. The new Eurosonic unit is developing partnerships with artists and record labels and acquiring broadcast rights to major rock festivals.

Cooperation in the technical sphere is one of the EBU's most preeminent activities. The Union is in the forefront of research and development of new broadcast media and has led or contributed to the development of many new radio and TV systems and standards: Radio Data System (RDS), Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Digital Television (DVB) and High-Definition Television (HDTV).

In addition, one of the EBU's essential tasks is to help members meet public-service commitments through political and legal support. The EBU actively defend members' interests to international organizations (particularly the European Union and the Council of Europe), by offering legal counsel and by analyzing potential developments in broadcasting.