EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 33/134

(2004/C 33 E/133)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1573/03

by Phillip Whitehead (PSE) to the Commission

(8 May 2003)

Subject: ‘Europe by Satellite’ and television coverage of the work of the European Institutions

Recognising the important contribution that television coverage of European affairs can make to popular understanding of the EU institutions, would the Commission make public the statistics and information regarding ‘Europe by Satellite’ for the last three years, namely:

1. total hours transmitted and language versions available;

2. proportions of coverage relating to the European Parliament, European Commission, Council of Ministers and the European Council;

3. hours take-up for rebroadcasting by commercial and public services TV stations in wider Europe, country by country?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(2 June 2003)

The Commission is pleased to inform the Honourable Member that the information requested has already been forwarded to Parliament's Audiovisual service and will shortly be put on the Europa website.

However, for ease of reference, the Commission is pleased to attach the following extracts:

1. Total of Europe by Satellite (EbS) transmissions and language versions

EbS transmitted a total of 2 968 hours in 2000, 3 273 in 2001 and 3 077 in 2002. The lower figure in 2002 is due to the discontinuation of the retransmission of the day's press conferences, because this service was taken over by the ‘Video on Demand’ facility on EbS's website, where all EbS material remains available for one week after transmission.

All live transmissions are available in up to 11 official languages, depending on how many audio channels the respective institutions can offer (Parliament offers 12 audio channels — 1 for the original and 11 for the interpretation into the official Union languages — the Commission 10 and the Council 4). Parliament and the Commission plan to offer live coverage of events in up to 25 languages in 2004.

2. Breakdown by Union institution of EbS news summaries and full coverage

Origin of ‘news’ material and of full coverage of events (hours) 2000 % 2001 % 2002 % European Commission 976 50,90 1222 51,88 544 34,73 European Parliament 545 28,45 623 26,45 459 29,31 Council 365 19,05 445 18,90 284 18,13 Others 30 1,60 65 2,77 279 17,83 Total 1 916 100 2 355 100 1 566 100

3. Take-up of EbS material by TV stations

For the past three years there has been no system available permanently to monitor the take-up by TV stations of pictures transmitted by EbS. However, two experimental technologies were tested in 2000 (watermarking) and 2003 (picture matching), with a view to launching a call for tender for a permanent system. To illustrate this, below are extracts from the two reports:

During the second half of 2000, an independent firm named Medialink measured the use of EbS transmissions from a sample of 79 national and pan-European television stations of the 627 which use EbS regularly. 90 % of these stations each broadcast an average of 25 programmes including EbS pictures. In Germany alone, 23 international, national and regional stations such as 3Sat, Phoenix, ART), ZDF, N-TV and Bayerische Rundfunk broadcast 503 programmes including EbS pictures.

In 2003, JLM Conseil carried out a survey on the use of EbS pictures between 19 and 21 March, during the European Council. JLM's report shows that a sample of 12 television stations from Denmark, Spain and France, plus two cross-border stations, broadcast 153 news items in three days, 76 % of which contained EbS pictures. The pictures took up almost half (49,4 %) of the total broadcasting time.

The above reports are available on request and will shortly be published on the website (1).

(1) The 2002 figures are lower because the statistics for the previous two years included the retransmission of ‘news’ summaries and of the full (live or recorded) coverage of events. The figures for 2000 and 2001 without retransmissions would be about 1/3 of the ones mentioned here.