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Wednesday, December 31, 1997 Published at 18:38 GMT
World: Analysis
PUBLISHED AT 18:38 GMT Wednesday, December 31, 1997 :
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European viewers have access to a very diverse and dynamic
international TV news environment as the most powerful
international and local operators compete to attract audiences.
However, the TV news market is extremely volatile too as high
running costs and the difficulty of attracting large numbers of
viewers and advertising revenues make it a rather expensive
and often unattractive business.
The long-term survival of many TV news channels in Europe will thus depend to a great extent
on their links with powerful private or public groups ready to
absorb possible losses. Morand Fachot, of BBC Monitoring's
Foreign Media Unit, has more details:
In recent months TV news channels have made the headlines on
many occasions with, among other things, the introduction of
round-the-clock TV news services in Britain and Spain, plans
for the launch of a similar service in Italy later this year,
the acquisition of a 49 per cent stake in Euronews by the
British company ITN and the global merger of the US business
news giants NBC and Dow Jones.
Nowhere else is the dynamism of the international TV news
business more apparent than in Europe, where the most powerful
international and local operators compete to attract audiences.
News-hungry Europeans with access to cable or satellite
can now watch news on a number of specialized international TV
news channels as well as on their domestic channels. The
broadest choice is in English, with no less than six channels
on offer:
CNN International, the first 24-hour all-news TV channel
launched in the USA in 1980, now part of the Time Warner media
group, also provides a dedicated European news service.
According to a recent European Media and Marketing Survey, it
has a regular weekly audience of some 6m.
Euronews, the multilingual service based in France
launched in 1993, is a joint venture between public
broadcasters in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. Euronews
uses news and magazine footage provided by members of the
European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and major news agencies. It
broadcasts simultaneously to Europe in English, French, German,
Italian, Spanish and Arabic. It is the second most viewed TV
news channel in Europe after CNNI, reaching 1.1m viewers daily.
BBC World, partly financed by the media group Pearson,
can draw on the BBC's 50 news bureaux worldwide and is steadily
expanding its reach throughout Europe and the world.
Sky News, the news service of BSkyB, partly owned by
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, is widely available via cable and
satellite throughout Europe, but its audience is mostly to be
found in Britain where it claims 1m viewers daily, 10 times
more than CNNI.
Bloomberg Television, a private company originally
offering a financial news service, is trying to compete with
the more traditional channels for domestic audiences. It signed
deals with the AFP, ANSA and Efe news agencies to launch
services in French, Italian and Spanish, and is now getting
ready to launch a German service. Its trademark is an
unorthodox on-screen presentation with video footage and
presenter occupying a corner of the screen, financial and other
news taking the rest.
EBN, European Business News, launched in 1995 by Dow
Jones, the owner of the 'Wall Street Journal' has now merged
with CNBC, also available in Europe. CNBC, owned by General
Electric, is tied to Microsoft in a joint TV and internet news
venture, MSNBC.
National TV news channels such as LCI in France, NTV in
Germany, Canal 24 Horas in Spain and BBC News 24 in Britain are
also available in a number of European countries.
Access to TV news in Europe has never been easier. However, TV news is a rather volatile business for a number of reasons:
to state the obvious, it is dependent on news; no news -
or no spectacular pictures to be more precise, as TV news is
mainly picture-driven - means few viewers; this uncertainty
explains the relative lack of interest of advertisers in news
channels.
it is an expensive business, and rarely a profitable one. Viewers want news, but are not ready to pay for the service.
audiences in most countries are more interested in
domestic rather than in international news, except in cases of
war or natural or man-made disasters, hence the difficulties
faced by international channels in attracting, then retaining
viewers (and advertisers), and the greater success of domestic
news channels.
For these reasons, the survival of Europe's TV news channels will depend on their links with larger private or public groups and the long-term readiness and ability of such groups to absorb possible losses. |
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