Celebrating World TV Day 2025

Press Release
Celebrating World Television Day 2025:
“TV is Changing. Its Power Remains.”

Brussels, 21 November 2025

On November 21, TV companies worldwide will unite to celebrate World Television Day, a global reminder of television’s enduring influence as a medium for information, education, and shared experiences. Established by the United Nations, this annual occasion highlights the enduring power of TV, even as the ways we watch it continue to evolve.

egta (the international trade body of multiplatform TV and audio businesses), and ACT (the Association of Commercial Television and VoD Services in Europe), with support from the GTVG (Global TV Group), once again join forces to create a 30-second video spot, which will be broadcast on TV channels across Europe and shared widely on digital platforms and social media.

TV is Changing. Its Power Remains.

From families gathering around a single screen to witness historic moments and major sporting events, to today’s on-the-go world where news can be streamed on a smartphone during a morning commute, television has transformed into a truly multiplatform experience.

The way we watch TV has shifted. Viewers no longer rely solely on the living room set; they now have the freedom to choose how, when, and where to watch. Streaming services, on-demand viewing, catch-up TV, and subscription platforms have all redefined what “watching TV” means. The medium has expanded beyond a linear schedule into a flexible, personalized experience that fits into the pace of modern life.

Yet, despite these changes, TV’s power remains unchanged. It is still the place we turn to for trusted information in times of crisis, for shared cultural moments that unite millions, and for stories that inspire and entertain. Whether it’s live coverage of breaking news, binge-worthy series that become global phenomena, or documentaries that spark important conversations, TV retains a unique ability to shape collective memory and cultural dialogue.

In many ways, the evolution of technology has only enhanced TV’s relevance. With smart TVs, apps, and portable devices, audiences can engage with content more deeply and on their own terms, without losing the emotional impact and credibility that television has always offered. It remains a powerful medium for storytelling, one that bridges generations, adapts to new platforms, and continues to bring people together even in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.

Key messages of this year’s campaign include:

  • Adapting to modern life: Television now lives on every screen, from the largest living room displays to mobile devices and laptops, meeting viewers wherever they are, whenever they want to watch.
  • Innovation with purpose: While platforms and technology evolve, the role of TV as a source of trusted news, inspiring stories, and cultural milestones remains unchanged.
  • A trusted and reliable source: Even in our hyper-connected, content-saturated age, TV remains one of the most reliable and credible sources of information, upheld by strong editorial standards.
  • A cultural meeting ground: TV continues to unite people through shared moments, fostering conversation, understanding, and cultural experiences across diverse audiences. Teaching about the past, present, and future of our world.

Television’s power lies in its ability to connect, entertain, and educate people through stories, information, and shared experiences that transcend platforms and generations. It remains one of the few media capable of reaching mass audiences while also delivering highly targeted, meaningful content.

Whether it is through live broadcasts of major global events, documentaries that spark important conversations, or entertainment that creates cultural touchstones, TV continues to shape how we see the world and understand each other. Its relevance endures because, at its core, television is about storytelling, stories that inform, inspire, and bring people together.

“Television has always lived where emotion meets understanding, linking homes, generations, and ideas through a shared language. It changes shape with us, finding new ways to shine on every screen. When advertising respects that space, it fuels stories that educate, inspire, unite, and include. Television keeps evolving, but at heart stays the same: it helps us see one another, and ourselves, with greater clarity.” – Katty Roberfroid, Director General, egta

“Television is rooted in our economies and cultures, a leading investor in local creativity, talent, and growth. The result: trusted news that supports our democracies, and much-loved entertainment and sport that reflect our varied identities and passions. As fully accountable players, we set the benchmark for services that operate responsibly: protecting audiences, reflecting and nurturing values, creating and sustaining high-quality jobs and a plural media space. A reference point in delivering responsible innovation in a rapidly changing world.” – Grégoire Polad, Director General, ACT

“Television is no longer a screen, it’s an ecosystem. From CTV to FAST to Total TV, innovation isn’t about formats, it’s about reimagining the connection with audiences. As television evolves from linear to digital, from broadcast to Total TV, one truth remains: creativity is at the heart of the connection. The future of television isn’t just digital, it’s creative. Technology changes how we deliver stories but never why we tell them.” – Anna Lujanen, President of The Global TV Group and Executive Director of Screenforce Finland

“Television continues to evolve with every advance in technology, with its role as a trusted window to the world remaining essential. In an era of rapidly changing media habits, television has the power to unite people around facts, foster understanding, and strengthen our connection to the world we share. The power of audiovisual storytelling creates an important space for dialogue and exchange.” – Sherri Aldis, Director, United Nations regional information center for Western Europe

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Press contact:
Clément Maertens – Communication and Marketing Manager, egta – clement.maertens@egta.com

About egta:
egta is the international trade body of multiplatform TV and audio businesses. We represent more than 180 members in over 40 markets. Our members are multiplatform TV and audio businesses that sit at the intersection of traditional TV and radio and digital video and audio platforms. Multiplatform TV and audio bring together linear and on-demand services, across all screens and platforms. https://www.egta.com/

About ACT:
The Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe represents the interests of leading commercial broadcasters and their VoD services since 1989. ACT member companies finance, produce, promote and distribute content and services benefiting millions of viewers across all platforms. Website: https://www.acte.be/

About the Global TV Group:
The Global TV Group is a grouping of broadcaster and sales house trade bodies in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and Latin America, whose joint objective is to promote television and remind advertisers, journalists, agencies and industry peers about the effectiveness and popularity of TV. Website: https://www.theglobaltvgroup.com/

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GTVG’s Online Talk on how TV business impacts democracy

Advertising in the Age of Giants: Protect Your Brand, Support Democracy

This Online Talk explored how TV publishers and brands can get responsible advertising right. Our speakers discussed how the TV industry can best contribute to a safe media sphere and uphold responsible advertising.

Topics covered during the webinar:

  • Data driven insights: Showing the degree of monopolisation in digital markets and how the digital world is no longer fair and open acces
  • Data interpretation: Analyzing the negative effects on the media economy and the diminished value creation opportunities for brands
  • Local media: Deep-diving into how brands fund trustworthy media and therefore support local economies and ultimately democracy
  • Proposed solutions: Highlighting strategies to open monopolized digital markets, foster competition, and create fair digital growth opportunities for brands
  • Regulatory explanations: Learn about the over self-regualtion of the TV industry as a response to underregaulation of the tech sector
  • Best in class: Get inspired by learning how others have already made a positive impact on society with game-changing TV campaigns

Speakers:

  • Martin Andree, Professor of Media Sciences, University of Cologne
  • Christina Forsgård,

Download decks

 

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Celebrating World Television Day 2024: Highlighting Multiplatform TV’s Role in Supporting Democracy

On November 21, TV companies worldwide will unite to celebrate World Television Day, a reminder of the powerful role multiplatform TV plays in society. Established by the United Nations, this annual occasion emphasizes television as a vital medium for information, communication, and entertainment.

Each year, egta (the international trade body of multiplatform TV and audio businesses), and ACT (the Association of Commercial Television and VOD Services in Europe), with support from the GTVG (Global TV Group), join forces to produce a 30-second video spot, which will be aired across European TV channels, shared on digital platforms and social media.

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The Global TV Group supports egta’s Industry Charter outlining key priorities for the continued success of multiplatform TV

The Global TV Group (GTVG) proudly joins the World Radio Alliance and multiplatform TV and audio businesses worldwide in endorsing egta’s Industry Charter. This newly-launched charter embodies the shared ambition and collective commitments of more than 180 media companies, including over 100 multiplatform TV businesses.

This landmark document sets out a visionary roadmap for the continued success and evolution of multiplatform TV in today’s ever-changing media landscape. It focuses on the following five key priorities:

  1. Creating Quality Experiences – Ensuring exceptional content and viewer engagement
  2. Improving Measurement – Enhancing the accuracy and reliability of audience measurement
  3. Optimising Buying Processes – Streamlining and innovating how multiplatform TV is booked
  4. Proving Impact & Effectiveness – Demonstrating the value and effectiveness of TV and video advertising
  5. Promoting & Participating in Environmental & Social Governance (ESG) – Committing to sustainability and social responsibility initiatives

By supporting this charter, the GTVG aligns with egta and its members, inviting all industry partners who share these values and ambitions to join this transformative journey. Through unified efforts around these priorities, we aim to foster collaboration that drives long-term growth and sustainability for the TV and wider media industry.

Download egta Charter

 

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Global TV champions accessibility

On 21 November, TV companies around the globe celebrate World TV Day to remind us all of the power of TV. As part of the annual United Nations initiative, a 30-second spot will be broadcast on TV and shared online to mark the occasion.

The focus of the 27th edition of World TV Day is accessibility and TV’s commitment to being accessible to all. While Total TV is accessible anytime, anywhere, and on any device, it should be equally accessible to anybody, irrespective of one’s vision or hearing ability. This commitment to greater inclusion and accessibility is necessary not only for TV programming content but for TV advertising content too.

According to the World Health Organisation, almost 20% of the global population live with hearing loss and at least 29% have a near or distance vision impairment.

World Television Day represents a significant opportunity to raise awareness about social inclusion and demonstrate both TV companies’ and advertisers’ contribution / commitment to a more accessible media landscape, in which everyone has equal access to the same services, experiences, information and entertainment.

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Tomorrow’s TV created today

Gerhard Zeiler, President, WarnerMedia International, US

Transcript:

“The almost 100-year history of TV is a history full of innovations. From the first days of black and white TV to the coloured screen, from the days when we could only choose from a handful of networks to the multi-channel universe of today, from the time where the distribution of the TV signal was restricted to antennas, to the internet streaming of today. And with the innovations came an explosion of creativity and quality.

Despite all of this there are people who believe the best days of TV lay in the past. I couldn’t disagree more. Yes, we are, our industry is, in a face of transformation, with this transformation comes also disruption. But the hunger of people to be informed on what happens in the world, the hunger for new programmes, new relevant stories, live TV events, and to be part of the watercooler-moment has never been bigger.

There has never been a time where more programmes have been produced than today, and more video has been consumed than today. TV today is much more global and much more diverse. Local production, local stories find mass audience far away from home because people want to watch and want to have access to the distinctive relevant storylines regardless of where they have been created.

And in the centre of all of that stands the consumer. We all can watch what we want when we want to watch it, whether live or on-demand. Where we want to watch it, location is irrelevant in today’s viewing and on which device we want to watch it. Whether like our parents, on the big screen in the living room or on our smartphones. Today’s world, today’s TV industry, has a lot of changes, but these changes bring the opportunity for new innovations, better creativity and higher quality. That’s the future of TV the way I see it and that is a bright future.”

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Tomorrow’s TV created today

James Warburton, CEO, Seven West Media, Australia

Transcript:

“Hi, I’m James Warburton, CEO of Seven West Media in Australia. It is no secret that there has been a dramatic shift in how content is consumed, particularly in the last two years. For years, self-appointed experts have proclaimed television is dying. They are of course wrong, and in many cases biased. TV isn’t dying. It is changing. It’s adapting, to changes in how, where and when people want to watch video content.

The move in many countries to reporting total audience number, including +7 days and BVOD has highlighted the true reach of our medium. Total audience reporting shows that our industry is resilient and still as alive and thriving as ever. With online live streaming and on-demand viewing surging to new heights year after year. Measuring and reporting total audience reflects how people really consume our content, particularly younger audiences.

We should be proud as an industry that we have adapted to meet the audiences where they are and in the way they want to engage with our content, which is increasingly online through the largest screen in the house, via connected televisions.

In Australia, when catch-up viewings in its various forms and live streaming are added, programmes can add hundreds of thousands of viewers, not hundreds but hundreds of thousands. It is time to be proud of the unmatched power of television total audience numbers.”

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Tomorrow’s TV created today

Gabriella Vidus, CEO, RTL Hungary / r-time, Hungary

Transcript:

“There is a disturbance in the force for many advertisers and marketeers as the digital galaxy expands and provides increasingly tempting solutions for the products and services. In times like these, it is worth to remind them that the real force of advertising hasn’t changed when it comes to sales or building brands. It is still called: Television. For a couple of decades, television has always delivered these promises and from a marketeer’s point of view, it is a simple yet powerful one: You will always get what you are paying for.

100% brand-safe, audio-visual premium content, watch by millions of real viewers at the very same time on full screen and measured by independent research companies according to international standards which provides us with the strongest currency on the ad market, maybe the only currency of it. No fraud, no excuses, no scandals, just powerful reach and emotional impact. In a single word: Television.

May the force of television be with us and our partners. Happy World TV Day for all of us.”

 

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