Noel Curran, Director-General, EBU
Transcript:
“I remember training as a television producer quite a while ago and I remember people talking all the time about the death of television, the pressure on television, the competitive pressure, that television was going to change, it wouldn’t last. And yet here we are today and television reaches 84% of European citizens every week, 63% of them are younger audiences. Less than the average, we know that, but still an enormous figure that any other medium would envy.
Unbelievable, your average European citizen watched 3 hours 43 minutes of television per day and in some countries that’s even higher, that’s the average. And 89% of that is still live. They’re absolutely staggering figures for this medium. Staggering figures that have not only survived but flourished.
Why is that? You know, what is it that makes it unique? It’s that reach, it’s that reach across all audiences, young and old. It is that connection with that audiences, it is that sense of bringing those audiences together. TV has these unique qualities; it certainly has a unique connection with its audience. And more than ever I think that’s what we need now. We have a growing political divide in some countries. We have a lot of talk about culture wars in other countries among society. We’ve seen the division in recent years, but we’ve also seen how people can come together. We’ve seen how people can still sit around the television box and still watch television in different ways together or on their own and still feel a connection with each other and with what they are seeing. We have seen the hugely positive impact that television output has in terms of culture, in terms of information, in terms of entertainment, in terms of diversity, in terms of education, across the board. And that is precious. And that is particularly precious now, and, you know, I don’t see that changing. If it has survived the massive, massive changes in our industry, both in terms of competition and audience habits that we have seen in recent years, then television is here to stay.”