Transnational Television in Europefaculty.fiu.edu/~surisc/transnational television in europe.pdf ·...

Transnat ional Televis ion in EuropeThe Role of Pan-European Channels

j Jean K. Chalaby

A B S T R A C T

j This article analyses the pan-European television industry in the contextof the debate on globalization. Pan-European channels are a minority oftransnational channels that broadcast across Europe. Their emergence overthe last two decades has been made possible by a mix of commercial,regulatory and technological factors. Pan-European television channels canbe distinguished by their content, type of ownership and market strategy.Since the mid-1990s, many pan-European channels have operated a shiftin strategy and have begun to localize their pan-European feed. This articleidentifies four types of localization: local advertising, dubbing orsubtitling, local programming and the local opt-out. Taking Eurosportand MTV as examples, I have illustrated the practices of localization andexplain why some channels engage more in this than others. Localizationcan be seen as evidence of the vast differences that persist between nationalcultures. However, I have argued that localization facilitates the processof globalization because it allows transnational media players to over-come cultural diversity and operate efficiently in a multinationalenvironment. j

Key Words media globalization, pan-European television (PETV),practices of localization, transnational television

Introduction

The objective of this article is threefold. It analyses the growth of pan-European television channels over the past 20 years and examines the

Jean K. Chalaby is lecturer in the Department of Sociology, City University,Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK. [email: [email protected]]

European Journal of Communication Copyright © 2002 SAGE Publications(London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), Vol 17(2): 183–203.[0267–3231(200206)17:2;183–203;023692]

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corporate practice of localization, discussing this development in thecontext of the debate about media globalization.

The first and second sections contextualize the growth of pan-European television (PETV) in recent broadcasting history. The emer-gence of pan-European channels is related to the twin processes ofdecentralization and transnationalization of television that are redefiningthe relationship between the medium and the nation-state. Europeanbroadcasting has developed at infra- and supra-national levels during thepast 20 years and today a host of local and transnational channelscomplement and challenge national broadcasters.

The third section explores the field of pan-European television.PETV channels are a specific type of cross-border channel that have a pan-European distribution. (Many transnational channels are only distributedin a handful of countries.) The article concentrates on the 17 mostprominent transnational channels that are pan-European in scope anddistinguishes them on the grounds of their content, type of ownershipand market strategy.

The fourth and fifth sections focus on localization as a growingcorporate strategy in the PETV industry. In the mid-1990s, many leadingPETV channels began to split their pan-European feed to adapt theirprogrammes to local audiences. This article details four ways of localizinga feed, from the local advertising window to the local opt-out. I have usedBritish Eurosport as an illustration of a local opt-out and MTV as a casestudy of a pan-European network that has launched several opt-outs. Thefifth section analyses the reasons why some channels are more deeplyengaged in the process of localization than others. Finally, this articleargues that the growth of the PETV industry is a significant step in theprocess of media globalization in Europe. It interprets localization as aglobalizing practice that helps cross-border channels to remain com-petitive in a multinational environment.

Decentralization and transnationalization in European television

Until the early 1980s, television broadcasting in Europe had a strongterritorial and national bias. With few exceptions, European broadcasterswere national in scope.1 The national broadcaster’s signal covered thelength and breadth of the national territory, from the nation’s capital tothe remotest parts of the countryside. In many cases, such as France, therewas a state monopoly on broadcasting, giving further control to thegovernment of the national airwaves (Brochand, 1994). Foreign broad-

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casters were not allowed to transmit on the national territory andattempts to do so were seen as breaches of national sovereignty.

Since the 1980s, two developments in television have concurrentlyredefined its relationship with the nation-state. First, the process ofdecentralization has seen the development of television at an infra-nationallevel. Throughout Europe, complex local and regional television broad-casting systems have emerged. The development of regional televisionnetworks has always had political underpinnings and, in the case of Spain,was the result of wide-ranging constitutional reforms (Mateo, 1997).These networks emerged out of the pre-existing national – and public –broadcasting structures. On the other hand, local television stations thatare today thriving in Greece, Italy and Germany were commercialventures from the onset (Garitaonandıa, 1993; Barca, 1999; Moragas Spaet al., 1999).

Second, television has been going through a process of transnational-ization, as it has developed at a supra-national level. There are severalfacets to this evolution, including the expansion of the internationaltelevision trade and the growth of transnational media corporations(Herman and McChesney, 1997; Thussu, 2000). This article deals with athird aspect of the process, that is, the increasing number of channels thatreach audiences across national boundaries.

Transnational television in Europe

The first cross-border television channels were launched in Europe in the1980s. Two decades on, there are more than 100 transnational channelsoperating across Europe and approximately 80 of them hold a licencefrom the British Independent Television Commission (ITC, 2001). TheITC is a popular regulator because ITC licences are cheap (£250) andsimple to obtain. One of the main conditions is that broadcasters must bebased in the UK, making London the European centre for transnationaltelevision. They are also easily retained provided licensees follow theregulator’s fairly lax programme code. ITC rules on sponsorship andadvertising are less rigid than those of most European countries, thusallowing ITC licensees to circumvent national regulations in thecountries in which they broadcast. Some channels registered with the ITChave escaped censorship in their countries of origin in this way, as is thecase with several Arab channels.

European cross-border television is essentially composed of ethnicchannels that service a specific diaspora. They include SAT-7, an ArabChristian channel based in Oxfordshire, TVBS, broadcasting Chinese

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news and entertainment, ZEE TV, providing Indian news, movies andentertainment, and Sima TV, on Persian news and culture. Ethnicchannels are best described as multinational because they rarely have atotal pan-European coverage. Typically, they have a strong distribution inthe countries where the diaspora is based and do not market themselveselsewhere. For instance, channels such as MATV or Star Plus and StarNews concentrate on the Asian British market.

Among the transnational channels that are pan-European in scope,17 are particularly prominent.2 They have a strong distribution in at leastfive European countries and a commitment to international expansion.These are: Arte, BBC Prime, BBC World, Bloomberg, Cartoon Network,CNBC, CNN International, Discovery, Euronews, Eurosport, Fox Kids,MTV, National Geographic, Sky News, TV5, Universal Studios Net-works and VH1. All but five of the channels are registered with the ITC;Arte, Euronews, Eurosport, TV5 and Universal Studios Networks holdtheir licence from the Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel, the Frenchbroadcasting regulator. On average, these channels broadcast to 24European territories and are received in nearly 40 million Europeanhouseholds (M&M Europe, 2000).

The growth of PETV has been triggered by several factors. Europeanpublic service broadcasters have launched several PETV channels. Theyoperate them either single-handedly (BBC World and BBC Prime),jointly with other public service broadcasters (Arte and TV5), or withcommercial operators (Euronews and Eurosport). Public service broad-casters have a variety of reasons to get involved in PETV. They may wantto optimize an existing catalogue of programmes or television rights, aswas the case with BBC Prime and Eurosport. The sports channel waslaunched by members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in1989 as an outlet for broadcasting sports competitions, for which theyheld television rights but did not have space to broadcast from their ownhome channel.3 European public broadcasters also wished to be present inthe international news market. Both BBC World and Euronews werelaunched in answer to CNN. The BBC launched World Service Televisionin 1991, followed by BBC World in 1995, when it realized that it coulduse its existing correspondents and international news bureaux to rivalCNN.4 Euronews was launched in 1993 by EBU members – with thebacking of the European Union – in response to CNN’s dominance of theGulf War.5

International television in Europe has also benefited from theformation of a global media industry and the growth of transnationalmedia corporations, such as AOL-Time Warner, Viacom and Disney


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(Herman and McChesney, 1997). These conglomerates operate some ofthe most successful brands in PETV, including CNN, MTV and FoxKids. They are involved in PETV because global expansion is high ontheir agenda.6 American-based media corporations map out aggressivestrategies to expand outside the US and see Europe as a good opportunityto increase the revenue percentage generated outside their home market.They also have the capital, corporate ethos, expertise and content libraryto operate television channels on a transnational basis.

The growth of PETV has been facilitated by regulatory changes.Deregulation throughout the 1980s and 1990s liberated broadcasting inmany European countries, leading to a steep increase in commercialoperators and loosely regulated cable and satellite services. This hasfacilitated cross-border and cross-media ownership as well as theinternational trading of television content (Galperin, 1999). The integra-tion of the European media market is backed by the EuropeanCommission. Its main initiative in broadcasting regulation, the Tele-vision Without Frontiers Directive, was adopted in October 1989 andcame into effect in 1991. Its objective has been to facilitate the free flowof audiovisual products across Europe and create a European audiovisualspace (Collins, 1999). It has been qualified as ‘ground-breaking’ by theIndependent Television Commission because of its impact on cross-borderbroadcasting in Europe.7 Article 2 prevents member states fromrestricting the transmission of television broadcasts originating fromother member states. As a result, pan-European channels need onlyrespect the regulations of the European nation from whom they hold theirlicence. In practice, PETV channels registered with the ITC in Londoncan advertise alcohol and tobacco products in France, insert commercialsinto children’s programming in Sweden and flout Germany’s strictsponsorship rules.

Finally, PETV would not exist without communications satellites.They alone have made possible the cross-border transmission andreception of television channels (Collins, 1992; Winston, 1998:276–304). At first, satellite channels were only available to the public viacable providers. In the late 1980s, spacecraft became powerful enough tocarry television channels that could be received at home on smallparabolic antennae.8 Direct-to-home satellite broadcasting helped tomultiply the number of channels available to European households, andbreak the monopoly of terrestrial – and national – broadcasters (Tunstalland Machin, 1999: 200–14). There are several satellite communicationssystems currently operating in Europe. The largest, ASTRA, is operatedby the Luxembourg-based Societe Europeenne des Satellites. It comprises


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an 11-strong fleet of satellites transmitting more than 1000 televisionand radio channels to 87 million European households.9 Today, thepowerful combination of satellite and cable networks feeds the rapidexpansion of European transnational television as cable connections allowmillions of households to receive cross-border programming and channelsat a low cost.

The pan-European television industry

The PETV industry is barely 20 years old. Several pan-European channelswere launched in the course of the 1980s and those that have survived tothis day are among the best established. The French-language channel,TV5, started transmission in 1984. CNN, the first 24-hour news channel,began broadcasting in the US in 1981 and expanded to Europe four yearslater (Flournoy and Stewart, 1997: 1–14). Music Television (MTV) waslaunched in 1981 and began a European service in July 1987. In 1989,Sky News and Eurosport were launched by Murdoch’s News Inter-national, the latter in conjunction with the EBU.10 Most other PETVchannels were founded in the 1990s, including Arte (1991), Euronews(1993), BBC Prime and BBC World (1995), CNBC (1995) and NationalGeographic (1997).

PETV channels are available to viewers via cable, satellite bouquets,digital platforms and, less frequently, terrestrial television. Thus, in mostcountries, their distribution only marginally exceeds the rate of penetra-tion of pay-television. Within the 15 countries of the EU, nearly onetelevision household out of two subscribes to either cable or satelliteservices (see Table 1).

Access to pay television follows a north/south divide in Europe.Subscription rates are particularly high in countries like Germany (88.9

Table 1 Cable and satellite reception estimates in Europe, 1999 (thousands ofhouseholds)

TV households Cable television Direct-to-homesatellite

Total cable andsatellite

EUR 15a 142,715 42,424 26,277 67,79329.7% 18.4% 47.5%

EUR 34b 233,337 63,053 33,567 95,05827% 15.4% 40.7%

a Includes the 15 member states of the EU.b Includes the 34 member states of the European Audiovisual Observatory.Source: European Audiovisual Observatory (2000: 56–7).


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percent), Belgium (95.8 percent) and the Netherlands (96.9 percent),while they stand at 5.1, 8.4 and 17.7 percent in Greece, Italy and Spainrespectively (European Audiovisual Observatory, 2000: 56–7). Cable isthe most common mode of delivery of pay-television in northern Europe,while direct-to-home satellite broadcasting prevails in the south.

PETV channels have also begun to sign agreements with localbroadcasting companies to gain access to terrestrial television. These dealsgive them access to a host channel during a specified part of the day. InItaly, MTV shares a terrestrial channel with Television Monte-Carlo,boosting its local distribution to 15 million homes. Euronews has accessto terrestrial channels on a ‘partial-time’ basis in 12 European countries.Arte, the French-German high-brow cultural channel, transmits on thefifth terrestrial channel in France from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., making itaccessible to 89 percent of French television households.

The mean full-time distribution of the 17 PETV channels (exclud-ing the part-time distribution) is 38.7 million European households.BBC Prime has the lowest distribution (8.2 million households), whileMTV is received in more than 90 million households across Europe.Among the other PETV channels that exceed the mean distribution,Eurosport is received in 88.3 million European homes, CNN in 73.2milllion, TV5 in 65 million, Arte in 61.9 million and BBC World in 50million (M&M Europe, 2000).

The audience for PETV channels is extremely small and theirmarket share rarely passes the 1 percent mark. For instance, in Britain,CNN’s audience share was recorded at 0.1 percent for the 12 months of2000, that of Discovery at 0.5 percent, Eurosport at 0.3 percent, MTV at0.4 percent and Sky News at 0.3 percent. The total audience share of thePETV channels that broadcast in the UK amounts to 2.2 percent (ITC/BARB, 2001). In Western Europe, this figure is only exceeded in Franceand Italy, thanks to the part-time distribution deals of Arte and MTV inthese countries. Arte alone reaches 3 percent of the total viewing audiencein France and MTV gets 1.4 percent of market share in Italy (EuropeanAudiovisual Observatory, 2000: 270, 321). The actual viewing figures ofPETV channels must be accounted for in tens of thousands of viewersrather than in the millions who watch national television every day.

Classifying PETV channels

There are three ways of classifying PETV channels: by content, ownershipand market strategy. In terms of content, PETV channels fall into twomain categories: information and entertainment. Six PETV channels


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broadcast news and factual programming on a 24-hours basis – seven daysa week: BBC World, Bloomberg, CNBC Europe, CNN International,Euronews and Sky News. All the other channels bar two are enter-tainment oriented. Discovery Networks Europe (nine channels altogether)and National Geographic specialize in factual entertainment, UniversalStudios Network comprises three movie channels, MTV and VH1 are twomusic television channels and Cartoon Network and Fox Kids competefor children’s eyeballs. Neither TV5 nor Arte fall into a specific category.TV5, the international French-speaking channel, mixes news, document-aries and magazines with live sport transmissions. Arte has a narrowcultural remit and specializes in documentaries, arthouse cinema andhigh-brow talk shows.

PETV channels tend to be controlled by two types of mediaorganization: they are either public service (and European) broadcasters orprivate (and American-based) corporations. Public service broadcasters areinvolved in six channels: Arte, TV5, BBC Prime, BBC World, Euronewsand Eurosport. Arte is a joint venture between the French and Germanpublic broadcasters and TV5 is controlled by a consortium of French,Swiss, Belgian and French Canadian public channels. BBC Prime andBBC World are the only other PETV channels entirely controlled by apublic service broadcaster. The ownership arrangements of Euronews andEurosport mix public and commercial partners.

Euronews was launched in 1993 by 11 members of the EBU, laterjoined by a further eight members. They still own 51 percent of theLyon-based channel, while the remaining 49 percent is in the hands ofthe London-based news production company ITN (Machill, 1998; Purvis,1999).

Eurosport was a joint public/commercial operation at the onset, asNews International was EBU’s launching partner in 1989. The partner-ship did not last long and Murdoch withdrew when Sky merged with itsrival, British Satellite Broadcasting, the following year (Collins, 1998:659). Eurosport is currently jointly owned by members of the EBUconsortium and France’s main free-to-air commercial channel, TF1.

The other PETV channels are controlled by commercial consortiadominated by American-based media corporations. Cartoon Network andCNN are both owned by Turner Broadcasting System, which is a divisionof the AOL-Time Warner empire. Fox Kids Europe is part of Fox FamilyWorldwide, acquired by Disney from News Corporation in July 2001.News Corporation retains an interest in Sky News via its Britishsubsidiary BSkyB. Murdoch’s conglomerate also hold shares in theNational Geographic channel with NBC, which itself operates CNBC


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with Dow Jones. Both music channels, MTV and VH1, belong to Viacom– the world’s third transnational media corporation – with revenues inexcess of US$23 billion in 2000. Discovery Channel is an all-Americanjoint venture and Bloomberg Television is independently owned by itsAmerican parent company, Bloomberg LP. Universal Studio Networks isthe only commercial concern in PETV that does not involve anAmerican-based company, belonging to the French utilities and mediagroup Vivendi-Universal.

Finally, PETV channels can be differentiated by their marketstrategy. The elitist strategy employed by the group of broadcastersincluding Bloomberg, BBC World, CNBC and CNN involves targetingthe top 5 percent of European households by income and, morespecifically, the business community.

The other PETV channels aim at a larger public, although none ofthem compete for the mass audiences that are still the preserve of nationalbroadcasters. They tend to remain in a particular niche market, aiming ata specific age group or interest, such as sports or music. Some of themretain an upmarket bias but cast their net wider, focusing on the topquarter of European households by income.11

PETV channels subscribe to audience surveys that reflect theirmarketing priorities. They need harmonized pan-European data and anupmarket universe, omitting surveys like Peoplemeter – the televisionindustry standard – because its sample sizes are inadequate for measuringaudiences among small target groups. The most currently used survey inthe PETV industry is the European Media and Marketing Survey (EMS),which evaluates the viewing habits of Europe’s 20 percent wealthiesthouseholds. The four channels with the most exclusive strategy subscribeto Europe 2000, which has a universe of 10.8 million individuals, or 4.2percent of the adult European population. Europe 2000’s researchers onlyinterview people in a professional or executive occupation who earn morethan US$45,000 per year (BBC World, 2001).

A change of corporate strategy: the drive for localization

Pan-European television broadcasting presents corporate players with thedifficulties associated with operating in a multinational environment.They must commercialize programmes and channels that appeal topublics across cultural and linguistic divisions. Until the early 1990s,broadcasters involved in PETV opted for a ‘globalist’ strategy. Theyadopted the view of contemporary marketing literature of a ‘world


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cultural convergence’ (e.g. Levitt, 1983), and worked under the assump-tion that national cultures were in a process of homogenization, sharingan increasing number of elements in common. Businesses that focused onthese similarities could reap the rewards of cultural homogenization andsave on operating costs by commercializing in a similar fashion a singlebrand across the globe (Morley and Robins, 1995: 15).

Channels such as CNN, MTV and Eurosport applied this marketingstrategy to international television and tried to sell a standardized contentin as many territories as possible. MTV, true to its advertising slogan,‘One planet – one music’, broadcast the same music in the same language– English – across the world (Roe and De Meyer, 2000: 150–1). Thesechannels were progressively confronted with the limitations of theirmarketing model when their audience figures stubbornly remained atinsignificant levels.

CNN and MTV were soon faced with regional 24-hour newschannels and local music television stations that copied their format.These new competitors outdid them because they communicated in thelocal language and had a better understanding of their audience.Progressively, cross-border players awoke to the reality of nationalboundaries as cultural and linguistic markers and realized that there werelimits to the exportability of their programmes. They recognized the needfor readjusting their commercial strategy in order to operate successfullyin an environment as culturally diverse as Europe. Gradually giving uptheir pan-European content strategy, they split their continental feed andbegan to adapt programmes to local audiences. Since the mid-1990s,localization has become increasingly widespread in the PETV industry.12

It consists of adapting an international channel to a local audience withthe aim of making it more palatable to that public. Different aspects ofa cross-border feed can be localized, either separately or conjointly (seeTable 2).

The initial step in the localization ladder is the introduction of localadvertising windows. Twelve channels are able to insert commercials fora specific territory (e.g. Germany) or region (e.g. Scandinavia) in theirpan-European feed. Most often, local advertising windows include at leastthe five European key markets: Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain.This flexibility allows channels to give their clients three options: theycan either buy a local campaign and advertise in one country/region, theycan opt for an international campaign and advertise in selected territories,or they can buy a whole pan-European campaign.

Local advertising windows offer many advantages. For instance,advertisers can run locally produced advertising spots simultaneously


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across Europe, ensuring that a pan-European campaign is always relevantto local markets. This technique is used by advertisers like Nestle, whosell the same product under different names in different countries. Pan-European campaigns can also be staggered in time. Advertisers can starta campaign in the Netherlands in June, run it in Scandinavia in July andcarry it through across Europe during the following months. Moviecompanies use this technique to time their promotion campaignsaccording to the movies’ release dates.

Cross-border channels can also be localized by means of translation.Twelve channels either dub or subtitle their programmes according totheir audience, content and resources. Euronews, Eurosport and the twochildren’s channels, Cartoon Network and Fox Kids, use dubbingexclusively and are available in 6, 18, 8 and 12 languages respectively.Discovery network (16 languages) and National Geographic (8 languages)combine dubbing and subtitling. They use subtitles in the territories inwhich English is widely spoken and understood, such as the Netherlandsand Scandinavia, and dub their programmes in countries such as France,Poland and Italy. Five PETV channels remain monolingual: BBC Prime,BBC World, Sky News and VH1, which broadcast in English, and theFrench-speaking TV5.

The introduction of local programming is a more sophisticatedand expensive form of localization. It involves the split of a pan-regionalfeed and the insertion of devolved programming for one or several

Table 2 Levels of localization in PETV

Local advertisingwindows

Local languages Local programmingservices

Local opt-outs

Bloomberg,Cartoon Network,CNBC, CNNInternational,Discovery,Eurosport, FoxKids, MTV,NationalGeographic, SkyNews, UniversalStudios Networks,VH1

Arte, Bloomberg,Cartoon Network,CNBC, CNNInternational,Discovery,Euronews,Eurosport, FoxKids, MTV,NationalGeographic,Universal StudiosNetworks

Bloomberg,Cartoon Network,CNBC, CNNInternational,Discovery,Eurosport, FoxKids, MTV,NationalGeographic,Universal StudiosNetworks, VH1

Eurosport, MTV

Sources: M&M Europe (2000: 24–5); interviews (see notes); company websites.


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territories. A regional programming window can last anything from afew minutes to several hours per day. Eleven channels use this techniquein a variety of ways. CNN broadcasts two 15-minute programmes perday in Germany, Spain and Turkey. CNBC broadcasts devolved newsbulletins in Scandinavia, Turkey and the UK. Cartoon Network and FoxKids transmit devolved daily programmes in six and nine territoriesrespectively.

The local opt-out represents the ultimate level of localization. Itdoes not merely entail local programming within an international feedbut the launch of a separate local channel with fully regionalizedoperations and production facilities. Local staff are hired to adaptinternational content and produce programmes exclusively for the localmarket. Opt-outs also necessitate specific marketing investments becausethey are rebranded as local channels. Only two European networks haveso far decided to launch opt-outs: Eurosport and MTV.

Eurosport was the leading PETV channel in terms of distribution inthe 1990s, but although very successful in Central and Eastern Europe, itexperienced difficulties in the more competitive West European markets.Towards the end of the decade, many sports-dedicated channels werelaunched and free-to-air terrestrial channels were substantially increasingtheir sports offering (Proctor, 1999/2000). The competition promptedEurosport to launch devolved channels in France in 1998 (FranceEurosport) and Britain the following year (British Eurosport). Their pan-European feed continues to service the other European markets.

British Eurosport provides an excellent illustration of a local opt-out. It employs in excess of 50 collaborators and has its own productionfacilities in Langley, West London. Localization is carried out at themarketing and programming levels. Market surveys showed that Euro-sport had a foreign connotation in Britain and, as a consequence, theBritish feed is now promoted as a British channel.13 Foreign commercialshave been banned and, at one stage, the logo of the British opt-outdisplayed the Union Jack.

Eurosport’s greatest effort of adaptation to the British market isthrough programming itself. The British opt-out produces its own sportsnews bulletins, which are broadcast four to five times a day and areanchored by two presenters. The studio-based bulletins constitute a majorimprovement from the original feed. In the pan-European version, thenews is commented by a voiceover because the images need to besimultaneously presented in up to 18 languages. The presenters providea British face to British Eurosport and have allowed the channel to bid fora local identity.


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British Eurosport sends its own reporters to major internationalsports events in order to make the pan-European coverage more relevantto the British audience.14 It dispatched a 10-strong team to the OlympicGames in Sydney in August 2000 and broke from the European feedseveral times a day during its 24-hour coverage to broadcast its ownprofiles of British athletes, special news reports and magazines.

Coverage of the same international sports event can vary betweenEuropean and British feeds because of the different selection of games andcompetitions. Both channels may schedule the same ATP tennistournament simultaneously but show only those games that are mostrelevant to their respective audiences (e.g. Tim Henman and GregRusedski for British Eurosport).

British Eurosport has begun to buy its own television rights. TheEuropean feed shows many sports such as biathlon and Nordic skiing thatattract little interest in Britain. In order to compete with the domesticsports channels, British Eurosport needed to increase its offering of thecountry’s three core sports: football, rugby and cricket. Thus, it boughtthe rights to Heineken Cup Rugby in 1999.

Eurosport’s investments in Britain show how heavily competitivemarkets are unsustainable for pan-regional channels. Audience tastes andinterests differ from one country to another, making it impossible for aninternational feed to be of equal interest everywhere. In the era of multi-channel platforms, cross-border channels continuously run the risk ofbeing outdone by local competitors who copy their format but can bettermeet the audience’s interests. This phenomenon has forced MTV tocompletely overhaul its international strategy.

MTV: from universalism to local realism

MTV began broadcasting in Europe in 1987. From the launch of itsEuropean channel until the mid-1990s, the management did not feel theneed to localize its pan-European feed. The business model of the musicchannel was based on the expansion of distribution figures. Revenue didnot come directly from consumers but from the cable operators who paidMTV to carry the prestigious brand on their network. MTV managersalso believed that the appeal of their product was universal. They thoughtthat language was not an issue because most Europeans, especiallyyoungsters, spoke English.15 The playlist remained heavily dominated byAnglo-American music and more than 80 percent of the music videosshown on MTV Europe were of either British or American origin (Roeand De Meyer, 2000: 147).


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This model came to an end in 1994, when MTV realized they werelosing viewers to channels that were being launched in key Europeanterritories. The strongest challenge came from VIVA, a German musicchannel that began broadcasting towards the end of 1993 and was soondominating the music television market in German-speaking countries.Other channels were launched in Scandinavia, the Netherlands (TMF),Italy (Video Music and TMC2) and France (M6). These copied theMTV format but provided the content in the local language and playedmusic that was much closer to local tastes than MTV’s playlist.16 Theirsuccess made MTV realize that it had to change its modus operandi. Itabruptly ended its pan-European approach and decided to localize itsprogramming.17

The first opportunity presented itself in Italy, where MTV was givenaccess to a channel by a cable operator on condition that it programmedlocal music. The music channel hired local staff and VJs, opened localproduction facilities in Milan and launched the first devolved service ofits pan-European feed at the end of 1995.18

MTV Italy’s success was immediate and within a year the head officehad decided to split the European network into three channels. Theybecame MTV North, which covered most of Europe, including Scan-dinavia, the UK, the Netherlands, Benelux, France, Spain, Greeceand Portugal, MTV Central, servicing Germany, German-speakingSwitzerland and Austria, and MTV Italy. In 1997, MTV UK and Irelandwas launched and MTV North was split into MTV Nordic, coveringScandinavia, and MTV European, servicing the remaining 22 Europeanterritories without a dedicated service. The music channel began itssecond phase of localization in 2000 by launching four localized editions:MTV Poland, MTV Spain, MTVf, covering France and French-speakingSwitzerland, and MTV NL in the Netherlands. MTV is today the mostlocalized pan-European network, having launched six country-specificand two region-specific channels (MTV Central and MTV Nordic).

MTV Europe has established a devolved management structure.Local MTV channels are independent and are being equipped with theirown production facilities. They have the freedom and ability to producetheir own shows and develop their own schedules. Local staff are valuedfor their knowledge of the market and can give audiences whatever ispopular. MTV channels also produce their own promotional material andrun their own marketing campaigns. They aim to develop their ownidentity in order to build up local loyalty to the channel. Their onlyobligation is to ‘be true to the MTV brand’.19 However, unlike purelylocal channels, MTV channels are part of a network that converges on


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occasion, bringing its schedules together for European or even globalevents such as the MTV Awards.

MTV channels look and sound increasingly different. Researchershave found significant differences between MTV UK, Nordic, Centraland Italy in terms of programme type, music type and origins of artist insamples of programme taken between November 1998 and February1999 (see Table 3). For instance, non-stop video clips represented 48percent of programming on MTV UK, 22 percent on MTV Nordic and66 percent on MTV Central, while non-music programmes represented26 percent of MTV UK’s schedule, 50 percent of MTV Nordic and 13percent of MTV Central (Roe and De Meyer, 2000: 153). The authorsalso report important variations in music genres.

Variations between MTV channels are set to increase and MTV’smanagement aims to make them ‘100 percent different’.20 There are 140music channels currently broadcasting in Europe, forcing MTV to beresponsive to local audience tastes.

Approaches to localization

Localization is not practised in the same way or pursued with the sameenergy by all PETV channels. The first reason that accounts for thesediffering approaches is that several channels pursue an internationalagenda of some sort. Thus, intensive localization would contradict theirpurpose. BBC World and CNN International specialize in internationalnews and have adopted a global approach to their trade. CNN hasintroduced short news bulletins in three European languages but BBCWorld maintains that there is a market for an international news channelpurely in English.21 Euronews is committed to a unique feed throughoutthe continent because ‘Europe is part of its remit’.22 European issues andpolitical life figure prominently in the channel’s news agenda. Arte sharesEuronews’ European vocation. Established as a result of the Franco-

Table 3 Percentage of music genre on four MTV devolved channels

MTV UK MTV Nordic MTV Central MTV Italy

Mainstream pop 33.5 38.6 14.7 45.7Rock 23.8 12.7 9.9 17.3Black music 33.0 29.4 63.7 11.7Dance 8.1 18.3 11.4 18.8Other 1.6 1.0 0.4 6.6

Source: Roe and De Meyer (2000: 153).


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German treaty of 2 October 1990, its objective is to create a Europeancultural channel. The agreements of cooperation signed by Arte withseveral public broadcasters over the past five years are helping it meet itsgoal. The channel’s European dimension is further emphasized by thecurrent relocation of its headquarters to Strasbourg. Finally, TV5 providesa link between different francophone communities and promotes theFrench language and francophone culture worldwide. The channelunderlines the international dimension of francophonia and, thus,localization would dilute its mission.

It is also apparent that news channels are less localized than thosethat are purely entertainment driven. It has been argued that news travelsmore easily across borders than entertainment programmes because it isless deeply rooted in one culture (Morley and Robins, 1995: 63). Thus,entertainment loses more from one country to another and necessitatesmore adaptation than news to remain relevant to local audiences. Newschannels also have the advantage of aiming at an elite audience amongwhich English is spoken and understood. By way of contrast, Fox Kidsand Cartoon Network cannot communicate with children except in theirown language.

Finally, channels controlled by European public service broadcastersare less engaged in the process of localization than those backed bytransnational media corporations. The majority of the channels with aninternational agenda have a connection with public service broadcasting.In addition, resources create a line of division between the cash-poorpublic service broadcasters and the more affluent commercial channelsthat can afford localization.23 BBC World, BBC Prime and Euronewsbarely cover operating costs and do not have the resources to localize.24

Eurosport is the most localized channel involving public servicebroadcasters. Significantly, it is the sports channel’s commercial backer,TF1, that has pushed for localization.25 Commercially owned channels aregiven the resources to localize provided they can justify expenses to theirshareholders. They are not hindered by a political agenda and need onlyto maximize revenue.

Conclusion: local music – global strategy

What is the significance of European transnational broadcasting in theprocess of media globalization? Can the practice of localization signify ahomogenized global media culture that is failing to materialize? Thisarticle argues that PETV channels must be seen as an importantstepping-stone in the ongoing process of globalization.


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First, the emergence of the PETV industry itself is significant in thehistory of broadcasting. National broadcasters are no longer the soleplayers in European broadcasting and have to prosper alongside televisionchannels that operate increasingly efficiently in a multinational environ-ment. PETV channels have attracted nearly US$0.5 billion in advertisingrevenue in 2000 and half of this revenue comes from clients who havebought local campaigns that could have been carried by nationalbroadcasters (M&M Europe, 2000: 18). While national broadcasters faceweak advertising revenues, the PETV client base is in constant expansionbecause modern brands are developed on an international basis. Acampaign on transnational television gives them instant internationalexposure. PETV clients can take advantage of the ITC code to bypassstrict national regulations on advertising and sponsorship (see thirdsection).

Pan-European television is a key component of the regionalbroadcasting system that is developing in Europe and which forms anintermediary level between the national and global levels. It comprises, inaddition to pan-European television channels, a regional distributionnetwork for television news and programmes (the EBU’s Eurovision NewsExchange), and a network of corporate players who have forged alliancesacross the continent (Hjarvard, 1998; The Economist, 11 December 1999:61–3).26 The regional level constitutes a first foothold for the trans-national corporations that wish to penetrate European markets. Europe isa first step towards localization for international channels such as CNN,MTV and Fox Kids that have begun broadcasting on the continent witha pan-European feed. Transnational corporations also elect a regional headoffice – usually London – from which they can direct their country-specific operations.

The necessity for localization can be interpreted as evidence of thelimits of cultural globalization and the vast differences that persistbetween regional or national cultures. On the other hand, localizationaccelerates the process of globalization, notably because it allows globalplayers to operate in a multinational environment. Such strategies havebeen devised to overcome cultural diversity, to remain competitive in aplethora of markets, to challenge national broadcasters and to financeinternational expansion. The music may become local but the expansionplan remains global.

Localization is not about turning an international channel into alocal one. It consists of adapting the international to local culture whileretaining its global flavour. When CNN International broadcasts in


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German the channel retains its American identity and distinctive newstreatment. There is an American flavour to all MTV local channels if onlybecause a fair percentage of the music remains Anglo-American, despitethe growing diversity of its playlists (Roe and De Meyer, 2000: 153).Localized channels have an ambivalent relationship to the local. Theyincorporate some elements of local culture but within an internationalframework. While adapting to local tastes they also make global culture(and/or American in the case of MTV, CNN or Fox Kids) more accessibleto local audiences. As Richard Godfrey, the MTV Networks Europesenior vice-president explains, local MTV channels retain an ‘inter-national/American sort of glamour’ but viewers get it in a ‘digestibleform’.27 Localized channels are not so much a ‘hybrid’ cultural formincorporating the local and the global – as is sometimes suggested – thana bridge that helps the global reach the local.

PETV participates in cultural globalization also through advertis-ing. Transnational music and film companies are the biggest category ofadvertisers on PETV, spending more than US$31 million in the first sixmonths of 2000 (M&M Europe, 2000: 18). Cultural commodities areincreasingly sold and distributed on an international basis and PETVchannels provide a convenient platform from which to reach young andaffluent consumers across borders.

PETV channels facilitate international trade. The bulk of companiesthat advertise on PETV are transnational corporations that own inter-national brands. They include Ford, Toyota, Adidas, Nike, UniversalMusic and Columbia Tristar Films (M&M Europe, 2000: 18). Americanand Asian clients often find Europe too complex a market and use PETVchannels to access its key markets simultaneously. The PETV industryhas created a body, the European TV Research Group, which specificallyaddresses the research and marketing needs of those clients.28

PETV channels constitute a significant step in the process of mediaglobalization. Localization facilitates its development, allowing cross-border channels to remain competitive in a multinational environmentand transnational corporations to finance their international growth.Localization needs to be placed in the context of globalization as anunfinished project. Despite the growing presence of the artefacts of acommodified world culture in the media, local differences force globaltelevision channels to integrate segments of local culture in order toremain relevant to local audiences. Localization may be deemed anecessity by virtue of local differences, but it is this fact that makesglobalization into a tangible reality every day.


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Notes

The author wishes to thank the interviewees for their time and cooperation.

1. The main exceptions are the nations that have a regional or federal politicalsystem, such as Germany and Switzerland (see Garitaonandıa, 1993).

2. There are more pan-European channels among those servicing specificinternational niche audiences, such as the adult entertainment market.

3. Agnes Pierret, sport news producer, European Broadcasting Union, inter-view with the author, Eric Darras and Dominique Marchetti, 16 June2000.

4. Jeremy Nye, head of research and planning, BBC World, interview, 20 July2001.

5. The European authorities did not want an American channel to dominatethe international news market in Europe. Sonia Marguin, research market-ing manager, Euronews, interview, 11 May 2001.

6. For instance, Mel Karmazin, president of Viacom, the company that controlsMTV and VH1, stated in June 2001 that ‘One of our highest priorities is toexpand globally’ (cited in Grimes, 2001).

7. Louise Thorley, programme manager, ITC, interview, 2 August 2001.8. ASTRA 1A, launched in December 1988, was the first satellite with such

capabilities and a footprint over Europe.9. See www.ses-astra.com

10. Other attempts to establish pan-European television services in the 1980sinclude EBU’s Eurikon and Europa, News International’s Sky Channel andITV’s Super Channel (Collins, 1998).

11. Errol Pretorius, director of advertising sales at the National Geographicchannel, encapsulates the commercial philosophy of this group of players inthe PETV industry: ‘Don’t count the people you talk to, talk to the peoplewho count. I’d rather talk to a thousand people who can afford to buy a newVolvo, than talk to a million people who can’t.’ Interview, 14 August2001.

12. Daya Thussu has observed a similar trend in several other media markets,notably in South Asia (Thussu, 2000: 184–99).

13. Vickie Perdersen, commercial controller, British Eurosport, interview, 24May 2000.

14. Richard Copeman, senior news producer, British Eurosport, interview, 15May 2000.

15. Richard Godfrey, senior vice-president, MTVNE, interview, 17 April 2001.See also Burnett (1996: 96).

16. While MTV tries to please a pan-European audience, local channels wereable to include local artists on their schedule and to select from theinternational repertoire only those titles that their audience liked.

17. Richard Godfrey, senior vice-president, MTVNE, interview, 17 April2001.


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18. Jamie Caring, talent and music coordinator, MTVNE, interview 12 March2001.

19. Richard Godfrey, interview, 17 April 2001.20. Richard Godfrey, interview, 17 April 2001.21. Jeremy Nye, interview, 20 July 2001.22. Sonia Marguin, interview, 11 May 2001.23. Localization is expensive and significantly increases operating costs (Cable

and Satellite Europe, September 2000: 46).24. Jeremy Nye, interview, 20 July 2001; Sonia Marguin, interview, 11 May

2001.25. Arjan Hoekstra, Deputy Managing Director, British Eurosport, interview, 6

June 2000.26. Similar systems have emerged in Asia and the Middle East (Page and

Crawley, 2000; Sreberny, 2000; see also Straubhaar, 1997).27. Interview, 17 April 2001.28. Sonia Marguin, interview, 11 May 2001.

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