 | |
| Country |
|
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Europe |
| Stations |
|
| Transmitters | ECS-1 satellite; cable; terrestrial network (Portugal) |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) |
|
| Picture format | 4:3 PAL |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Consortium (ARD, RTÉ, RAI, NOS and RTP) |
| History | |
| Launched | 5 October 1985 |
| Closed | 29 November 1986 |
Europa TV was a consortium of five European public service broadcasters from West Germany (ARD), Ireland (RTÉ), Italy (RAI), the Netherlands (NOS) and Portugal (RTP).[1][2][3][4][5][6]
Europa TV aspired to be pan-European not only with regard to its geographical reach but also its programming content.[3] It came after the Eurikon experiment in 1982,[3][6][7] that consisted on the production of an experimental television service which over a period of five weeks,[8] was distributed in closed-circuit format.
The channel was financed through contributions from the Dutch government, the European Commission, the participating broadcast organizations and through advertising revenues[6] within its initial three-year budget was 30 million ECUs. Europa TV studios were located in Hilversum in the Netherlands, and Klaas Jan Hindriks was appointed as general manager.[6]
Europa TV started its transmissions on 5 October 1985[9][3] and initially only available in the Netherlands,[10] which expanded its reach to 4.5 million households across Europe via ESA and Eutelsat's ECS-1 satellite. This included access to 1.5 million households in Portugal where it was transmitted terrestriallyonRTP2 (in other countries the signal was also distributed by cable).[11][12]
To overcome language barriers, Europa TV transmitted on several sound channels within facilities for simultaneous translation (inEnglish, Dutch, German and Portuguese) enabled audiences to receive the channel in their native tongue.[3] In addition, subtitling in different languages was provided through teletext.
All of the co-operating broadcasters sent in their programmes to Europa TV, but some were produced especially for the channel.[3] These included weather forecasts (covering EEC countries such as Norway, Sweden and Finland but excluding East Germany), current affairs (ex: Worldwatch) and music programmes (ex: Countdown, presented by Adam Curry).[3][6]
On 29 November 1986, it was forced to cease operations having already exhausted its initial three-year budget.[13][2][9][3][14][15]
The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision started ongoing preservation efforts of Europa TV broadcasts on 29 August 2018,[3] recovering recordings from about 300 VHS tapes from their archives, 400 Betamax tapes from RTP and documents from RTÉ, RAI and Klaas Jan Hindriks.[6][16]
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Television
1980s
