TV CASE STUDIES

EUROPE BY SATELLITE:
THE EUROPEAN UNION'S TV NEWS AGENCY FOR MEDIA PROFESSIONALS

Major European events live
Four daily news broadcasts
Interactive briefings across Europe

 

THE EUROPEAN UNION'S TV NEWS AGENCY

The European Union's TV news agency Europe by Satellite (EbS) is a service providing EU related information for professionals working in television and radio stations and for institutions. EbS is directly available to local, regional, national, EU and international organisations, in the Union, the Mediterranean area, and Central and Eastern Europe.

 

FOUR SERVICES

EbS provides live transmissions, unedited pictures and full programmes related to EU affairs and integration in Europe, from Monday to Saturday and occasionally on Sundays.

  1. The main events in EU public life are covered live, such as: press conferences by Commissioners and other senior personalities, plenary sessions of the European Parliament, open meetings of the Council of Ministers, important judgements of the Court of Justice, events at other EU institutions. These transmissions are offered with the original sound of the speaker, plus simultaneous interpretation into the 11 official EU languages
    A particular category of live transmissions is interactive briefings. These are multilingual phone-in TV programmes, where citizens and journalists from any part within the reception zone of EbS' satellite can question special guests in the EbS studio, on current negotiations, future prospects or decisions taken.
  2. The EU's working agenda is supported by relevant raw footage with natural sound. These may be news summaries of the day's events (arrivals, handshakes, round-tables, quotes) or thematic video stockshots which are taken from the Commission's and European Parliament's archives. They are transmitted before and during the events they illustrate.
  3. EbS also offers full programmes related to integration processes in Europe: contributions from TV stations and institutional productions. This material may be used by other broadcasters on the condition that they mention the source. EbS receives weekly productions from hundreds of European stations that are members of associations such as the EBU, CIRCOM Regional, CMCA or EAC TV.
  4. The EbS website on the EU's Internet server EUROPA provides continually updated information on EbS' services and transmissions (programme schedule, shotlists, background information,…) EbS offers its satellite transmissions live on its website, in all available languages.. All material can be viewed again, on demand, during one week after their transmission. The site also indicates e-mail addresses, phone and fax numbers where supplementary information on EbS can be obtained.

 

LANGUAGES

Live events are generally offered in the original language with 11 simultaneous translations (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Swedish), according to what the respective insititutions can offer to EbS. The interactive briefings are bilingual at the best (original language plus one translation), as well as the Commission's daily press briefings (English and French). The daily news pictures and the video stockshots are transmitted with natural sound. Contributions coming from other sources in the available language versions.

 

THE PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

EbS's transmissions are structured as follows (CET):
- Live transmission of EU events, whenever they occur,
- Council press conferences are retransmitted at 18h00 or the next day at 9h00,
- Interactive briefings between 9h00 and 11h00, between 13h00 and 16h00,
- News at 8h30, 11h30, 16h00, 19h00 (retransmission at 7h00),
- Video stockshots just before and after the News transmissions,
- Exchanges at 21h00 (retransmission at 6h00 the next morning and on Saturday).

 

CONDITIONS OF USE

The service is entirely free of charge and free of rights for non-commercial use, i.e. for information purposes - source to be mentioned ("European Commission").

EbS can be received on:

- Satellite: EUTELSAT HOT BIRD
- Orbital position: 13° East
- Receive (or downlink) frequency: 12,47550 GHz
- Polarisation: horizontal
- Footprint: Widebeam
- Symbol rate: 27,500 Mbauds
- FEC: 3 / 4
- Signal: clear (decoder card not required)

CONTACTS

The EbS team welcomes direct contacts, preferably by e-mail or fax (please add your own E-mail, fax and phone details):

Diederik Bangert, Editor-in-chief
Martyn Jones, Engineering manager
Anne Grossi Assistant, External relations
Stefanie von Kirchmann, Secretary

- email: europe-by-satellite@cec.eu.int
- telefax: + 32 2 299.93.01
- phone: + 32 2 299.11.76

- mail:
European Commission - Press and Communication Service
Europe by Satellite (BREY 6/318)
Rue de la Loi 200
B - 1049 Brussels