Like its companion volume, Telecommunications in Europe, this book deals with the evolution of powerful monopoly institutions in the communications field--the public broadcasters--and the dramatic changes that took place in the late 1980s throughout Europe, and transformed the media landscape. It provides a comprehensive view of European broadcasting systems, using the perspective of economics and policy analysis. The introductory part offers a framework for understanding media and the forces of change affecting them. The main section is a unique series of chapters covering the broadcast and cable television systems of almost thirty European countries.

This collection will be the first volume to gather the best writing on socialist and postsocialist entertainment television as a medium, technology, and institution in Eastern Europe.

Today transnational TV networks count among television's most prestigious brands and rank among Europe's leading TV channels. This is the first, dynamically told story of the extraordinary journey of transnational television in Europe from struggling origins to its present day boom. It is based in extensive research into the international television industry and makes full use of its author's remarkable access to leading industry figures, from Sky and Turner to Discovery and BBC World.The tale begins with a few cross-border TV channels, who fought hostile governments, faced antagonism from the broadcasting establishment and provoked the contempt of advertisers. But, Jean Chalaby argues, the planets came into alignment for pan-European television in the late 1990s, when a transnational shift in European broadcasting was produced. He shows how transnational television and globalization have transformed one another, and how transfrontier TV networks reflect - and help sustain - a global economic order in which the connection between national territory and patterns of production and distribution have broken down.

What are Arabic Europeans watching on television and how does it affect their identities as Europeans? New evidence from seven capitals shows that, far from being isolated in ethnic media ghettoes, they are critical news consumers in Arabic and European languages and engaged citizens.

Digital technology for the production, transmission, and reception of television is expected to replace analogue transmission throughout the world. The timetable for this transition is uncertain and different projections have been made for virtually every country in the world. This book gives the exhaustive details of the issues of this changeover in Europe and elsewhere. The details are placed within the context of the massive changes, which the television industry has been subjected to over the past 25 years. The rollout of digital terrestrial television (DTTV) in Europe is a significant issue for every country included in this survey. It is of such importance because DTTV is the centerpiece of many governments' policies toward making Europe the world leader in new information and communication technologies. These same governments are all wrestling with the issues of how to use the technology in ways that create both commercial and non-commercial value. European perspectives on the social, cultural, and political nature of broadcasting vary significantly from those in other parts of the world and require that the introduction of DTTV should be handled differently to its introduction elsewhere. There are enormous technical, political, and economic aspects to be considered and these vary from country to country in Europe. The two editors bring a perspective to this study as media economists who come to the European scene from other parts of the world. The book covers DTTV in depth, and it also includes discussions of cable, satellite, broadband, and Internet technology for comparison.

This collection critically examines the role of food programming on European early television and the impact this might have had on food habits and identities for the European audiences. It foregrounds various food programme genres, from travelog, cooking show and TV cooking competition, to more artistic forms. For the first time, it examines in one place eight European countries, from Portugal to Czechoslovakia and Britain to France and Yugoslavia, to explore ways in which television contributed to culinary change, demonstrating differences and similarities in which early food programme in Europe shaped and promoted progress, modernity, gender and national identities in both Eastern and Western Europe. Featuring a number of archival images that illustrate early food programme visually, this collection complements other research into postwar food history, adding a perspective of visual medium that is often neglected. As such, it should be interesting for food and media historians as well as those interested in European postwar history and culture.