The future of European audiovisual cooperation

The future of the European audiovisual cooperation was the focus of yesterday's meeting at RAI's headquarters in Rome between the President of RAI, Paolo Garimberti, the Director General Lorenza Lei and an EBU delegation headed by EBU President, Jean-Paul Philippot, EBU Vice President Claudio Cappon and EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre.

The success of recent joint activities between the EBU and its Member RAI to support Members in need in North Africa, as part of the EBU's Special Assistance Project, was intensely discussed, with the true belief that these initiatives play a key role in building true democratic societies. The EBU’s Special Assistance Project is designed to reinforce support for Members encountering deep financial, technical, political or other difficulties, and to underline the Union’s prime principle of solidarity. RAI's vast technical experience and high professional editorial staff was very beneficial to Tunisia TV and radio. Following the successful collaboration in Tunisia, the EBU and RAI look forward to working together in order to assist other South Mediterranean countries, namely Lybia, in their transition to democracy.

The two delegations also discussed spectrum management and frequency reallocation. Following the World Radio Conference in Geneva, RAI and EBU called upon national and international institutions to carefully consider the distribution and management of digital frequencies, which are an important public good that need to be managed taking into account social concerns, and not only economic ones. RAI is at the forefront of the digital revolution, and is already offering its viewers access to 14 digital channels.

(Source : European Broadcasting Union)