Euronews (styled euronews) is a European television news network, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.[1] The network began broadcasting on 1 January 1993 and covers world news from a European perspective.
In 1992, following the Persian Gulf War, during which CNN's position as the preeminent source of 24-hour news programming was cemented, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) proposed a channel to present information from a counterpart European perspective.[2]
Euronews SA was founded by a consortium of ten EBU members (national public broadcasters), titled SOCEMIE (French: Société éditrice de la chaîne européenne multilingue d'information Euronews):[3]
The BBC, as well as German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, opted not to join the consortium.[4] The Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR was admitted later as a non-founding member.[5]
The channel's headquarters was to be established in Lyon, which was chosen out of a series of candidates also including Munich, Bologna and Valencia.[4]
1993–2015: Launch, geographic and linguistic expansion
The inaugural Euronews broadcast was on 1 January 1993 from Écully, Lyon. In 1996, an additional broadcast studio was set up in London.
In late 1997, the British news broadcaster ITN purchased a 49% share of Euronews for £5.1 million from Alcatel-Lucent.[6] ITN supplied the content of the channel along with the remaining shareholders.
In 1999, the broadcast switched from solely analogue to mainly digital transmission. The same year, a Portuguese audio track was added.
In April 2003, ITN sold its stake in Euronews as part of its drive to streamline operations and focus on news-gathering rather than channel management.[8][9]
In 2007, Euronews won the European Commission's tender for an Arabic-language news channel, with a service agreement being signed on 6 December. The Arabic service would eventually be launched in July 2008.[11]
On 27 May 2008, Spanish public broadcaster RTVE decided to leave Euronews, citing legal requirements to maintain low debt levels through careful spending as a factor influencing its decision to leave, as well as to promote its international channel TVE Internacional.[12]
In February 2009, the Turkish public broadcaster TRT became a shareholder in the channel and joined its supervisory board.[13] TRT purchased 15.70% of the channel's shares and became the fourth main partner after France Télévisions (23.93%), RAI (21.54%), and VGTRK (16.94%). Subsequently, Turkish was added as the ninth language service in January 2010. Later that year in October, the channel started broadcasting in Persian, then began broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen format in early 2011, and launched a Ukrainian service in August.[14] A Polish service was launched in mid-2011 amid Poland's accession to the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, although only some selected evening broadcasts were translated. It was shortly after discontinued in January 2012.[15]
In February 2015, the channel's executive board approved a bid by Media Globe Networks, owned by Egyptian telecom magnate Naguib Sawiris, to acquire a 53% controlling stake in the media outlet. The deal raised questions over Euronews's future editorial posture and independence.[16][17][18]
On 13 March 2015, it was announced that Inter Media Group, owned by pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, had taken over the Ukrainian service. In response, the Ukrainian government decided to revoke its broadcasting license for its suspected bias and dropped its funding.[19] Firtash later abandoned the project, resulting in the department shutting down and leaving 17 journalists redundant. The Russian service, which was financed by Moscow, refused to provide jobs to the journalists, in violation of French labour legislation. The management explained that not hiring any Ukrainian journalists was a specific instruction from VGTRK.[20][21]
In October 2015, Euronews moved to a new global headquarters complex in La Confluence, Lyon, designed by Paris-based architecture firm Jakob + MacFarlane and covering a floor area of 10,000 m2 (21⁄2 acres).[22] The decision to move was announced prior to the majority takeover by Media Globe Networks.[23]
In November 2016, the channel's executive board was in talks with NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, for a "strategic partnership". NBCU would acquire 15 to 30% ownership of the Euronews network, would contribute to Euronews content, and facilitate NBC News' expanded operations in Europe.[24] After successful negotiations with the European Commission, who feared that the partnership would result in an "Americanization" of Euronews, the NBCUniversal News Group finally purchased a 25% stake in Euronews in February 2017 for $30 million. NBC News president Deborah Turness was appointed to head up international operations, and incumbent Euronews CEO Michael Peters, who had led it since 2004, became CEO of the new partnership. Both reported directly to NBC News chairman Andrew Lack. The resulting partnership became known as Euronews NBC.[25]
Although Naguib Sawiris and NBC News had the largest stakes in Euronews, editorial control by SOCEMIE members was assured, with the broadcasters having seven slots in the editorial board, as opposed to Sawiris' company (which has three slots) and NBC News, which only has one, thereby reducing rumors of an "Americanization" of Euronews' values. Editorial control is fully handled by Euronews' teams, with NBC only focusing on planning and coordinating tasks.[26] After the formation of the partnership, video reports from NBC News' properties and correspondents began to appear frequently on the TV channel and reports from NBCNews.com began to be distributed on its digital platforms.
On 9 May 2017, Euronews split its service into 12 language-specific editions, of which nine have a linear TV channel with its own language voiceover, but now including the on-screen ticker and most lower thirds in the local language. The glocal strategy allows the language editorial teams to personalize the content and presentation of their channel, not only by sharing own-produced content with other languages but by producing content that is relevant to local audiences and allowing local reporters and presenters to appear on camera in all its language editions. The splitting process finished on 24 May 2017.[27]
Alongside the major language split, satellite distribution for the German, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish channels was discontinued, now being only available via fiber-optic IP uplink.[27] The discontinuation of the German-language channel on satellite in particular generated outcry from many German satellite TV owners, resulting in its restoration on the Astra 1L satellite on 25 July 2017, via an unencrypted SD feed sitting alongside the French-language channel.[28] Additionally, the Arabic and Persian-language editions were relegated to an online-only distribution on Euronews' website and apps and major social media networks, with TV broadcasting being discontinued.[29] Furthermore, the Ukrainian edition was discontinued outright, due to lack of funding from the Ukrainian government, as well as due to the controversy surrounding the ownership of its broadcasting licence.[30] Later on, the Turkish-language edition also ceased TV broadcasting, following discontinued support from TRT, who wanted to prioritise its own international news channel, TRT World.[31][29] Finally, the Euronews channel in English would become known as the World edition, and distribution to premises in the American continent via fiber-optic IP uplink was set to begin later in 2018.[27] These changes caused the elimination of 43 staff positions, mainly from the Ukrainian edition, causing major layoffs and leading to production staff having more flexible roles.[32]
Good Morning Europe anchor Belle Donati
In 2018, Euronews' English-language channel began to gradually revamp its programming schedule, with the roll-out of a new slate of presenter-led programming to complement its already existing shows, a move that was reported earlier in the year, after the success of its presenter-led special reports and weekly programming introduced in recent years.[33] Alongside conventional rolling news shows with newsreaders, debate programming, talk shows, and new presenter-led long-form shows began to be offered during the weekly schedule, and throughout programs, Euronews reporters from different nationalities will be offering context on stories close to their respective home nationalities.[34]
The roll-out began on 22 May, when Euronews debuted the first of these new shows, Good Morning Europe, a five-hour morning show which airs every weekday morning from 7 am. It was first anchored by former RT correspondent and TVB Pearl news presenter Tesa Arcilla, who anchored it on a temporary basis. Some weeks later, former France 24 presenter Belle Donati began presenting the show, alternating with Arcilla; after she moved to Brussels in September, she became the main anchor of the slot. Two months later, on 17 July, Euronews debuted a six-hour breaking news show, Euronews Now, anchored by Tokunbo Salako, covering the dayside and afternoon slots. On 3 September, the new evening program lineup was launched, starting with a politics-focused show, Raw Politics, hosted from Brussels by Tesa Arcilla, and featuring former Sky News reporter Darren McCaffrey. It also spawned a weekly spin-off, Raw Politics: Your Call, a phone-in show which featured European Parliament members answering viewers' questions by phone or social media. The show was dropped over a year later, in October 2019, due to low viewership, with its content being integrated into the rolling news programming. Two weeks after the launch of Raw Politics, on 17 September, the full roll-out was completed with the introduction of a 5-hour evening rolling news show, Euronews Tonight, initially presented by former Sky News and BBC News presenter Sam Naz, and later by Euronews veteran Isabelle Kumar, who has worked with the channel since 2003.[35][36] The traditional pre-produced blocks of video content still remained on some late-nights and weekends. Most overnights by this point repeated the previous day's edition (either full or half-length) of Euronews Now.
New weekly programming was also produced, including the weekly interview series Uncut, which feature conversations from political leaders and newsmakers worldwide with minimum to no editing. The first episodes feature German-French politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit interviewing former UKIP leader Nigel Farage and former UK Prime MinisterTony Blair about Brexit. Additionally, a new social media unit was created, with journalists with a background on digital news verification leading it. The newly created team help to produce The Cube, a social media segment during rolling news shows, focusing on analysis on treatment and reactions about news headlines on social media, with special attention at the major stories of the day. No Comment, a long-standing element of Euronews' programming, remains on the channels' schedule, and it was gradually integrated into the rolling news shows on the English-language channel.[35]
Additionally, a major investment in mobile reporting via iPhone devices helped Euronews gain a major scoop, becoming the only TV news outlet worldwide to broadcast live coverage from the MV Aquarius, with Paris correspondent Annelise Borges (formerly with France 24) on assignment. Borges broadcast live for 10 days as the Italian government denied the Aquarius access to Italian ports. The coverage made headlines on many news outlets worldwide and helped Euronews augment its credibility and its audience.[35] The new Euronews also hired new correspondents in London, Berlin, Moscow, Rome, Madrid and Washington D.C., and gained access to NBC News' large network of correspondents worldwide.
As of September 2018, the other language editions were unaffected, with the pre-produced blocks of video content remaining at all times. Programming dayparts were later named with proper translations of the existing daypart programming of the World edition (i.e. the evening daypart being named Euronews am Abend, Euronews Noite, Euronews Soir...). There were plans to introduce presenter-led programming during the morning slots on these other channels, eventually, the evening daypart in most of the language-specific channels became presenter-led by late 2018; all of these editions were pre-recorded and pre-produced before broadcast, and eventually looped through the night.[33]
On 20 April 2020, it was reported that NBCUniversal had sold its stake in Euronews to Media Globe Networks, eventually having an overall majority share of 88%. NBCUniversal's parent company Comcast had recently acquired pan-European satellite service Sky Group, and was prioritizing a collaboration between NBC News and Sky News on a new international news channel.[37] The proposed service was scrapped in August during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, with the project no longer considered commercially viable.[38]
In November 2020, French newspaper Libération stated in an online article that Euronews had been producing an increasing amount of magazine content focusing on Dubai, and sponsored by the Dubai tourism board, which had allegedly caused staff discontent.[39] Segments dedicated to Dubai were found to only have a brief sentence in small print indicating their sponsorship, which a Euronews spokesperson argued met French broadcast standards, rather than using the logo of the relevant institution as with other sponsored content.[39] The article noted that this was likely a result of continued private divestment leading to influence from the Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation (ADMIC), owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which "discreetly" became a shareholder in 2017 and then signed a memorandum with Euronews the following year.[39] The network would later conduct similar partnerships with Qatar Media City and the Saudi Tourism Authority, both state-owned, to produce relevant sponsored segments.[40]
As part of Euronews' digital growth post-NBC, the broadcaster has launched a series of online verticals dedicated to specific areas. These include Euronews Green, Euronews Travel, Euronews Next, and Euronews Culture.[41][42][43]
2022–2023: Alpac Capital ownership, relocation to Brussels
The purchase by Alpac Capital was finalised in July 2022, following approval from the French government.[47][48] The sale was met with scrutiny as Alpac is allegedly linked to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary.[49][50]
Mário David, the father of Pedro Vargas David (CEO of Alpac Capital), is a long-time associate, advisor and friend to Orbán.[49] According to Ágnes Urbán, director of the think tank Mertek Media Monitor, Euronews risks being exploited as a "pseudo-independent" media outpost of the government of Hungary, where it maintains a semblance of independence, but takes a "far less critical" stance with regard to Hungary and other so-called illiberal democracies.[50]
By the end of 2022, the weekday morning and evening news bulletins had gradually phased out remaining in-vision presenting, reverting to a traditional voiceover format; some cancelled shows were reportedly still cited in programme guides.[51]
In February 2023, the channel's owners refreshed its on-air identity and schedule in celebration of the network's 30th anniversary (first seen in German & Italian feeds on 30 January 2023), with less emphasis on in-vision presenting introduced in 2018.[52] The channel has placed greater focus on voice reporting in multiple European languages, and some in-vision presenting for special news broadcasts. To strengthen the validity of sources the localised channels now host a scrolling list of tweets from independent news organisations outside of Euronews, on the right-hand side of the screen. The weekday schedule largely features Euronews Now and Wake Up Europe, with specialist content later in the week.
On 2 March 2023, the network announced it was planning to eliminate 198 staff positions at its headquarters in Lyon and begin a relocation process, including its main editorial output, to Brussels, creating 100 new positions there, including 70 reserved for journalists. 142 jobs would remain based in Lyon, including those of the Russian and Persian-language editorial teams.[53] The French National Syndicate of Journalists [fr] union said the move would lead to Euronews becoming a "half empty shell", as well as a weakening of the "pluralism of information".[54]
Four veteran shareholders within the network — founding public broadcasters France Télévisions, RTBF and RAI, as well as SRG SSR — had withdrawn from its capital by September 2022.[55][56] As of July 2023, Euronews now lists only four shareholders on its "About us" page, with Alpac Capital's share at 97.6%.
Former programming
Good Morning Europe (Jó Reggelt Európa in Hungarian) - discontinued from February 2023
Euronews Tonight – discontinued from February 2023
Euronews am Abend (German-speaking territories)
Euronews Soir (French-speaking territories)
Euronews Noite (Portuguese-speaking territories)
Euronews Sera (Italian-speaking territories)
Prime Edition – discontinued from 2019
Late Edition – discontinued from 2019
Global Weekend – discontinued from February 2023
Raw Politics – discontinued from October 2019
Raw Politics: Your Call – discontinued from October 2019
Insiders
Aid Zone
Global Japan
Notes from the USA
Former radio service
On 2 October 2012, Euronews launched Euronews Radio. The service was available for download on the App Store and Google Play, in addition to being available on TuneIn, and was designed for viewers for whom "watching news is not an option" by providing a direct simulcast to the TV channel, with the "No Comment" segment being replaced by music. The music of the bulletin openings was also transmitted on Euronews Radio. Weather reports were read by a female announcer.
As of December 2020, the radio service appears to have been defunct, and the stream on its webpage or on TuneIn is not functional.[57]
Former logos
January 1993 – September 1996: blue lower case word "euro" in a yellow parallelogram and yellow capital word "NEWS".
September 1996 – February 1999: white lower case word "euro" above and blue lower case word "news" below.
February 1999 – June 2008: blue rectangle enclosing white camel case word "EuroNews".
June 2008 – May 2016: white lowercase word "euronews" on a neutral grey background featuring a white circle symbolizing both the world and star circle on the flag of Europe.
May 2016 – January 2023: silver-white lower case word "euronews", with "news" in a bolder font, followed by a small circle at the foot of the last letter. This variant, with a darker blue colour, was used from May 2016 until November 2022 online and until 31 January 2023 on-air. The current Euronews logo is a modified variation with a lighter blue tone.
Secondary franchises
Since 2018, Euronews has begun licensing its name to various private and public broadcasters and organisations in southern, central and eastern Europe, agreeing to set up localized Euronews channels broadcasting regional, national, European and international news in local languages. The first of these channels was the launch of Euronews Albania.
Euronews Albania
In 2019, Euronews launched its first franchise through a joint venture with local RTV In in Albania. The new channel, known as Euronews Albania, is based in Tirana, Albania and covers the Western Balkans countries of Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo and North Macedonia.[58]
Euronews Bulgaria
In 2021, Euronews signed a partnership with TV Europa to launch a channel in Bulgarian.[59][60] The new channel started broadcasting on 5 May 2022.[61]
Euronews Georgia
In 2019, Euronews signed a deal with local telecommunications company Silknet to launch a channel in Georgian.[59][62] The new channel began broadcasting on 31 August 2020.[63]
Euronews Romania
In 2021, Euronews teamed up with the Politehnica University of Bucharest to launch a channel in Romanian.[59][64] The new channel started broadcasting on 25 May 2022,[65] and also covers the Republic of Moldova.[66]
Euronews Serbia
In 2019, Euronews teamed up with the media group HD-WIN, owned by the state-owned Telekom Srbija, to launch a channel in Serbian. The new channel started broadcasting on 3 June 2021.[67][68]
Organisation
Bureau locations
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2023)
Offices at Euronews headquarters in Lyon. This building was opened in 2015,[69] and is to be sold following a 2023 decision to relocate to Brussels[1][51][54]
Wake up Europe, Acorda Europa, Europa am Morgen, Svegliati Europa, Al despertar Europa, Debout L'Europe, Подъем, Европа! – weekday news segment airing between 6AM and 10AM; started in February 2023
The European Debrief – weeknight news segment; started in February 2023
Euronews Now – weekday news segment airing between 10AM and 6PM
Euronews Hoy (Spanish-speaking territories)
No Comment
No Comment Live
Brussels my love? – European affairs talk show; started in 2022
5' Weekend – 5-minute news segment on weekends; started in February 2023
Euronews Witness – current affairs series; started in July 2021[71]
The channel is available in 430 million households in 166 countries worldwide. It reaches more than 170 million European households by cable, satellite and terrestrial. It also began to secure availability on multimedia platforms such as IPTV and digital media.[73]
Euronews launched an application for mobile devices (Android, iPhone, and iPad) which is called "Euronews Live". The application is free of charge and is available on Google Play and the App Store.[74] This app was later shut down quietly.
The channel's programmes are also available by podcast, and it has maintained YouTube channels since October 2007.[75]
High-definition (HD) broadcasting was started on 2 November 2016 via satellite using Hot Bird-capacities (English audio only). Regarding the audio codec, Euronews originally used the AC3 format, before changing to the AAC codec in March 2017, and changing again to the MPEG codec in April 2017.[76]
The following broadcasters have simulcast Euronews through partial timeslots on terrestrial channels:
In the US, the channel is available for free on the KlowdTV platform.
In 2012, the largest Belarusian state network MTIS stopped broadcasting Euronews for unknown reasons.[79][80]
In 2013, the new commercial channel Planet TV started broadcasting Euronews dubbed in Slovenian after Antenna TV SL purchased a major stake in the company. Euronews airs after closedown (or sign-off) of Planet TV, but both call sign logos are displayed.
In September 2016, Euronews was removed from the Freesat channel list in the UK, in a move made by Sawiris.[81]
In February 2023, the Saudi-based MBC Group added Euronews to its Shahid streaming platform.[82] Satellite distribution of its French-language channel on Astra ceased at the end of the month.[83]
In the UK, Euronews is available, together with a number of other international news channels, via online video subscription service NewsPlayer+[84] and alongside Africanews on Freeview channel 271 via the Channelbox free streaming service.[85]
Euronews SA operates the channel and holds the broadcasting licence. As of July 2023, the Portuguese investment management firm Alpac Capital has a 97.6% stake in Euronews SA.[44][45][46] Guillaume Dubois, a former broadcasting director at LCI, took over as CEO in June 2022.[87]
In January 2014, Euronews announced a partnership with public broadcaster Télé Congo "under the auspices of the President of the Republic of the Congo, Mr. Denis Sassou Nguesso" to create an African service entitled Africanews.[88] Initially based in Pointe-Noire, its website debuted on 4 January 2016, with the Africanews TV channel eventually launching on 20 April, broadcasting in English and French.[89]
In January 2016, Euronews was accused of plagiarism by the Congolese media group AfricaNews,[90] because the Lyon-based channel used the name "Africanews" for its African subsidiary. However, AfricaNews in the Democratic Republic of Congo has existed since 2005 and can be found on the Internet. Its employees sent letters to DRC authorities and managing director of Euronews, Michael Peters, to change the related name and to avoid using it for the African subsidiary of Euronews.[91][92][90]
In 2020, Euronews originally planned to sell Africanews to a group known as Sipromad, but the deal eventually fell through and the two parties entered litigation. As a result, Africanews would remain under the ownership of its sister channel, but its production would move from Pointe-Noire to Euronews's headquarters in Lyon by the end of July 2020, with a reduction in costs of at least 30%.[93]
Reception
Censorship in Belarus
In April 2021, the Ministry of Information of Belarus announced that authorities had ceased broadcasting of Euronews within its territory, with its frequencies being taken over by Channel One Russia's Pobeda channel. A ministry spokesperson said that the channel had "violated legislation by running advertisements in English, instead of Russian or Belarusian".[94][95] In a statement, the network responded that they were not "notified of this decision nor of the reasons for it, and learned of it this morning through the press", adding that it "deeply regret[ed] the decision".[95] A Minsk-based expert assessed that the move deprived Belarusians of an alternative "to what is being broadcast by Belarusian state media and Russian television channels".[94]
Russia
In May 2016, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Euronews of "disinformation" after an online article mistakenly embedded a tweet from a parody account claiming to be foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.[96][97] Pyotr Fedorov, a member of the Euronews supervisory board representing the Russian state broadcaster VGTRK, referred to the incident as an "unconscious Russophobia characteristic" of English-language journalists.[98]
Access to Euronews in Russia was blocked by Roskomnadzor in late March 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the channel being pulled from local providers as well as its websites no longer being accessible.[99]
Ukraine
An online report published by the English-language edition of Euronews in 2018, which depicted children in Russian-annexed Crimea being trained to defuse landmines, was criticised by Ukrainian media, as well as Mykola Tochytskyi, Ukraine's representative to the EU.[100][101] Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Mariana Betsa, in response to the article, added that reporting "should be based on facts".[102] Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Antanas Linkevičius called the report "brainwashing".[100]
Liubov Tsybulska, then-chair of the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security, said in 2021 that the "influence of the Kremlin on the supposedly neutral channel is visible not only in Euronews's Russian material, but also in the approach to the presentation of English-language news".[103]
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine [uk] appealed to Euronews leadership in June 2022, accusing the network of promoting a pro-Kremlin narrative in its Russian-language broadcasts.[104] In a letter sent to the National Council in response, CEO Guillaume Dubois said it was "unfair that one aspect would be extracted out of the overall rolling coverage to accuse our newsroom of promoting Kremlin narratives", and expressed his "full solidarity" with Ukraine.[105]
^Collins, Richard (1998). From Satellite to Single Market: New Communication Technology and European Public Service Television. London: Routledge. p. 130. ISBN9780415179706.
^ abSzewczyk, Łukasz (4 January 2012). "Euronews już nie po polsku". Media2.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 22 August 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
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