Broadcasting leaders meet to increase cooperation

Leaders of the world’s two biggest broadcasting unions – the ABU and the EBU – have held top-level talks on increasing cooperation.

The talks were held on the final day of the 51st ABU General Assembly in Macau, China, when ABU President Cho Dae-hyun hosted a meeting with Jean-Paul Philippot, President of the European Broadcasting Union, and EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre.

They discussed united action and collaboration between the two unions in a number of areas including content exchange, co-productions, music exchange and further contributions to the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU). 

The leaders also confirmed that spectrum issues would remain important as both unions

work toward ensuring it is preserved for the use of public broadcasting. In particular they stressed the importance of 700MHz spectrum, which they said must be allocated and protected for future broadcasting and ultra high definition TV services.

ABU President Cho said he encouraged a greater relationship between the ABU and EBU and felt that through the collective efforts of the world’s two largest broadcasting unions, the ABU and EBU could mutually assist each other on broadcasting policy and cultural exchange. As an initial cultural exchange, Mr Cho suggested an Asian singer could participate as a guest artist in the Eurovision Song Contest and the EBU Director General agreed to consider the possibility.