Viewers into Europeans?: How the European Union Tried to Europeanize the Audiovisual Sector, and Why it Failed

Abstract

From the early 1980s, the European Commission and Parliament made a series of attempts to use television as a tool to foster a European identity in audiences and strengthen popular support for European integration. In this paper, I first examine their efforts to help set up a pan-European multilingual television channel in order to confront the audience with non-national (and thus supposedly European and "Europeanizing") programs. Second, I trace their attempts to foster the Europeanization of the audiovisual productions sector by, in the first instance, subsidizing multinational co-productions. I show that in both areas those efforts have largely come to nothing. They stumbled over the resistance mounted by some national governments and/or were frustrated by continued audience preferences for national as opposed to foreign or non-national television programs. All this, I contend, points to the underlying difficulties of trying to promote among mass publics a cultural form that stands divorced from their respective national contexts, be it through television or other means, and it hints at the formidable obstacles that hinder the European Union's attempts to forge among Europeans a shared identity beyond the nation-state.Résumé: Dès le début des années 80, la Commission européenne et le Parlement européen tentèrent à plusieurs reprises d'utiliser la télévision comme moyen d'encourager une identité européenne chez les téléspectateurs et de les motiver à appuyer l'intégration européenne. Dans un premier temps, j'ai examiné leurs efforts pour aider à lancer une chaîne de télévision multilingue paneuropéenne. Le but de cette chaîne était de présenter aux téléspectateurs des émissions déna-tionalisées (et ainsi censées être européennes et «européanisantes»). Dans un deuxième temps, j'ai étudié leurs tentatives pour favoriser l'européanisation du marché audiovisuel, essentiellement en subventionnant les co-productions multinationales. Dans ces deux domaines, ces efforts n'ont pas abouti à grand-chose. Ils se sont heurtés à la résistance dont ont fait preuve certains gouvernements nationaux et/ou ont échoué du fait que les téléspectateurs continuaient à préférer les émissions de télévision nationales plutôt que des émissions étrangères ou dénationalisées. Tout cela, je l'affirme, indique les difficultés sous-jacentes auxquelles on se heurte si l'on essaie de promouvoir parmi les publics de masse une Tobias Theileris an assistant lecturer in the

The making of the Europeans

“…Eurikon TV started by 15 European broadcasters, the European Community and the European Broadcasting Union delivered mainly news, documentaries, sport, entertainment, music, films, religious as well as children's programming (Collins, 1993;Theiler, 1999). Eurikon failed after barely a year of operation due to that fact that audiences found it hard to understand its programming and to relate to it (Collins, 1993).…”

“…Eurikon failed after barely a year of operation due to that fact that audiences found it hard to understand its programming and to relate to it (Collins, 1993). Cultural and linguistic barriers were not overcome, as dubbing and subtitling efforts were deemed unsatisfactory (Theiler, 1999).…”

“…Five public service broadcasters from Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal took part in the project with financial contributions from the Dutch government, the European Commission and advertising. Some major European broadcasters like the BBC and French Antenne 2 decided or were convinced by their governments not to participate in the undertaking (for more see Theiler, 1999). 3.…”

The Ambiguities of Intercultural Dialogue: Critical Perspectives on the European Union’s New Agenda for Culture

“…The Television without Frontiers Directive, which abolished most legal barriers to the transmission and reception of television signals between the Member States, was adopted two years later. Moreover, it imposed a controversial quota regime which was intended to aid European producers by curtailing the inflow of audiovisual material from overseas (Theiler, 1999).…”