Euronews is a pan-European television news network, headquartered in Lyon, France. It is a provider of livestreamed news, which can be viewed in Europe and North Africa via satellite, and in most of the world via its website, on YouTube, and on various mobile devices and digital media players.
The network began broadcasting on New Year's Day 1993 and covers world news from a European perspective. Euronews is currently majority-owned by Alpac Capital.
History Timeline Background
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.
Euronews was founded by a consortium of ten EBU members (national public broadcasters), titled SOCEMIE ():
CyBC, Cyprus ERTU, Egypt France Télévisions, France RAI, Italy RTBF, Belgium RTP, Portugal RTVE, Spain TMC, Monaco Yle, Finland
The Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR was admitted later as a non-founding member. The BBC and German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF opted not to join.
The French city of Lyon was chosen to host the broadcaster's headquarters, out of a variety of candidates also including Munich, Bologna and Valencia. At launch, language services were provided via sound multiplex.
Launch, geographic and linguistic expansion (1993–2015) 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. ITN supplied the content of the channel along with the remaining shareholders.
A part-time Arabic-language service was briefly operated from April 1997, with a two-year grant from the European Commission, comprising eight journalists and freelancers. After the tender expired, it ceased broadcasting on 15 April 1999.
In 1999, the broadcast switched from solely analogue to mainly digital transmission. The same year, a Portuguese audio track was added.
In 2001, the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) acquired a 1.8% stake in SOCEMIE. A Russian-language service was launched later in the year.
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.
On 6 February 2006, Ukrainian public broadcaster Natsionalna Telekompanya Ukraïny purchased a one percent interest in SOCEMIE.
In 2007, Euronews won the European Commission's tender for an Arabic-language news channel, with a service agreement being signed on 6 December. A new Arabic service would eventually be launched in July 2008.
On 27 May 2008, Spanish public broadcaster RTVE decided to withdraw from the Euronews consortium, citing legal requirements to maintain low debt levels through careful spending and prioritisation of its existing international channel as a factor influencing its decision to leave. In February 2009, Turkish public broadcaster 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%), while also joining its supervisory board.
New language services included Turkish in January 2010, Persian in October 2010, and Ukrainian in August 2011.
A short-lived Polish service was launched in mid-2011 to mark Poland's assumption of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, although only some selected evening broadcasts were translated. It was discontinued in January 2012. The service was briefly reestablished in September 2012 in the form of a 15-minute programme broadcast on private television channel TTV three times a day during weekdays. The Polish service survived in this form until the end of 2013.
The channel began broadcasting in widescreen in January 2011, in concert with France 24.
Media Globe Networks ownership (2015–2016)
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.
On 13 March 2015, it was announced that Inter Media Group, owned by pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, had purchased the Ukrainian service. In response, the government of Ukraine, citing suspected bias, revoked its broadcasting license and dropped its funding. Firtash later abandoned the project, resulting in the department shutting down and leaving 17 journalists redundant. The Russian service, which was financed by the government of Russia, refused to provide jobs to the journalists, violating French labour legislation. The management explained that not hiring any Ukrainian journalists was a specific instruction from VGTRK.
In October 2015, Euronews moved to a new headquarters complex in the Lyon district of , designed by Paris-based architecture firm Jakob + MacFarlane and covering a floor area of 10,000 m2 (2 acres). The decision to move was announced in 2011, prior to the Media Globe Networks purchase.
In 2016, Euronews SA was co-owned by Media Globe Networks, regional authorities (Lyon Metropolis, Rhône, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) and the following broadcasters:
ČT, Czech Republic CyBC, Cyprus ENTV, Algeria ERTU, Egypt ERT, Greece ETT, Tunisia France Télévisions, France PBS, Malta RAI, Italy RTBF, Belgium RTÉ, Ireland RTP, Portugal RTVSLO, Slovenia SNRT, Morocco SRG SSR, Switzerland TRT, Turkey TV4, Sweden TVR, Romania UA:PBC, Ukraine VGTRK, Russia Yle, Finland
NBC partnership (2016–2022)
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. After successful negotiations with the European Commission, who feared that the partnership would result in an "Americanization" of Euronews, the NBCUniversal News Group finalised its purchase of a 25% stake in Euronews in February 2017 for €25 million ($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.
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. 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 began a process of splitting its services into twelve separate editions for each language, of which nine have a linear TV channel retaining their respective 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.
The language split resulted in the discontinuation of satellite distribution for the newly-created German, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish channels, now being only available via fiber-optic IP uplink. 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. 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. This later also applied for the Turkish-language edition, following discontinued support from TRT, who wanted to prioritise its own international news channel, TRT World. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.