RTÉ LEADING MEMBER OF NEW EUROPEAN DIGITAL NEWS EXCHANGE
Providing a European perspective – public service media offer an innovative news sharing model across the continent
RTÉ today becomes one of ten public service broadcasters set to change the way in which Europeans consume news by using cutting-edge online tools to share diverse content from across the continent.
A European Perspective is a new collaborative news service that enables audiences to access trusted content from other countries through a curated online feed from their national provider in their own languages. Led by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the new service launches today, 1 July 2021.
Organisations will now display the dedicated feed on their homepages, including RTE.ie, or within an individual article, offering a European perspective in public service news coverage. The ten public media organisations are able to select and publish each other’s content through a bespoke digital news hub that uses artificial intelligence technology to translate the reports into multiple languages.
Access to these stories will help European citizens contextualise current topics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and migration, and better understand how neighbouring EU countries are tackling these challenges.
Through this initiative, EBU Members from Ireland (RTÉ), Belgium (RTBF), Finland (YLE), France (France Télévisions), Germany (BR/ARD), Italy (RAI), Portugal (RTP), Spain (RTVE) and Switzerland (SWI swissinfo.ch) as well as ARTE, the Franco-German broadcaster, will offer their online readers access to stories that explore the many facets of the European identity.
For example, a visitor to RTE.ie website will be able to see an English translation of a news story that has been published by the Finnish public broadcaster, YLE. Readers in Portugal will be able to find out how the Irish, Spanish and Italian governments have responded to the news regarding COVID-19 vaccinations – all in a language that they understand.
James McNamara: Digital Editor, RTÉ News said: “This is a really exciting addition to RTÉ’s digital output at the same time as online audiences have grown significantly during the pandemic. This groundbreaking collaboration will help readers gain a greater understanding of events and developments across the continent, offering EU citizens an important and different perspective on the world around them. Not only will it further strengthen the power of public service media in Europe, it will also offer a window on the decision making and storytelling in the ten participating newsrooms, enhancing the quality of all our journalism.”
Eric Scherer, Director of Innovation and International Affairs at France TV, commented, “After 60 years of successful video news exchanges between EBU Members, it was time to do the same for digital news items while using the latest digital technologies for our respective online services. We will now be able to fully leverage the power and scale of our vast international network anchored in a new internal Eurovision content-sharing platform where public service media have the same values and news ethics. This is a crucial step for our newsrooms.”
A European Perspective has been made possible through a grant from the European Commission’s Multimedia Actions programme. It is co-funded by the EBU.