The first part of the question is what channels comprise the European channels market. According to a European Union Study completed in 2004 it was estimated that there were approximately 1,100 national or transnational television channels in Europe, and that more than 200 of these channels target non-national markets. If this were no confusing enough there are approximate 1,900 regional and local channels of which almost 70 were carried on satellites. The question becomes one of definition. The comments in this study are based on those that are commercial profit making operations that depend on advertising for revenue generation. These numbers exclude the movie and sports channels that are transnational and show the fastest growth in viewership. (European Audiovisual Observatory, 2004) It is unclear where the news channels such as Euro news, CNN, BBC, Fox and CNBC Europe fit in these patterns. They do have substantial numbers of viewers. The questions of cable access and satellite viewing are also not covered in the EU study.
The other question that is unaddressed in the assignment question is the proliferation of languages, and the large number of sub-markets even within the 27 members of the European Union. If the non-EU members are included that are even more sub markets. This implies that the real question is the position of commercial broadcast TV in the European markets as compared to alternatives such as Internet and other entertainment media. If the language question is included the numbers of available channels in many markets falls dramatically. The number of Europeans that are multilingual is important in this part of the analysis, but is unaddressed in the sources or this study.
The assignment calls for SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and PEST (political, economic, social and technical) analysis. (Aguilar, 2006) The following comments are centered on
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