There are over 12,000 audiovisual media services available in Europe. Around three-quarters of these are linear television channels. Four out of ten of those are local or regional television channels and a third are available on digital terrestrial television.
The annual report on Audiovisual Media Services in Europe provides an overview of the services available in Europe, based on the MAVISE database of the European Audiovisual Observatory. In this case, Europe is defined as the 27 members of the European Union and several other countries, including the United Kingdom.
At the end of 2023, there were records of 12,703 audiovisual media services available in this region, of which there were 9,434 television channels and 3,173 video-on-demand services, including catch-up television and 96 video-sharing platforms.
2,982 channels were available over digital terrestrial television networks, or 32% of all channels. Half of all local or regional channels were available over terrestrial networks. 69% of channels broadcast terrestrially provide general programming, with the rest being thematic, covering entertainment, news, sport, or other genres. Around one in five channels available on digital terrestrial television networks is in public ownership.
78% of channels target a national market, including 42% which provide local and regional television, while 15% are multinational and 7% are pan European.
American parent companies own the top three groups of privately owned channels, headed by Warner Bros. Discovery / AT&T with 363 channels, Paramount with 302, and Comcast with 179, some way ahead of the French Canal Plus Group with 123.
The report is published by the European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, as is available from its web site.