European Television History brings together television historians and media scholars to chart the development of television in Europe since its inception. The volume will interrogate the history of the medium in divergent political, economic, cultural, and ideological national contexts.

List of Contributors vii Acknowledgements ix 1 Introduction: Comparative European Perspectives on Television History 1Jonathan Bignell and Andreas Fickers 2 Early TV: Imagining and Realising Television 55Knut Hickethier 3 Institutionalising European Television: The Shaping of European Television Institutions and Infrastructures 79Christina Adamou, with Isabelle Gaillard and Dana Mustata 4 Searching for an Identity for Television: Programmes, Genres, Formats 101Jérôme Bourdon, with Juan Carlos Ibáñez, Catherine Johnson and Eggo Müller 5 TV Nations or Global Medium? European Television Between National Institution and Window on the World 127Sonja de Leeuw, with Alexander Dhoest, Juan Francisco Gutiérrez Lozano, François Heinderyckx, Anu Koivunen and Jamie Medhurst 6 American Television: Point of Reference or European Nightmare? 154Ib Bondebjerg, with Tomasz Goban-Klas, Michele Hilmes, Dana Mustata, Helle Strandgaard-Jensen, Isabelle Veyrat-Masson and Susanne Vollberg 7 European Television Events and Euro-visions: Tensions between the Ordinary and the Extraordinary 184Rob Turnock, with Alexander Hecht, Dana Mustata, Mari Pajala and Alison Preston 8 European Television Audiences: Localising the Viewers 215Mats Björkin, with Juan Francisco Gutiérrez Lozano 9 Conclusion: Reflections on Doing European Television History 229Andreas Fickers and Jonathan Bignell 10 European Television Archives and the Search for Audiovisual Sources 257Andy O’Dwyer Index 264

" With this collection, Bignell and Fickers bring together an outstanding team of scholars to draw together the best of existing and new scholarship in the field. This collection should inform all future studies of television, media history, and, given the centrality of media to the formation of contemporary Europe, the study of European history as a whole." —Sean Cubitt, Director of the Program in Media and Communication, University of Melbourne, Australia A European Television History is a much-needed text that brings together television historians and media scholars to chart the development of television in Europe since its inception. Taking an insistently comparative approach to the topic and organizing the volume around a set of common questions, themes, and methodological reflections, the volume interrogates the history of the medium in divergent political, economic, cultural and ideological national contexts. Organised around critical debates that illuminate the many ways television has grown up in Europe, A European Television History is an authoritative account of the development of television in the various countries of Europe. The volume will be welcome among students of media culture and history, as well as academic specialists seeking a coherent methodology and source text for their research.

"The approaches of this book...should become part of the preparation of anyone teaching about television." (Communication Research Trends, 2009) "With this collection, Bignell and Fickers bring together an outstanding team of scholars to draw together the best of existing and new scholarship in the field. This collection should inform all future studies of television, media history and, given the centrality of media to the formation of contemporary Europe, the study of European history as a whole." Sean Cubitt, Director of the Program in media and Communications, University of Melbourne