World TV Day celebrates “quality of TV”
November 21, 2018
TV professionals around the world are today (November 21st) celebrating World Television Day. As part of the annual United Nations initiative, a 30 second-spot is being shown by broadcasters on air and online across the globe.
The topic of the 22nd edition of this global celebration is quality content. The quality of TV programmes is reflected in how this proven medium has the unmatched capacity to entertain, inspire and inform viewers, across all platforms.
Last year alone the production of TV fiction in the European Union amounted to about 920 different titles, representing over 16 400 episodes and more than 11 000 hours, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory’s latest report.
Quality content can incite viewers to broaden their mind and look beyond the everyday life through inspirational shows. It also has the power to entertain and unite scores of people around live programming, such as the recent World Cup (3.4 billion people watched some of the World Cup this year, according to GlobalWebIndex). Finally, TV informs viewers through in-depth news broadcasts, makes them aware of current societal issues and provides learning through quality children’s programming or insightful documentaries.
“Television must continue to play its role as to educate and engage viewers, especially young audiences. This includes sharing success stories about individuals or organisations that are part of making our society better and more sustainable. This is amplified by the theme ‘premium content-content that unites, inspires and informs’ of this year’s World Television day, November 21st.“ said Caroline Petit, Deputy Director United Nations Regional Information Centre for Europe (UNRIC).