A summit of leading European pubcasters held in Rome late last month agreed to increase co-operation in both the programming and satellite TV sectors.

On the initiative of Italy’s RAI, the meeting brought together Greg Dyke (director general of the BBC), Marc Tessier (president and director general of France Television), Michele Cotta (director general of France 2), Dieter Stolte (director general of ZDF), Javier Gonzales Ferrari (director of RTVE) and Roberto Zaccaria (president of RAI).

The memorandum of understanding, signed at the end of the meeting, underlined the need for reciprocal co-operation and synergies in order to guarantee political independence for public broadcasters and face up to the excessive power of private TV networks. The broadcasters also agreed to commit themselves to the transition to digital technology and the development of new channels and digital services, saying they were convinced of the need to guarantee all citizens universal access to the most important events.

Meanwhile at a recent meeting held in the Romanian town of Timisoara, the country’s public broadcaster TVR decided to join the Alpe Adria TV consortium. The development is expected to provide a significant boost to the setting up of a new television channel for Central Europe, which at present is limited to collaboration between RAI and TV Slovenija. The current members of the Alpe Adria TV consortium, who are from Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Bavaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia and the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, also agreed to organise a similar conference in Timisoara next May.