A new report, published by the European Audiovisual Observatory, provides a brand new IRIS Special analysis of the current state of regional and local broadcasting in Europe. It offers an in-depth insight into the regional audiovisual media in Europe in three sections: The first delivers a broad overview of current national developments and reforms in recent years; the second digs deeper into individual national case studies of regional and local media – their distinctive features and regulatory approaches; and the third looks into the future of regional and local broadcasting.

The report also emphasizes the importance of regional media as fora for public debate, communication channels for regional identity as well as for regional news not covered in national reporting. It therefore also points out the need to preserve the existing local media outlets in every European country. In the current hostile economic context with cutbacks causing closures of regional channels throughout Europe, this will ambitious demand will certainly prove itself to be a challenging one for the European media landscape.

A summary of the report can be found here.