Broadcast and media technology market in Europe

The broadcast market in Europe is much more fragmented than in North America; the region is characterized by multiple languages, a wide range of large state-funded broadcasters, a variety of commercial broadcasters and several pay-TV operators. In addition to the content they produce themselves, broadcasters in Europe deliver plenty of regional and international content.

Because rights holders typically sell content to a single broadcaster per country, programs must be delivered to each country and/or territory with the appropriate audio tracks, subtitling, aspect ratio, and technical metadata to meet local regulatory requirements.

Given the complexity of preparing content for distribution to dozens of countries, many program producers find it more efficient to deliver internationally syndicated content to European broadcasters via a central playout center, which has the staff and expertise to take care of…