The Development of the Audiovisual Landscape in Central Europe Since 1989

Soon after the political changes in 1989/1990, the countries of Central Europe officially applied for membership of the European Union.

Since then, the Commission of the European Community has been preparing for the accession of these "candidate" countries to the Union.

As part of this pre-accession strategy and within the audiovisual domain, the Commission entered into an agreement with the intergovernmental body, Audiovisual Eureka, whose mandate is to assist audiovisual professionals from non-member countries of the Community to participate in an enlarged European market.

Within this framework, Audiovisual Eureka, on behalf of the European Commission, undertook to commission individual studies on the development of the audiovisual landscape in six of the candidate countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Repuplic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Slovak Republic.

The purpose of these studies was to provide the Commission with detailed information of the audiovisual markets in these countries - the structural changes resulting from the political changes and the market trends.

Consequently, the studies have been edited to form chapters to make up this book. It is aimed primarily at policy makers, buisness people, academics and students.

However, the information, forecasts and conclusions should also appeal to the general reader with an interest in media matters.