It would be the fate of the European Broadcating Union.
The EBU was founded with spectacular dreams, of being a pan-European television network. A network that supported the independent productions of all its constituent networks, (i.e. the networks of all the constituent EC member states), and presented them within a single unit that the entire European community could enjoy.
Its primary attempt at creating a pan-European television network was Eurovision, yes, that Eurovision. However, this was the '50s, and most states in Europe, and elsewhere, believed that broadcasting was a national resource, and not something to be controlled by an extranational force - and so the EBU's attempts at creating a de facto cultural European Union were quashed. It continued to operate as a medium of inter-European network cooperation, but its time as an independent broadcaster was never to come.
Now, I'm not saying I don't enjoy the Eurovision Song Contest... okay, yes I am, I am saying I don't enjoy the Eurovision Song Contest. But what I am saying is that it could have been so much more, imagine a television channel, establised from the 1950s onward, dedicated to broadcasting the best in broadcasting from throughout Western Europe - we would, by this time, be so much more culturally competent, the arts of our nearest European nations would not be lost to us, they would be available instantly.
However, it is not the spread of the High Arts that would be most influential. Imagine a Britain that had grown up on the Soap Operas of mainland Europe from the 1960s onward, (overlayed with a subtle dub, but with the reality of a European origin always evident), French, or German, or Austrian, or Italian celebrities would be easily recognisible on the streets of any English town.
If this isn't a shared culture, I don't know what is...
Honestly, I must say, as a Eurofederalist, that this would be my wet-dream. I have always hoped that Europe would consider itself a united culture, (which, I, at least, feel it is, but, acknowledge, that others may not), and would bring us closer to ever greater union.
This isn't saying that the Eurovision Song Contest mightn't exist, indeed, maybe we would even do better!
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2 comments:
*bangs trankard on table*
hear hear!!!
I'd like to think that a pan-European TV union would be so large it would have to be discriminating enough to always be really, really good - like a HBO for Europe...
Although it would probably be closer to 24-hour Eurotrash.
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