[ecrea] VIEW Journal Call for papers on History of Private and Commercial Television in Europe

CfP VIEW Journal Vol. 6, Issue 11 / Summer 2017
History of Private and Commercial Television in Europe

The perception of the European television and media landscape has been 
traditionally shaped by the contrast and constant comparison with the 
American one: state-run stations or public service broadcasting in 
Europe vs. commercial networks in the US. However, in most European 
countries it took to the last third of the 20th century, until 
commercial TV got proper permission, or started its activities. As a 
result, to date, the structure is characterized by coexistence of public 
service and commercial stations (in a mixed system only later opened to 
pay and over-the-top operators).

The history of European televisions’ commercialization, however, is way 
less linear, and more interesting and complex. In many European 
countries there have been early attempts to launch some form of private 
television, on a local, national, or even supra-national basis. Some of 
the early attempts to plant private TV are short-lived or failed totally 
(for example FFG 1960 in Germany), others like the ITV-Network (UK) or 
RTL Télévision (Luxembourg) were able to establish themselves already 
during the 1950s on a regional level aside the major public-service 
providers. In Italy, after a debate already originating in the 1950s, 
there has since the 1970s been plenty of – initially illegal – locally 
focused broadcasters, leaving space in the following decade to national 
commercial networks. And media moguls, such as Silvio Berlusconi, 
started from their own country and later tried to enter other markets, 
with mixed results. Additionally, the public-service stations themselves 
are often subjects to the principles of commercialization: most of them 
inserted commercials from the early days in their programming and/or had 
to buy broadcasting rights (e.g. for feature films, or TV series, 
sitcoms and other formats) from international markets, thus establishing 
other kinds of competition. This even occurred at state-run television 
in Eastern Europe. It is clear, the process of television 
commercialization didn’t just start during the 1980s, but its 
implementation was from the very beginning, and followed very different 
paths in each European country. Moreover, the emergence of consumer 
societies in post-war Europe and the dissemination of private TV seems a 
deeply interwoven process.

This issue of VIEW seeks to deepen our understanding of how aspects of 
commercialization in TV shaped the media culture in Europe. We aim to 
offer a scholarly view on the history of institutions, political and 
economic interests, technical conditions, legal frameworks, professional 
cultures, programmes and their aesthetics, scheduling and advertising, 
aspects of reception and reactions in societies, related discourses, and 
backlash on public service TV. Transnational, comparative and entangled 
perspectives are preferred.

*** Proposals are invited on (but not limited to): ***

Case studies on specific stations/companies/countries in Europe
Historical cases of successful and/or failed attempts of establishing 
private TV
Different developments/models of commercial TV in Europe: legal and 
illegal, free-to-air and pay TV
Transnational circulation of ideas, professionals and formats in 
commercial television across Europe
Direct and indirect relationships between Europe and the US, as a 
successful model for commercial television and/or as a critic and 
debatable issue
Impact of commercialization on TV formats, genres, content, and 
television schedules and programme flows
Competition to and convergence with public service TV
Political and societal discourses related to justifying, 
supporting/contrasting and establishing commercial television
Commercial television production and distribution cultures
Commercial television consumption and reception practices
“Silent” commercialization through license- and programme-trade
History of television commercials
The influence of technical preconditions and developments
Commercial TV archives and their issues (availability, conservation, 
catalogue)
Privatisation of TV in Eastern Europe after 1990/91
Video and audio essays presenting primary sources (e.g. oral interviews, 
audio-visual material) or other ways of exploring commercial TV in Europe.

*** Practicals ***

Deadline for abstracts(max. 500 words): September 12, 2016
Deadline for full papers(3 – 6,000 words): January 14, 2017

Contributions are encouraged from authors with different expertise and 
interests in media studies, television broadcasting, political economy 
of communication, media economics and media industries, audience 
studies, from researchers to television professionals, to archivists and 
preservationists. We welcome contributions in the form of articles and 
video essays.

Submissions should be sent both to the managing editor of the journal, 
Dana Mustafa via (journal /at/ euscreen.eu) <mailto:(journal /at/ euscreen.eu)> and 
the assistant managing editor, Rieke Böhling via (boehling /at/ uni-bremen.de) 
<mailto:(boehling /at/ uni-bremen.de)>.

For further information or questions about the issue, please contact the 
co-editors: Christoph Classen via (classen /at/ zzf-potsdam.de) 
<mailto:(classen /at/ zzf-potsdam.de)> (Centre for Contemporary History 
Potsdam/Germany), Sonja de Leeuw via (J.S.deLeeuw /at/ uu.nl) 
<mailto:(J.S.deLeeuw /at/ uu.nl)> (Utrecht University/NL), and Luca Barra via 
(Luca.Barra /at/ unicatt.it) <mailto:(Luca.Barra /at/ unicatt.it)>(Università 
Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano/Italy).

See www.viewjournal.eu <http://www.viewjournal.eu> for current and 
previous issues. VIEW is proud to be an open access journal. All 
articles are made findable through the DOAJ and EBSCO databases.

*** About VIEW journal ***

VIEW is published by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in 
collaboration with Utrecht University, University of Luxembourg and 
Royal Holloway University of London. It is supported by the EUscreenXL 
project, the European Television History Network and the Netherlands 
Organization for Scientific Research.
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