The last five years have been a period of immense change within the BBC. In common with all other parts of the organization, R&D has also been subject to upheaval.

This article describes the issues that have forced the changes, and attempts to summarize some lessons that have been learnt during this – sometimes uncomfortable – process.

The IRT, based in Munich, provides R&D facilities for the public service broadcasters of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

This article describes how the IRT has adapted to meet the needs of its parent bodies in the rapidly-changing media environment.

Unlike most other principal EBU members, the (UK) Independent Television Commission "out-sources" most of its R&D work.

In this article, the Author describes why – in the case of the ITC at least – a comprehensive in-house R&D facility is not considered necessary.

The RAI Research Centre in Turin sees participation in strategic European collaborative projects, and continuation of its work in the EBU Project Groups, as the way forward in the rapidly-changing world of broadcasting.

Of equal importance to RAI is its in-house R&D which is now focused on software rather than hardware development, and on services rather than on technology issues, in order to provide the vital competitive edge.

As one of the smaller EBU members, SVT – the Swedish public service broadcaster – has found it particularly difficult to maintain a viable R&D operation in recent years.

Here, the Author offers his poignant views on where broadcasting R&D has gone wrong in the past, and puts forward his ideas on what the future holds for the traditional broadcaster in the rapidly-changing media landscape.

TDF – a privately-owned company belonging to the France Telecom group – is the main provider of radio and television transmission services in France. It also carries out R&D work in the broadcasting and telecommunications fields.

This article describes the current R&D facilities of TDF, and how they have been organized in the context of today's competitive business environment.

The inductive output tube (IOT) is the latest generation of amplifying device for use in high-power transmitters. It entered service in 1991 and is now used world-wide as a more efficient replacement for the klystron at UHF.

The performance of the IOT in analogue television transmitters is outlined here. The article also presents and discusses the results of its performance as the final amplifier in the new generation of digital terrestrial television transmitters.