This January, Vienna's annual musical greeting to the world, the traditional New Year's concert, sees the addition of Kosovo's nascent Radio Television Kosovo (RTK) to the long list of broadcasters who carry the Eurovision transmission on the first day of the new year. The concert is being offered to RTK by Austria's public broadcaster, ORF. 

The concert from Vienna's golden Musikverein concert hall is one of the most famous and eagerly awaited musical events in the world. Dating from 1939, its popularity has increased sharply since it was first broadcast on TV in 1959. The concert now reaches more than seventy countries and a potential audience of around a billion viewers. 

On 1 January 2002, the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Seiji Ozawa, musical director of the Vienna State Opera, will perform the works of Johann Strauss father and son, as well as Josef Strauss and Joseph Hellmesberger. The concert coverage is a co-production of ORF, Germany's ZDF, and Japan's NHK. 

RTK was launched in September 1999, broadcasting news and information in Albanian and Serbian for two hours a day under a mandate given to the EBU by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). At the end of the EBU mandate in December 2001, RTK was broadcasting 12 hours daily on its terrestrial network, as well as four hours on satellite - the province's dominant and most respected channel. This was largely possible due to the support of the EBU and its members, both active and associate. With the ORF offer, this support continues even after the EBU mandate. 

"Assuming the responsibility to create a public service broadcaster in war-ravaged Kosovo was an act of faith. Two years later, the EBU mandate has ended and the project is a great success… With the continued support of the EBU and its members, RTK will continue to be a success", says Jean Stock, EBU Secretary General.