At a press conference in Groningen, Netherlands (16 January), Peter Smidt, Director of the Eurosonic Festival (also known as Eurosonic Noorderslag), expressed his wishes to work even closer with the EBU broadcasting community.

The annual 3-day festival showcases emerging pop-rock talent from across Europe. The EBU has acted as a major partner for 29 years, with its members broadcasting the festival throughout Europe and supporting a large number of the acts. The European Commission is also a principal supporter.

Mr Smidt said, "Over the past 30 years, the festival has grown and is now the perfect size for discovering Europe's most exciting up-and-coming talent. What we want to do now is work even closer with the EBU and Europe's public broadcasters to increase international coverage and exposure of these bands."

Hervé Riesen, Deputy Director of Radio France and Chair of EBU's Eurosonic Group, reciprocated saying that, "Unlike commercial stations and platforms, our broadcasters have the mandate to take risks on young artists and present them to the public before everyone starts talking about them. Our DJs and music curators are the most trusted in the world and radio is still very strong."

The 2016 edition, with a particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe, was considered a huge success with over 345 bands performing and over 42,100 music industry delegates, participants and visitors in attendance. The festival revealed that next year's edition will include a special showcase on acts from Portugal.

European Border Breakers Charts (EBBC)

Launched at the beginning of the year, the European Border Breakers Charts (EBBC) are the first billboard of its kind bringing together ratings from across Europe.

Laurent Marceau, in charge of Pop Music at the EBU, said, "The European pop music scene is absolutely buzzing these days and "border breakers" have become something to be reckoned with on the music and media landscapes. The European Border Breakers Charts will be a great tool for professionals and provide great information to music professionals, thereby helping the circulation of emerging and promising acts from all corners of Europe."

The European Border Breakers Charts are based on airplay monitored by British radio airplay specialists Radiomonitor, from a panel consisting of 48 stations from the EBU across 32 countries.

EBU stations are encouraged to provide suggestions for the "This Week's Tip" feature

More details can be found on EuropeanBorderBreakersAwards.eu and the chart itself can be found at EuropeanBorderBreakersChart.eu.

Content offers

Audio recordings of the 31 EBU broadcaster supported acts at the 2016 Eurosonic Festival are now available to all EBU members on the EBU's MUS platform. Recordings of all other acts will be released over the next week, and as usual selected videos are available on Euroradio 2See.

The EBBA awards are now available to EBU Members free of charge as a TV show.

EBU members who missed the "Radio and Streaming Platforms: Too many elephants in the music room?" conference discussion given by Rhys Hughes, BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Head of Programming, can now access this on EBU.ch (login required).