In the run-up to the New Year five EBU Members combined their newsgathering operations to report on the grass-roots impact of the economic crisis at Christmas, under a pilot scheme led by the Eurovision News Exchange.  

News teams from Germany (ZDF), Greece (ERT), Iceland (RUV), Ireland (RTÉ) and Spain (TVE) contributed material for the “Crisis Christmas” project, to provide insight into how European families and businesses were coping.

Each was invited to shoot pieces to camera in English and their own language, and to provide English transcripts and international sound. Participants were at liberty to use the resulting footage as they saw fit. 

Eurovision Head of News & Events Jeff Dubin said the pooling idea had emerged from an EBU News Assembly session in November, where Members had proposed that Eurovision coordinate coverage of a story, sharing perspectives as well as resources.

He said: “We are all living and working in a climate of shrinking budgets and limited resources, so it was fitting that the first collaborative story should focus on the economic crisis. The principles of solidarity and reciprocity are the cornerstones of the Eurovision News Exchange and by working together with Members, combining their strengths, we can help them provide a broader perspective of the important stories of the day.”

ZDF produced a three-minute piece with material from Ireland, Iceland and Germany in the primetime news magazine "Heute Journal", and aired a two-minute item from Ireland in the midnight news bulletin "Heute Nacht". The German broadcaster also put translated versions of all the stories on the ZDF website.

RTÉ used the German, Icelandic and Irish pieces on its “NewsNow” news channel from Christmas Eve onwards. 

Foreign Editor Cathy Milner applauded the “valuable experience”, adding: “From our point of view it was well worth participating in the project. If the pre-Christmas news agenda here hadn't been so busy in the run-up to Christmas, it’s likely we would have got a lot more use from the reports provided.”

Icelandic broadcaster RUV aired the coverage on its main evening news at 1900 five nights in a row.

RUV deputy head of news Ingólfur Bjarni Sigfússon described the impact of the material on the Icelandic public as “surprising”.

He said: “People reacted, and obviously the stories gave them something to think about; they were informative and emotional.”

He added: “We certainly think this project is worth repeating. It is a perfect example of something the EBU can facilitate; RUV would never have been able to do anything similar by itself. It was doable without spending enormous amounts of time and resources with results that were certainly worth the effort.”

Further similar collaborations are under consideration for 2013.