Eurovision launches WWI Centenary Project Hub
28 June 2013
With one year to go before broadcasters prepare to join global commemorations around the centenary of World War I, the EBU is launching a project hub for public-service programme makers wishing to participate in collaborative projects.
The centenary of World War I will be a key theme during 2014 and beyond, and will begin in earnest on 28 June 2014 with the anniversary of the assassination of Austro-Hungarian heir presumptive Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. This event, which set in motion a chain of diplomatic crises that would quickly embroil all the world's major powers in a conflict of unprecedented scale and destruction, will be commemorated in a special concert given in Sarajevo by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. A TV co-production from the concert will be made available to all EBU Members as the centrepiece of the Eurovision centenary offer.
Other projects accessible through the portal include the pioneering drama-documentary TV series 14 - Diaries of the Great War, the World War I Broadcast Archives exchange project, with more to be added in the coming months and throughout the centenary.
Broadcasters can further interact and evaluate new areas for collaboration via the Eurovision World War I Centenary community pages.
EBU Media Director Annika Nyberg-Frankenhaeuser said, "The World War I centenary will put broadcasters in the spotlight as they guide their audiences through these complex and still controversial events. By encouraging collaborative programming, we hope to stimulate an international point-of-view on events often seen from a national perspective."
Eurovision has promoted thematic programme making every year since 2012, which saw broadcasters across the world address the question "Why Poverty?". 2013 will see EBU Members showcase the links between public-service broadcasters and the cinema industry, during Eurovision Film Week.
Contact
Matthew Trustram
Project Manager, World War I Centenary
trustram@ebu.ch
T +41 (0)22 717 26 23