EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre attended the Arab States Broadcasting Union’s (ASBU) 35^th General Assembly in Tunis on 10 and 11 December.

The assembly included a professional debate on the topic of "broadcasting and social media: opportunities and challenges". Deltenre stressed the importance of platform integration (broadcasting, internet and social media), especially south of the Mediterranean where the majority of citizens are below 30 years old.

Throughout the assembly, a series of bilateral meetings were held with representatives of EBU Members Algerian TV & Radio, Tunisian Radio, Tunisian TV, and Jordanian RTV. Deltenre discussed how the EBU could help improve its services and assistance to the broadcasters in the region. A tripartite meeting between the EBU, ASBU and the Permanent Conference of the Mediterranean Audiovisual Operators (COPEAM) was also held, culminating in a joint action plan for 2016.

In a final statement, the ASBU General Assembly expressed satisfaction with the recent decision by the ITU’s World Radio Communication Conference (WRC-15) on the exclusive use of the UHF spectrum by terrestrial TV services. Securing the spectrum for broadcasting use for the next decade will enable many countries in the region to continue with their digital switchover programmes without the risk of an anticipated change in use of the spectrum.