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MAC research shows huge diversity of European broadcast languages, with 61 languages across the EU and Turkey

Research from TVT Media, the new global content services powerhouse, shows that 61 languages are broadcast across the European Union and Turkey, highlighting the linguistic diversity within a television market of 600 million people. The research, commissioned by TVT and conducted by Media Asset Capital, reveals France is clearly the king of multilingual content in Europe’s TV markets, with 18 languages available across its 567 channels – including Arabic, Mandarin, Khmer, Turkish, Armenian, Romani and Tamil.

The research was used to create a Media Map showing the secondary broadcast languages in each nation (excluding official native languages and English) – the first in a series of European Media Maps that illustrate the increasingly diverse and complex nature of the European TV market.

The research shows that English is the most broadcast language in Europe and the most common second TV language in European countries, accounting for 792 of the 8,236 linear channels in the EU and Turkey. Other major European broadcasting languages include German (749 channels), French (600), Spanish, Turkish and Italian (over 500 each). The most common non-European language is Arabic (64 channles), followed by Hindi (23), Mandarin (15), Urdu (15), Persian (12), Bengali (11) and Kurdish (10).

Key findings include:

  • The United Kingdom is Europe’s second most diverse market, with 15 languages across 568 channels – including Welsh and Scottish Gaelic – being broadcast. But the biggest UK broadcast languages other than English are the major languages of India (Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil and Punjabi), which account for 62 channels.
  • Germany is another diverse market and has channels broadcasting in 11 languages, with Turkish the biggest non-native language – while others include Russian, Polish, Greek, Japanese, Mandarin and Persian.
  • Spain, despite having the highest total of linear channels of any country in the EU (686), only has TV in five languages other than Spanish – of which only two are non-native (English and Portuguese) – making it one of the least diverse markets.
  • Although the Russian TV market is not captured by the research, Russian is the 17th most broadcast language across other European markets with 135 channels – and still dominates a number of former Soviet Republics, such as Estonia and Latvia, where it is more widely broadcast than the official native languages.