21 November 2016: World Television Day

World Television Day is celebrated annually on 21 November.

The United Nations declared World Television Day on 21 November 1996, so this year is the 20th anniversary. The United Nations launched UN Television in 1947 to cover news footage direct from humanitarian crisis locations, as well as to create their own documentaries on human rights, peace and security, and sustainable development. UN Television also has a 24-hour news service called UNIFEED.

Scottish inventor John Logie Baird created televsion, but America Phil Farnsworth was also developing the technology at the same time. In 1938 electronic television sets were sold to the public and in 1941 the first ever commercial broadcast occured in America. In 1982 Sony Watchman showcased the first handheld television device, and in 2005 there were flatscreen and high definition televisions. Today television programming is streamed over the internet.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT), and egta the Brussels-based association of television and radio sales houses are also underlying the impact of television on the 20th anniverary of World Television Day. They made a 30-second video: http://bit.ly/WorldTVDayVideo2016.

The video highlights that 600,000 people in Europe help create the television programs that reach 610 million viewers across Europe, with 60,000 hours of entertainment and news daily on 5,463 TV channels. In Europe 89% of citizens watch television every week, at an average of 3.55 hours of television per day.

In America, there are on average 2.93 television sets in every home with 95 million online consumers of television. The average American watches almost 5 hours of television per day.

http://www.worldtelevisionday.tv

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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