Television without frontiers – can culture be harmonized?

There is constant tension within the EU arising from conflicting national interests. One aspect of this which has received little attention is that of conflicting national cultures. In the modern world, culture is mainly transmitted across national borders via the medium of television. This means that the USA, which produces the greater part of world output of TV material, would fill a majority of schedules outside the USA in a free market. Within the EU, some countries find this acceptable whereas others do not, fearing that their national cultures will be destroyed. These tend to be countries with a different language and a history of originating rather than receiving culture. The issue of how much culture can be imported has accordingly dogged the EU for a long period, resulting in many cases before the European Court of Justice and several unsatisfactory attempts to produce a universally acceptable directive on the issue of cross‐border TV.