The European Parliament is planning to launch a web TV channel next year. Currently plenary sittings of the European Parliament can be seen live via the main European Parliament website, however, it is expected that when the TV web channel is launched much more will be available. It is expected that live coverage of full sessions of Parliament and Committee meetings as well as educational and historical documentaries will all be on offer.

The European Parliament web TV channel is likely to be modelled on the Scottish Parliament’s web channel. Certainly there are many advantages to broadcasting on the web not only is it cost effective as compared with standard digital or analogue broadcasting but it also offers the possibility of multi-channel broadcasting.

“Web TV offers better opportunities than conventional broadcasting when dealing with the problem of multilingualism, a main constraint of the European Parliament which operates in 20 languages.” Simon Duffin, Head of Press at the European Parliament UK Office explains.

The move to a web TV channel also enables the European Parliament an opportunity to address the criticism of being too far removed from European Citizens and enables it to be more transparent in its activities.

Simon Duffin has told us: “we are persuaded that TV-over-internet is a promising technology which will become extremely common in the future, reaching a broad cross-section of society especially as broadband penetration expands. This technology is appropriate for the sort of “sit-forward” viewer we expect to reach.”

The precise cost of the European Parliament’s plans is yet to be revealed, however, it is expected that this is a big move in attempting to bring the European Parliament closer to the people is serves.

Whether it will increase voter participation and interest in the work the European Parliament is yet to be seen.