The EBU owns and operates the Eurovision and Euroradio telecommunications networks on which major television and radio broadcasts are distributed live to its members.

EBU members are public service media (PSM) broadcasters established by law but are non-partisan, independent and run for the benefit of society as a whole.

EBU members come from as far north as Iceland and as far south as Egypt, from Ireland in the west and Azerbaijan in the east, and almost every nation from geographical Europe in between.

Associate members from the United States include ABC, CBS, NBC, CPB, NPR, APM and the only individual station, Chicago-based classical music radio WFMT.

[3] Membership is for media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area, as defined by the International Telecommunication Union, or who are members of the Council of Europe.

Most EBU broadcasters have group deals to carry major sporting events including the FIFA World Cup and the inaugural European Championships.

[9] The EBU was a successor to the International Broadcasting Union (IBU) that was founded in 1925 and had its administrative headquarters in Geneva and technical office in Brussels.

It was considered necessary to have an organisation that could implement the "Copenhagen Wavelength Plan" but there was disagreement among broadcasters and particularly a fear expressed by the BBC that a new association might be dominated by the USSR and its proposal to give each of its constituent states one vote.

The following day the IBU met in General Assembly and an attempt was made to dissolve it but failed; though 18 of its 28 members left to join the IBO.

[10] For a period of time in the late 1940s both the IBU and IBO vied for the role of organising frequencies but Britain decided to be in involved in neither.

The BBC then proposed a new solution based on the IBO changing its constitution so there will be only one member per International Telecommunication Union (ITU) country, thus ensuring a Western majority over the USSR and its satellite states.

One proposal was for the European Broadcasting Area to be replaced by one that would exclude Eastern Europe, the Levant and North Africa.

Meetings in Paris on 31 October and 1 November 1949 sealed the fate of the IBU and IBO, but it was decided not to allow West Germany to be a founder of the new organisation.

West Germany was admitted in 1951 and a working relationship forged with the USSR's Organisation for International Radio and TV (OIRT) which existed in parallel with the EBU until its merger on 1 January 1993.

Much of this collaboration is achieved through Project Groups which study specific technical issues of common interest: for example, EBU Members have long been preparing for the revision of the 1961 Stockholm Plan.

ensures interoperability between products from different vendors, as well as facilitating the exchange of programme material between EBU Members and promoting "horizontal markets" for the benefit of all consumers.

[14] The EBU put out a statement expressing its "profound dismay" at the shutdown, urging the Greek Prime Minister "to use all his powers to immediately reverse this decision" and offered the "advice, assistance and expertise necessary for ERT to be preserved".

[15] Starting on 4 May 2014, the new state broadcaster New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (NERIT) began nationwide transmissions, taking over ERT's vacant active membership slot in the EBU.

The Belarusian Television and Radio Company (BTRC) has been accused of repressing its own employees, having fired more than 100 people since a wave of anti-Lukashenko protests in 2020 following alleged election fraud.

[2] Any group or organisation from an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) member country, which provides a radio or television service outside of the European Broadcasting Area, is permitted to submit applications to the EBU for Associate Membership.

[3] The list of past associate members of EBU comprises the following 94 broadcasting companies from 55 countries and 1 autonomous territory.

The first winner was Glasgow Phoenix Choir, conducted by their Chorus Master Peter Mooney, from Scotland in the 1961 competition that was held in London.

The most recent winner is Copenhagen Girls Choir from Denmark, conducted by Anne-Terese Sales, in the 2024 competition that was held in London.

The original series' run ended in 1982, but was revived in 1988 with a different composition of nations and was hosted by smaller broadcasters.

Euroclassic Notturno is a six-hour sequence of classical music recordings, assembled by BBC Radio from material supplied by EBU members and streamed back to those broadcasters by satellite for use in their overnight classical-music schedules.