Europa TV was a consortium of five European public service broadcasters from West Germany (ARD), Ireland (RTÉ), Italy (RAI), the Netherlands (NOS) and Portugal (RTP).

The channel was financed through contributions from the Dutch government, the European Commission, the participating broadcast organizations and through advertising revenues[6] within its initial three-year budget was 30 million ECUs.

Europa TV studios were located in Hilversum in the Netherlands, and Klaas Jan Hindriks [nl] was appointed as general manager.

[6] Europa TV started its transmissions on 5 October 1985[9][3] and initially only available in the Netherlands,[10] which expanded its reach to 4.5 million households across Europe via ESA and Eutelsat's ECS-1 satellite.

[3] These included weather forecasts (covering EEC countries such as Norway, Sweden and Finland but excluding East Germany), current affairs (ex: Worldwatch) and music programmes (ex: Countdown, presented by Adam Curry).