Knowing both industries by heart, I can not understand why the lessons learned in the Broadcasting Industry are not applied to Gambling. As was the case with the gambling industry, the broadcasters also started as national state monopolies in Europe.

Every country thought that it could build a huge "dike"’ around its own territory to stop the influences from the neighbours. Then Radio Monte Carlo and Radio Luxembourg commenced with cross border commercial radio transmissions. Radio Luxembourg had such a powerful transmitter that people in the whole of Europe could listen to popular radio programmes in English, German, Dutch and French. "Lucky Luxembourg"’ even created a diplomatic row between the British Government and the Grand Duchy. Even the aristocratic BBC qualified Radio Luxemburg as scandalous, insolent and pirate. The real pirates were of course the "Pirate stations”’ who were transmitting live from ships in the North Sea, targeting the youth in the UK (for example Radio Caroline and Radio London) and in the Netherlands (Veronica and Radio Noordzee). Those were the days my friends...

In 1964, the Dutch audience witnessed the first commercial television broadcast, which was transmitted from an artificial island three miles off the coast of the Netherlands. Laws had to be changed to be able to stop such entrepreneurial ideas from taking shape. It took a long time for the wind to turn.

EU regulations finally came to the rescue in 1989. RTL V»ronique was able to start its operations in the Netherlands as a commercial broadcaster with a Luxembourg license, under the supervision of the Luxembourg Media Regulator! This is what we call an “U-construction” in broadcasting jargon. At the same time, a fully Dutch initiative, TV 10, due to start a commercial television channel in the Netherlands, was blocked by the Dutch Government. The Dutch still didn’t want to lower the “flood barriers”’- after all, dikes were what kept the Netherlands intact.

The Dutch Goverment really thought they could stop new technology seeping through its borders. In the race between technology and new legislation, the technology will always be the winner...

Now RTL is the no.1 in broadcasting corporation both in TV and radio, with 31 TV channels and 33 Radio stations in ten countries. The biggest “crossborder” broadcaster in Europe is of course Eurosport. This pan-European sports network is available in 19 languages, reaches 98 million homes and serves 250 million viewers across 54 countries. It has the largest audience in pan-European TV. And with up to 85 million pages viewed per month, Eurosport.com is the leading pan-European sports website as well. One can see the ads from the Austrian Betanwin appearing daily on Eurosport.

In the meantime the Broadcasting industry solved the crossborder problems. There are many more parallels and interfaces in the development of the two industries. I will just mention some:

Parallel 1 - The Broadcasting and Gambling industry both have regulators. Parallel 2 - The former state monopolies still have powerful international bodies: the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the European Lotteries (EL) both have headquarters in Switzerland. These organisations arrange internal meetings and set up “working parties”’ on several topics. Both have large pan-European events (for example, European Song Festival and Euro Millions).
Parallel 3 - The EBU and the EL always use consumer protection as one of the main reasons for why public broadcasting and “gaming”’ should stay in the hands of the Government.
Parallel 4 - Commercial companies both in broadcasting and the gambling industry seem to always have problems with getting themselves well-organised. There is, however, an Association of Commercial Television in Europe, ACT, whose aim is to represent the business interests of the commercial television sector at EU Institutions. In the footsteps of the broadcasting industry, the Association of Remote Gambling Operators (ARGO) and the Interactive Gaming, Gambling and Betting Association (IGGBA) agreed to merge to create the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) in July 2005. Another “Gambling Club”’ is the European Betting Association (EBA).
Parallel 5 - Both industries could not exist without sports and new technologies. I could go on to mention many more parallels between the Broadcasting and the Gambling industry. And lessons could be learned, crossborder, from both industries. (Symposium organizers, this is your chance!). And now you will wonder what all these parallels have to do with privatisation? Well, the strange and striking matter is that privatisations of state-controlled gambling operators are already taking place, but I have never heard of a former monopolistic broadcaster which was privatised. Did you? I can’t help but wonder?? Why would that be???