Innovation is finding better ways to do things, and EBU Members – no less than anyone else – must continuously innovate. EBU Members are constantly on the lookout for ideas to improve their services offerings and internal processes. A successful scheme, first devised by Belgian broadcasters, is to set up ‘Innovation Hubs’ that invite fresh thinking and coordinate innovation with industry and start-ups.
The EBU Broadcast Technology Futures Group (the BTF) recently held a workshop hosted by Flemish public broadcaster VRT at their headquarters in Brussels on 'Creating Successful Innovation Hubs' to explore and understand the scheme. The group comprises senior staff from Members’ R&D and innovation activities, and the objective was to learn from VRT’s experience with Innovation Hubs and develop a plan to encourage other public service broadcasters to establish similar programmes.
The presentations from the workshop are available to EBU Members on the workshop's webpage.
The discussions looked at how the VRT scheme works today, the lessons learned, what areas look most promising for Innovation by EBU Members, and steps that can now be taken to apply the model elsewhere.
The group is planning further meetings and workshops, with the next one scheduled for September 2022 and hosted by the BBC. As one member of the group said during the discussions: “We believe that our task in public service media is not just to foresee the future, but to enable it.”