EBU announces new technology hub for Madrid

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is opening a new technology hub in Madrid to support its new business services subsidiary, Eurovision Services.

The public broadcasters organisation said that the Madrid team will be focused on innovation and software engineering-related activities and will help to power the next-generation of media products and services.

The new technology hub will be led by Eurovision Media Services’ manager of engineering and technology support, Albert Marti, who has been upped to head of Eurovision Labs.

“The media market continues to change at a rapid pace and Madrid is known for attracting innovation,” said EBU director general, Noel Curran.

“It has a number of incubators and a massive pool of software engineering talent. Therefore, it was a logical and strategic choice for us to establish our new technology hub, Eurovision Labs, in this city.”

Eurovision Media Services CEO, Marco Tinnirello said: “What’s clear from talking to content owners and broadcasters is that what is most needed at this time of change and disruption in the media landscape is the ability to be agile in order to be able to try out new ways to create value from their content and to reach audiences.”

Eurovision Media Services is the business arm of the EBU and delivers thousands of hours of sports, news and cultural events around the world each year. The division will be renamed Eurovision Services and become a fully owned EBU subsidiary on 1 January 2019 – as announced by the EBU in October.