Over 6,500 TV channels can be received in the European Union and the candidate countries of Croatia and Turkey, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory.
The Strasbourg-based organisation has drawn the data from the 29 European TV countries monitored for its MAVISE database, created in 2007 on behalf of the DG Communication directorate of the European Commission.
According to the observatory there are currently 5,068 active channels, 4,663 of these originate from within the EU or the two candidate countries, and 405 from outside the Union.
381 are nationwide terrestrial channels with a national analogue or digital licence; 2,473 are nationwide channels available through cable, satellite or IPTV. The UK has the highest amount of channels with 883 compared to with 300 in Germany, 284 in Italy, 252 in France and 199 in Spain.
The UK numbers are swollen by the number of channels based in the country and targeting overseas markets.
