The number of TV channels based in the European Union has grown by 49% since 2009.
The European Audiovisual Observatory’s MAVISE database says as of 2015 there were 5,370 available channels, excluding local channels and windows.
High Definition accounted for 57% of the net channel increase over the six-year period. Other genres with significant net channel growth in the same time period were sport (11% of the total net increase) and entertainment channels (6% of the total net increase).
The Observatory says a significant number of countries are acting as hosts to multiple language versions of channels, principally from the United States.
These include the United Kingdom, France, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden.