This year’s EBU Knowledge Exchange, organized by the Media Intelligence Service and hosted by Stockholm University, brought together 137 media experts from 23 countries, including 66 participants from 27 EBU Member organizations. They were joined by other media professionals and academic researchers from across Europe.

A diverse line-up of speakers provided the attendees with insights, ideas and inspiration about how public service media can reach young audiences. Among the key messages:

Dr Ulla Carlsson (NORDICOM) provided insight into media use from a Nordic perspective, with public broadcasters being challenged to remain connected to the young audience while remaining true to public service values.

Dennis Christensen (DR) outlined successful recipes to attract young viewers, and shared examples of bold and alternative TV content created by the Danish public broadcaster.

Sharon Green (Radio Results International) stressed the importance of risk taking to drive innovation and engage the audience.

Dr Jakob Bjur (TNS-SIFO, University of Gothenburg) presented data on the media use of children and teenagers, with the growing weight of alternative devices resulting in a need to adapt scheduling and multiply ways to reach young viewers.

Alexandre Callay (Eurodata TV Worldwide) showed the importance of TV as a global media and its perennial power in a changing media landscape.

Ben Keen (IHS) assessed the changing nature of television in Europe and the business models that are shaping the transformation.

Francesca Cimino (EBU MIS) illustrated the diversity of young audiences in Europe and provided data to understand their media behaviour.

A panel of experts, including Hans Dreesen (VRT), Dr Sascha Hölig (Hans-Bredow-Institut), Dr Sjoerd Pennekamp (NPO) and moderated by Riikka Lätti (EBU MIS), discussed the expectations of young audiences in terms of news content and shared their experience on initiatives specifically designed to serve this fast-paced audience.

In addition, EBU Members UR (Swedish Educational Broadcaster), Swedish Radio and SVT each organized a showroom for the attendees, displaying their latest content and innovations related to the event’s theme.

The participants were also able to visit several infopoints and discover the research and publications by EurodataTV – Mediametrie, the European Audiovisual Observatory, NORDICOM, the Institute for Media Studies of the Stockholm University and the Media Intelligence Service of the EBU.

One of the main highlights of the day was the active participation of all attendees in the production of the final conclusions. By means of a networking activity, entitled "Building the Bigger Picture", the attendees exchanged their insights of the day and lessons learned, which were translated in real time into a detailed summary sketch.

The event was highly followed and commented in social networks like Twitter (#KX14).

All the presentations from EBU Knowledge Exchange 2014 are available on the event website.

Photos by Ausi Petrelius