Faq

Frequently Asked Questions

Joining egta
Why join egta As an egta member

Can I join egta?

Yes, if your company falls into one of the following categories:

  • Sales houses that sell advertising space for television, radio and/or multimedia, whether publicly or privately owned based in Europe
  • Commercial departments of TV and/or radio broadcasters, whether publicly or privately owned based in Europe
  • Companies that collect revenues from the broadcasting of audiovisual programmes based in Europe

Should your company fall into the above categories but be based outside Europe, you can join egta as an associate member.
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I represent a television/radio advertising sales house based outside of Europe - can I join?

Yes. In fact, egta already has many associate members with business operations outside Europe. For a complete list of our associate members, see the Non-European partners list of members on our website. Associate members have access to all the benefits of an egta membership, except for voting privileges. We are aware that the distance may impede non-European partners from sending delegates to all egta events. For this reason, egta associate members can benefit from a lower membership fee.
For more information, please contact Vanessa Marschner.
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Can I join egta as an observer even though I do not commercialise advertising space?

Unfortunately, you cannot join egta as an observer. We do however welcome partnership opportunities so do not hesitate to contact us to discuss other forms of collaboration. Such partnership opportunities may include sponsorship deals, invitations to speak at egta events, visibility on our website or in our newsletter, possibilities to attend a specific event for a small fee, and so on…
For more enquiries, please contact Katty Roberfroid.
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I already belong to other trade associations (e.g. ACT, EBU, AER) so why should I join egta?

egta is the unique insofar that its field of activities focuses solely on the optimisation of the commercial revenue of our members. A membership with egta can be seen as complementary to associations that deal with other aspects of your business. It is important to note that egta offers a multitude of services to our members - training, research, databases, events - covering all areas of interest (e.g. audience measurement, interactivity, new media, cross media, integrated marketing, sports).

Of course, egta also offers the traditional activities of a trade association, focusing only on legislation and debates at EU level that affect the advertising aspects of our members' business. In practice, when lobbying European institutions, egta does not have a plethora of distracting issues in which to involve itself (e.g. copyrights, media concentration, new technologies, etc.), thus increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our messages towards EU officials. Securing our members ad revenue is indeed egta's ONLY concern.
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My company already has a liaison office in Brussels - do we really need egta?

A liaison office may be an important intermediary between your headquarters and Brussels. However, the benefit of egta's voice in Brussels is its weight and neutrality, respectively representing 70% of the European advertising market and both private and public broadcasters. Instead of defending individual interests, egta can truly claim to speak on behalf of the industry with one voice.

Beyond the traditional monitoring, lobbying and regulatory tasks that may be carried out by your Brussels liaison office, egta offers a multitude of services to our members - training, research, databases, events - covering all areas of interest (e.g. audience measurement, interactivity, new media, cross media, integrated marketing, sports).
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How does egta reconcile the priorities of private and public broadcasters within the association?

Our objective is to help our members secure, develop and diversify their revenue. As turnover optimisation is a shared goal amongst egta members, be they private or public, there is no conflict of interest. In fact, our members attest that this united cooperation of the broadcasting industry, unique to egta, enriches exchanges within the egta network. Beyond commercial interests, other broadcasting issues can be explored on a different platform.
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Is the presence of competitors from the same country within the association a problem?

egta's advantage lies in the dynamism of our network. Our members realise that joining forces and exchanging information, even with companies from their own countries, in fact strengthens the association and is far from being a weakness. It goes without saying that confidentiality and discretion is always respected.
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My national market works differently to other markets. Why do I need egta's international outlook?

The reasons why a sales house is obliged to turn its sights towards the international level and which thereby justify egta's activities can be listed as follows:

  • Strategies of the big groups
  • Price-setting for advertising space
  • Role that advertising plays in the acquisition of broadcasting rights for large international sports events
  • Harmonisation of commercial practices and audience measurement
  • European regulations regarding advertising matters
  • Globalisation of commercial communications
  • Training of upper management
  • The need for technological information to be kept constantly updated
  • Repercussions of the technological revolution on the nature of the services offered by the advertising sales houses and on the effectiveness of their actions
  • The need to have ever larger marketing databases available.

It is our belief that sales house that consider these factors in their business strategies increase their commercial potential.
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We are a radio sales house and thus not affected by cross-border regulation – do we really need egta?

The fact that radio broadcasting is no longer confined within national boundaries has cross-border regulatory implications. Radio is indeed already very much affected by EU legislation, e.g. laws on consumer protection and public health apply to all media and advertising, including radio. Furthermore, with broadcasting via Internet, podcasts and media convergence on the rise the cross-border implications are clear, there is a strong likelihood for other areas of EU legislation to impact your radio business. We know from experience, that existing legislation for television inspires the drafting of radio legislation, often ignoring the differing specificities of each media.

It is worth also remembering that egta's scope of activities encompasses more than advocacy and lobbying on regulatory issues. By joining egta, a radio sales house has much to gain from the full range of egta’s activities such as participation in networking activities and events, requests help desk, access to databases, training, industry information and so on.
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Does egta look beyond European borders to keep an eye on developments in the global advertising industry?

Yes, we do. It is one of egta's priorities to collect and circulate information on what is happening in other parts of the world, while keeping Europe at the heart of our activities. egta uses several tools to keep our members abreast of the latest developments specific to their day-to-day business:

  • egta's weekly press reviews provide a one-stop overview of relevant information from around the world based on our daily monitoring of international media press.
  • Every two years, egta organises a study trip outside Europe to give senior management an opportunity to compare working models and daily concerns with counterparts in other areas of the world (previous trips: USA, Korea, Japan, Brazil and Canada).
  • Most significantly, the presence of 9 associate members from 6 different non-European countries ensures that egta stays up-to-date with changes as they occur in various markets.

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As a member, are all egta activities free-of-charge?

Yes. All egta services are free-of-charge for egta members: advocacy and monitoring, egta events, research documents and databases, egta's request helpdesk, newsletters and press reviews. In fact, egta does not impose any restrictions to the number of people who can attend egta events, receive our communication updates, use our helpdesk, access our extranet and database, receive copies of speaker presentations, etc.

Due to limited places, there are two activities organised by egta that require self-financing:

  • Executive Training Programmes
  • Study trips outside Europe

Please note that travel and accommodation to egta meetings are not covered by the membership.
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Will regular attendance at egta's many events not take up too much of my staff's time?

Not at all. It's true that egta organises approximately 12 events per year, but they each target different professions within a television/radio sales house: Marketing Directors/Managers, the CEOs and Managing Directors, the Heads of Research, the Heads of the Legal Departments, Heads of Sports, IT, special projects, etc. This means that attendance to egta’s meetings are not concentrated to one specific person, but shared among your entire team, optimising the overall benefits to your company as a whole.
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Once I've joined, do I run the risk of being inundated with information?

egta digests large quantities of information on a daily basis, which is then summarised and delivered in various formats to our members. We pride ourselves on ensuring that the most relevant information is sent to the relevant people with relevant timing in a relevant amount. Of course, it is the member company's prerogative to decide who should receive what information. egta follows a “Push-Pull” communication policy, i.e. information is sent to members when appropriate and is accessible via an information-rich extranet exclusive to members.
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How much does an egta membership cost?

The annual cost of egta membership is relative to the gross turnover of a company. Consequently, egta proposes four fee tiers of membership for television sales houses and two fee tiers for radio sales houses:

Radio Member Level 1
Radio sales houses with a gross turnover lower than €20 million
Radio Member Level 2
 Radio sales houses with a gross turnover higher than €20 million
Associate Members
 Television/Radio sales houses based outside of Europe
Television Member Level 1
Television sales houses with a turnover lower than €20 million. (level exclusively valid for companies based in Central and Eastern Europe or companies which only market TV sponsorship)
Television Member Level 2
Television sales houses with a turnover lower than €100 million or between €20 and €100 million for companies based in Central and Eastern Europe
Television Member Level 3
 Television sales houses with a turnover between €100 and €700 million
Television Member Level 4
 Television sales houses with a turnover higher than €700 million

More information on annual egta membership fees, please contact Vanessa Marschner.
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What is egta's legal status?

egta is an international nonprofit association that is governed by what is laid down in Paragraph III of the Belgian law of 27 June 1921 regarding non-profit associations, international non-profit associations and foundations, and in particular, articles 46 to 58 regarding the international non-profit associations (AISBL).

Concretely, this means that egta carries out no commercial activities and is solely financed by the membership fees collected from the adhering sales houses.
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