About

Made up of 117 member organisations in 56 countries, as well as 34 associate members from a further 21 countries, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is an alliance of public service media organisations established in 1950 with headquarters in Switzerland. The team is made up of 14 lawyers and two admin staff, led by legal and policy director Dr Richard Burnley who leads two units, regulatory legal and business legal, and describes the entire team as, ‘accurate, clear, pragmatic and solutions-based’ and possessing ‘a unique and leading specialism in broadcasting and media law issues’. The team has recently expanded in number due to the increased complexity and volume of regulatory work for the EBU and its members. ‘The legal team is moving from narrower legal specialisation to broader based legal expertise in response to converging technologies and legal issues’, says Burnley. The legal team also now has a dedicated compliance team for GDPR and recently oversaw the spin-off of commercial services within the EBU into a dedicated subsidiary.