Television programmes in 20 European countries were examined

With almost 4,000 TV channels to choose from, Europeans still rely upon TV as the primary source of information, the Open Society Institute reported.

But it found a drop in quality of news reporting in many countries.

"Investigative journalism and minority programming are hard to find in both public service and commercial broadcasting," the watchdog found.

Digital choice

The institute examined TV ownership, content and regulation in 20 European countries including the UK.

It found a drop in quality of news and cultural reporting in countries where a few companies often control a country's entire TV market and those which have opened up to a flood of commercial broadcasters.

In France, for example, commercial network TF1 attracts almost one-third of the national audience and half of its total TV advertising revenues.

Digital broadcasting could encourage more competition and choice in programming, the report said.

However, as current broadcast regulation does not cover digital broadcasting in most countries, it risks being dominated by a relatively small number of commercial companies.

The Budapest-based institute said governments should not let the market determine broadcasting policy, and should automatically give public service stations licences for digital broadcasting.

'Deluge' of channels

It recommended that the EU set up an agency to monitor media concentration and urged national governments to ensure that media ownership and public media funding were transparent.

"Viewers often do not receive the information necessary to make informed democratic choices," the watchdog said.

A "deluge" of commercial channels in some countries had led to ratings wars with public service broadcasters, said Miklos Haraszti, of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.