The launch of the new DTT channel ETB-4 and the renovation of the offices in Donostia-San Sebastian are some of the actions Euskal Irratia Telebista plans for 2009, the management board of the Basque media group announced in a press conference to unveil the 2008 balance sheet and this year's objectives. The launch of ETB-3, the new eitb.com and the 25th anniversary of Radio Euskadi have been some of the landmarks of the year that has just finished.

2008 marked the first anniversary of the EITB offices in Bilbao, which was celebrated under the slogan Izan EITB (Be EITB) October 10th and an open house day on the day of launch of the new DTT channel ETB-3 and the new eitb.com.

The new eitb.com gathers all the audiovisual contents of the media group in a single website. These contents include all kind of subjects and articles, interactivity, participation, surprises and emotions.

2008 was also the year of the 25th anniversary of Radio Euskadi. The Basque radio station celebrated a World Café, an open dialogue that gathered a thousand people including radio announcers, usual collaborators of the radio station and listeners.

As for the audience data, 2008 was the year marked by the biggest TV consumption: 227 minutes per person in the Basque Country as against 207 in 2007. Euskal Telebista averaged a 18.5 % share, matching the previous year's data. The new channel ETB-3 has an accumulated audience of 138.000 viewers and is the second most seen thematic TV channel after Natura.

Audience ratings for EITB's radio stations were quite good in 2008. Radio Euskadi, Euskadi Irratia, Gaztea, EITB Musika and Radio Vitoria have a daily audience of 425,000 listeners according to the CIES data and 431,000 listeners according to EGM data. Eitb.com has 610.647 users and serves almost seven million page views per month.

2008 was full of recognitions. Many of the professionals of the different media of EITB won recognitions and awards for their work. The received awards included the Ondas award to "Vaya Semanita", the Argia award to the Euskadi Irratia radio program "Arratsaldekoa" and the ETB-1 program "Mihiluze", and the Arregi award to journalists José Mari Iriondo and Xabier Usabiaga.

The infographic works of eitb.com won two Horizon Interactive awards in Indiana and the ÑH Award and several journalists of Radio Euskadi won the Dolores Ibarruri awards. The new offices in Bilbao received the sixth Professional Production Awards and the engineering team won the TIC Innovation recognition.

Challenges for 2009

This starting year will be marked by the renovation of the Miramon offices in Donostia-San Sebastian and the launch of the new DTT channel ETB-4, a multilingual news channel which will broadcast mainly in Basque and Spanish but also in French and English.

The analogical TV blackout will begin in Alava and the Basque radio station Radio Vitoria will celebrate its 75th anniversary. EITB will also face another important challenge this year: to win the EFQM Excellence Award .

Tokens of solidarity and support

During the presentation of the 2008 balance sheet, the members of the management board of EITB also took the opportunity to thank all the gestures of solidarity and support received after the December 31st attack. The attack did not stop the broadcasting and it is expected that the damage is repaired in two months' time.