Euronews to launch general iOS and Android app, Polish version penciled in for 2012

Euronews is planning to launch a unified Euronews application for iOS and Android devices, as well as an app specifically designed for people on the move.

The pan-European news broadcaster has already delivered apps related to specific content – specifically its No Comment TV YouTube channel and a Euronews Live app – but this will be the first time it has launched a universal app providing access to all its content.

“We are now working on two apps,” CEO Michael Peters told DTVE. “We will have a pure Euronews app which will be the same for iPad, iPhone and Android devices. We are also working on another app just for the iPhone – Euronews Express – for people in a hurry.”

Euronews is also working with Google to run a series of live interviews of major figures who will relate questions posted by citizens on the internet. The first in the series will be with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso.

Separately, Euronews is also planning to launch a Polish version of the channel following its Ukrainian launch earlier this year. The channel has been test-broadcasting in Polish between 17:00 and 24:00 since July, but the broadcaster hopes to follow this up with a full launch at the beginning of 2012.

Euronews is also to trial more localised content, starting with its Ukrainian feed from October 5. “Some programmes will be replaced just for Ukraine with Ukrainian content,” said Peters. “This is just a test – we want to see how well it works.”

He said that doing this on a permanent basis would be a significant change and would need to be weighed up carefully and discussed with shareholders. He stressed that Euronews would not seek to compete with national news providers but would continue to focus on stories with an international dimension even where it looked to local production by in-country journalists.

Ukraine was chosen for the experiment in part because viewers there can already receive Euronews’ Russian-language version and the local production of some reports would give added differentiation to the Ukrainian version.