South Carolina ETV
History of INPUT
In 1977, the Rockefeller Foundation brought together in Bellagio, Italy, a group of concerned public service broadcasters from ten European and North American countries. Not satisfied with the images carried across national borders by the popular entertainment programs, the group sought a new channel on international communication, one that would foster the exchange of programs and ideas. They sought a means to address their concerns: to vary the images we have of each other—through an exchange of our television programs—and to present to each other a more accurate representation of our respective cultures. The objective was a deeper understanding created through the celebration of our differences and a closer working relationship built upon our commonalities.
The result of the Bellagio meeting was the formation of INPUT, the International Public Television Screening Conference. Since that time, annual INPUT Screening conferences have been held in the following locations:
- Milan, Italy 1978
- Milan, Italy 1979
- Washington, DC, USA 1980
- Venice, Italy 1981
- Toronto, Canada 1982
- Liege, Belgium 1983
- Charleston, SC, USA 1984
- Marseille, France 1985
- Montreal, Canada 1986
- Granada, Spain 1987
- Philadelphia, PA, USA 1988
- Stockholm, Sweden 1989
- Edmonton, Canada 1990
- Dublin, Ireland 1991
- Baltimore, MD, USA 1992
- Bristol, England, UK 1993
- Montreal, Canada 1994
- San Sebastian, Spain 1995
- Guadalajara, Mexico 1996
- Nantes, France 1997
- Stuttgart, Germany 1998
- Ft. Worth, Texas 1999
- Halifax, Nova Scotia 2000
- Cape Town, South Africa 2001
- Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2002
- Aarhus, Denmark 2003
- Barcelona, Spain 2004
- San Francisco, USA 2005
- Taipei, Taiwan 2006
- Lugano, Switzerland 2007
- Johannesburg, South Africa 2008
- Warsaw, Poland 2009
During these twenty-seven years, delegates from many public television organizations as well as independent film and television professionals from all corners of the world have attended INPUT.
Countries represented in past years include the following:
| Argentina | Armenia | Australia |
| Austria | Belgium | Benin |
| Bosnia/Herzegovina | Brazil | Bulgaria |
| Burkina | Faso | Cameroon |
| Canada | Central African Republic | Chile |
| China | Colombia | Czech Republic |
| Denmark | Dominican Republic | Eastonia |
| Finland | France | Georgia |
| Germany | Ghana | Greece |
| Hungary | Iceland | India |
| Indonesia | Ireland | Japan |
| Kazakhstan | Kirghizia | Latvia |
| Lithuania | Luxembourg | Malaysia |
| Mexico | Moldavia | Mongolia |
| Nepal | Netherlands | Northern Ireland |
| Norway | Pakistan | Palestine |
| Panama | Poland | Russian Federation |
| Senegal | Slovakia | Slovenia |
| South Africa | South Korea | Spain |
| SriLanka | Sweden | Switzerland |
| Taiwan | Tanzania | Togo |
| Trinidad/Tobago | Ukraine | United Kingdom |
| USA | Venezuela | Yugoslavia |
| Zimbabwe |
INPUT's purpose is to seek and open international channels of communication so that public service television professionals throughout the world can understand each other's work and develop relationships to improve their art, craft, and purpose. INPUT is a unique opportunity for working professionals to look beyond national borders and local horizons to find new perspectives, techniques, and ideas. It is not a market, a festival, or an awards competition. It is, rather, an immersion in ideas of professional excellence directed towards the ideals of understanding the impact of television programs on the people of all places.
The INPUT conference, held once a year alternately in Europe and North America, is now an established institution within public service broadcasting. The INPUT conferences since 1984 have opened the door for many American delegates with varying backgrounds and experiences to new production techniques, new points of view, new ideas for programming, and new perceptions of how other nations view America.
INPUT has no paid staff. It is organized and conducted entirely through the voluntary efforts of its International Board of Directors and its many friends and supporters.
Historically the costs of INPUT have been borne primarily by the public broadcasting organizations of Europe, Canada, and—to some extent—the United States through subsidizing the travel costs for their producers and programmers to attend the Conference, absorbing the costs of subtitling the programs in English (the official language of INPUT), granting time and expenses to their executives who organize the conferences, assisting in program collection and selection, and hosting the various conferences to date.
Since 1984, the South Carolina Educational Television Commission (ETV) has served as the U.S. INPUT Secretariat.
For more information about Input, contact the U.S. Input National Coordinators:
Mr. Terry Pound
Voice: (803) 737-3434
Fax: (803) 737-3505
E-mail:pound@scetv.org
or
Ms. Amy Shumaker
Voice: (803) 737-3433
Fax: (803) 737-3274
E-mail:shumaker@scetv.org
South Carolina ETV
1101 George Rogers Boulevard
Columbia, SC 29201-4761
Phone: 803-737-3545