Costa Haralambis

Former photo-reporter, born in Greece and established in Switzerland in the early 70s, Costa Haralambis became a film director and, thereafter, a film & video producer, before launching successively, ICI-TV, MITIL and Market4TV.com. He now runs his own Production & Consultancy company Webstyle-TV and he works as culture & media advisor, trainer and expert for missions around the world, mainly for the European Commission. After directing three full length docudrama films in the 70s, he directed & produced a large amount of corporate, promotional and awareness raising videos during the 80s prior to founding ICI-TV in 1994 - one of the first private Swiss regional cable TVs, based and broadcasting in Vevey (Lake Geneva). ICI-TV became one of the most innovative private TV stations in Switzerland and, during his management, Costa created most of the channel's broadcast programs and was a founding member of the Swiss Association of Private Broadcasters Telesuisse and the Swiss Multimedia Association Swissmedia. He sold his shares and left ICI-TV's management in mid-2000 to establish himself again as an independent producer and audiovisual consultant Webstyle-TV and to later create the MITIL Association and its annual international Event & Market formerly held every June in Vevey, Switzerland, dedicated to independent producers and local broadcasters. President of this event, he has also been Secretary General for the GSM Film Market of the Festival Cinema Tout Ecran (Geneva Select Market) and International Co-ordinator for the Golden Beggar Festival in Kosice, Slovakia. In 2003 he launched Market4TV, the first Professional Online Market for TV Content created for facilitating the circulation of audiovisual content between sellers and buyers by providing the specific tools for searching and viewing full length television programmes directly online. Since 2004, he achieved various evaluations missions, training workshops, culture & media consultancy expertise projects, mainly on behalf of the European Commission. Among them, a mission for the reform of the national Broadcasting Corporation RTI in Ivory Coast, a full set of training workshops at Vietnam's state broadcaster VTV and at Cambodia's TVK, (in cooperation with UNDP - related to elections coverage), another one at STV, Cameroon's leading private national television network, or for digital newsroom installations at Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro national broadcasters. Costa is now working as independent executive TV producer and culture & media advisor, trainer and expert, mainly for the European Commission (European Union - EuropeAid).