Five Institutional and three new Affiliate members were approved for admission to the ABU by the Administrative Council at its half-yearly meeting in Islamabad.
The Institutional members are the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Prix Jeunesse, the World DAB Forum, the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Consortium and the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB).
These are the first Institutional members to be admitted to the ABU following the approval of changes to the ABU Statutes by the Almaty General Assembly last year.
The Institutional membership category is designed for organisations with which the ABU seeks closer relationships through reciprocal membership arrangements. Admission is by the invitation of the Administrative Council.
The three new Affiliate memberships approved were National Geographic Venture, USA; Multi Carrier (Mauritius) Ltd; and Network 1 Pvt Ltd, India.
The Administrative Council also agreed to have the applications from four broadcasters for Additional Full and Associate membership submitted to the Full members for balloting.
The ABU now has 148 members in 55 countries and special administrative regions.
The 78th Administrative Council meeting was hosted by PTV Pakistan. The Council accepted an invitation from Radio Television Maldives to hold next years half-yearly meeting in the Maldives.