Public Service Content

The digital media environment is characterized by an abundance and diversity of content, a multiplicity of platforms, new modes of content production, distribution and access, and changed patterns of consumer and business behaviour. This has challenged the traditional model of public service broadcasting (PSB) in diverse ways. This book explores whether and how PSB should adapt to reflect the conditions of the digital media space so that it can effectively and efficiently continue to serve its public mandate. Drawing on literature on media governance in media and communication science, public international law as well as discussions on cyberlaw, Mira Burri maps and critically analyses existing policy and scholarly debates on PSB transformation. She challenges some of conventional rationales for reform, identifies new ones, as well as exposes the limitations placed upon existing and future policy solutions by global media governance arrangements, especially in the fields of trade, copyright and Internet governance. The book goes on to advance a future-oriented model of Public Service Media, which is capable of matching an environment of technological and of governance complexity. As a work that explores how public interest objectives can be pursued efficiently and sustainably in the digital media ecology, this book will be of great interest and use to students and researchers in media law, information technology law, and broadcast media studies, as well as to policy-makers.

A guide to the nature, purpose, and place of public service television within a multi-platform, multichannel ecology. Television is on the verge of both decline and rebirth. Vast technological change has brought about financial uncertainty as well as new creative possibilities for producers, distributors, and viewers. This volume from Goldsmiths Press examines not only the unexpected resilience of TV as cultural pastime and aesthetic practice but also the prospects for public service television in a digital, multichannel ecology. The proliferation of platforms from Amazon and Netflix to YouTube and the vlogosphere means intense competition for audiences traditionally dominated by legacy broadcasters. Public service broadcasters—whether the BBC, the German ARD, or the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation—are particularly vulnerable to this volatility. Born in the more stable political and cultural conditions of the twentieth century, they face a range of pressures on their revenue, their remits, and indeed their very futures. This book reflects on the issues raised in Lord Puttnam's 2016 Public Service TV Inquiry Report, with contributions from leading broadcasters, academics, and regulators. With resonance for students, professionals, and consumers with a stake in British media, it serves both as historical record and as a look at the future of television in an on-demand age. Contributors include Tess Alps, Patrick Barwise, James Bennett, Georgie Born, Natasha Cox, Gunn Enli, Des Freedman, Vana Goblot, David Hendy, Jennifer Holt, Amanda D. Lotz, Sarita Malik, Matthew Powers, Lord Puttnam, Trine Syvertsen, Jon Thoday, Mark Thompson

Incorporating HCP 314 i-viii, session 2006-07

These essays address one of the most challenging debates in contemporary European media studies: the transition of the traditional Public Service Broadcasters into Public Service Media, as they widen their remit to produce and distribute public service content across more delivery platforms to meet the requirements of the digital age.

Addresses a critical analysis of major media policies in the European Union and Council of Europe at the period of profound changes affecting both media environments and use, as well as the logic of media policy-making and reconfiguration of traditional regulatory models. The analytical problem-related approach seems to better reflect a media policy process as an interrelated part of European integration, formation of European citizenship, and exercise of communication rights within the European communicative space. The question of normative expectations is to be compared in this case with media policy rationales, mechanisms of implementation (transposing rules from EU to national levels), and outcomes.

This report responds to the current crisis in public service broadcasting, particularly in the advertiser-funded television sector. This has been caused by three factors: (1) the move from analogue to digital broadcasting means that established forms of support are losing value; (2) viewers are increasingly taking advantage of technological developments that provide alternatives to conventional broadcasting, such as the internet and the many commercial channels; (3) the speed and severity of the current economic recession. The Committee believes that the commercially-funded public broadcasters - ITV, Channel Four, Five and BSkyB - should continue to provide an alternative to the BBC, which should not become an even more dominant provider of public service programming. Market forces will not resolve the crisis and intervention is justified to ensure sufficient public service provision that the market will nor provide free for the public. There is a need for financial clarity on the financial position of all the public service broadcasters, and Channel Four's position should be independently reviewed. A partnership between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide, rather than a full merger, would be a quicker means of making extra resources available to Channel 4. The BBC's other partnership proposals are welcomed. An element of contestable funding should be introduced, such funding to come from: (a) the underspend on the digital switchover; (b) continuance of funding from the licence fee after 2012 when the switchover programme ends; (c) the use of at least part of analogue spectrum revenue after 2012. Ultimately, part of the licence fee could be used to support public service content provision outside the BBC.