Jeanette Steemers

Between Culture and Commerce The Problem of Redefining Public Service Broadcasting for the Digital Age

Drawing on examples from the UK (BBC) and Germany (ARD and ZDF) this paper explores the problems of redefining publicly funded public service broadcasting in the light of plans for digital expansion and attempts either to tap into or increase supplementary commercial sources of funding. An analysis of reactions to the prospect of a digital future reveals that the BBC has been given more freedom to pursue its digital and commercial ambitions than its German counterparts, but that the activities of both have raised concerns about the definition of PSB, the extent of its activities, and its ability to separate core public service activities from commercial activities. The paper argues that in redefining PSB, it is difficult to reconcile cultural and market objectives, and that the situation is further complicated by the involvement of the European Union and its concern for fair trading and competition.

BBC to the rescue! Digital switchover and the reinvention of public service broadcasting in Britain

Abstract Britain is almost unique in giving its incumbent public service broadcaster, the BBC, a leading role in driving digital, thereby hoping to hasten digital take-up, and thus allowing analogue switch-of by 2012. This paper is divided into two parts. The first part investigates the recent historical past with respect to the making of policy, drawing on the analytical framework of policy cycles. Why has the British government given the BBC a lead role in the move towards digital transmission, and how does this decision link and interconnect with other interweaving policy debates surrounding the BBC licence fee and Charter renewal? In a media environment, increasingly driven by commercial considerations, what are the key policy motivations for entrusting a publicly funded institution with a lead role in the digital era, and what have been the main challenges and policy dilemmas in doing this? Part two considers how the BBC has responded to government policy initiatives. What are the key building blocks of its digital strategy and just how comfortably do these sit with its public service remit? For digital means much more than just broadcasting, demanding responses to changes in the way that audiences are likely to interact with content in future. Yet, in positioning itself as a content provider, whose content will be available on demand on myriad future platforms, the Corporation is increasingly impinging on what commercial operators believe is their future route to profitability. In the light of this analysis, the paper concludes by assessing the compatibility of government policy and BBC strategy given their at times diverging aims and objectives, and what this means for the continuance of a public service ethos into the digital age.

Broadcasting is Dead. Long Live Digital Choice: Perspectives from the United Kingdom and Germany

Drawing on examples from the United Kingdom and Germany, this paper sets out to explore the potential impact of digital television on broadcasting, and to identify what implications its introduction might have for audio-visual plurality and diversity. Through an analysis of current trends in television, it examines the difficulty of applying traditional broadcasting policy norms, and how digital technology itself is far less important than the deregulation and commercialisation of the analogue broadcasting sector in recent years. The paper argues that strategies developed by public service broadcasters and policymakers at both a national and European Union level may not be sufficient to counter longer term threats to plurality and diversity. These threats stem from the lack of a clear role for the public sector and from the increasing domination of the emerging digital television market by a small number of companies, who are active across converging industry sectors, and who control the key chains of production and distribution.

The BBC’s Role in the Changing Production Ecology of Preschool Television in Britain

CBeebies, the BBC’s brand for young children, has become a successful public service undertaking, lauded by parents and policy makers alike. Nevertheless, it operates in a complex and highly competitive “ecology,” where recent funding crises in commercial television have left CBeebies as the main commissioner of U.K.—originated content. Having outlined the broader industry context of CBeebies, this article examines changes in its organization, target audience, scheduling and commissioning practices, and relationship with the BBC’s commercial subsidiary, BBC Worldwide, to explain how wider commercial, cultural, and technological forces have impacted the Corporation’s strategies for preschool content. It suggests that growing pressures to locate funding for “fewer, bigger, better” programs may have an adverse impact on the range of content and sources of supply.

International Sales of U.K. Television Content Change and Continuity in “the space in between” Production and Consumption

Focusing on the United Kingdom, this article addresses key issues facing the international distribution industry arising from over-the-top (OTT) digital distribution and the fragmentation of audiences and revenues. Building on the identification of these issues, it investigates the extent to which U.K. distribution has altered over a ten-year period, pinpointing continuities in the destination and type of sales alongside changes in the role and structure of the industry as U.K.-based distributors adapt to a changing U.K. broadcasting landscape and global production environment. At one level, increasing U.S. ownership of U.K.-based distributors and the arrival of OTT players such as Netflix highlight the tensions between the national orientations of U.K. broadcasters and the global aspirations of independent producers and distributors. At another level, video-on-demand (VOD) has boosted international sales of U.K. drama. Although the full impact of subscription VOD (SVOD) on content and rights has yet to materialize, significant changes in the industry predate the arrival of SVOD.

Building a digital cultural commons: the example of the BBC

Between these two statements we get a sense of the different etwe perceptions of the future role of public service broadcasting, and the extent to which it should become involved in new media. On the one hand there is a case that the public service principles of universality, independence, range and diversity should also be applied to new media applications. On the other hand there is a case for limiting public service involvement in new digital media to allow commercial operators greater freedom to develop viable businesses, which meet the needs of

Localisation Strategies of US-owned Children's Television Networks in Five European Markets

This study examines the childrens channel output of the US transnationals in Germany, Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands, and seeks to identify the specific factors that determine and shape their programming strategies linked to localisation. The analysis is based on a 2-week analysis of the schedules of some of the most popular transnational childrens channels (Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Playhouse Disney, Nickelodeon, Nick Junior) and key public service childrens channels, as well as analysis of national TV markets and regulatory frameworks. The paper demonstrates the degree to which US transnationals are likely to adapt their offerings to meet different local circumstances, depending on a variety of connected market, regulatory and cultural factors, and points in particular to the importance of the broader institutional, policy and regulatory context in influencing the programming strategies of transnational players.

Public Service Media and Children: Serving the Digital Citizens of the Future

This chapter examines the policy framework shaping the provision of children’s content by three Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) organisations — the BBC in Britain, PBS in the US and RAI in Italy. It shows how political decisions regarding the remit and funding of PSBs have traceable consequences for the ability of these organisations to make a real public service contribution in this area, by providing a service that is at the same time distinctive and popular, two essential goals for any Public Service Media (PSM) organisation.

Blurred Lines: Public Service Media and the State.

The institution of public service broadcasting (PSB) and more recently public service media (PSM), offering new multiplatform services that go beyond radio and television, has always been connected with the constructed concept of nation (Williams, 1975; Gellner, 1983). This is particularly the case in its European heartland where PSB was initiated by the nation-state. As a policy project influenced as much by political and ideological interests as social imperatives, state intervention at a national level was justified by technological limitations, which in the early days of broadcasting underpinned powerful national PSB institutions, which mostly operated as monopolies. PSB then was a key policy instrument for nation-states. The nation-state used PSB as a positive intervention to achieve certain policy goals including the production of information, educational and entertainment content that was meant to contribute both to social cohesion and national identity.

Children’s television: markets and regulation

No other area of television programming has probably been so deeply transformed over the past three decades as children’s television. Once a small, prevalently national, public service endeavour, children’s television has been transformed into what is arguably one of the most globalised forms of television and a highly complex industry, primarily driven by commercial demands as well as by more traditional creative and public service stimuli (Steemers, 2010). A fundamental driver behind these changes, of course, has been the introduction of private television across most of Western Europe in the 1980s and early 1990s. This opened the gateway to US children’s networks which exploited the technical possibilities that multichannel television offered to gain direct access to European audiences from the mid-1990s onwards. In this chapter we consider the contribution of private television to children’s television provision in Western Europe, both domestic commercial broadcasters and the US children’s networks.