Public Service Broadcasting: History, Challenges, and Evolution
Public Service Broadcasting
The Nature and Structure of Media Institutions
The nature and structure of media “institutions” affect what is and is not made available to the audience. One important distinction is between public and private media. Their aims, objectives, and means of financing are quite dissimilar.
Looking back in history, Britain’s BBC (radio) was initially the British Broadcasting Company (a private body) which became the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1927. With this, the BBC became the most significant medium of mass information, news, and debate until the arrival of television.
Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) can be defined as a system meant to operate primarily in the public interest. “The public” in this sense was a national body of people, only differentiated by region, which affected radio stations.
Reith’s Vision for Public Service Broadcasting
John Reith, the first general director of the BBC, wanted to bring culture to ordinary people. He saw broadcasting as an educational tool that would aid democratic principles of participation. For him, it would bring cultural offerings to the greatest number of people.
Reith was against using broadcasting solely for entertainment. He championed debates, news, and dramas that viewers wouldn’t see if television wasn’t there. However, his notion of culture was oriented more towards upper-class tastes. He also believed that broadcasters should lead rather than follow public taste.
Challenges to the Reithian Model
During WWII, radio listeners resisted the Reithian notion of public service when they perceived propaganda for the war. Audiences were also exposed to commercially produced American radio stations broadcasting in Europe, which were much lighter and more populist in tone and content.
Listeners, liking this change in style and programming, began to demand changes within PSB. Reith resisted the pressures towards commercialization, being wholly in favor of maintaining a monopoly and independence of expression.
Scannell (1990) argues that these structural arrangements were far more important to the development of broadcasting in the long term than content or style.
The Rise of Commercial Television
After the war, TV emerged as an increasingly popular medium on both sides of the Atlantic. The “high culture” BBC world was threatened by the emergence of commercial television in the 1950s, ending its monopoly.
The idea of commercial television was to maximize revenue through advertising. Therefore, they were more likely to produce programs based on the potential size of the audience rather than encouraging sophistication.
PSB had to adapt to keep its place. Commercial television doesn’t need to be seen as an alternative to public broadcasting but as an extension of it. However, the means by which revenue is raised in commercial TV influences policy and programming at least as much as the government influences PSB.
In Britain, the establishment of Channel 4 in the early 1980s illuminated the growing recognition of the need for television that would more fully reflect the interests of minorities within the audience. Channel 4 was aimed towards said under-represented tastes. As a result, commercial interest was at first slow and cautious, but now Channel 4 is a well-established modern interpretation of PSB.
Other Constraints and International Perspectives
Other constraints exist on the operation and funding of TV: political control, state and legal regulations, and technology itself.
The BBC, unlike commercial companies, has been funded through the mechanism of a TV license and by a special charter from the government, so its relationship with the government is complex. The degree of control is arguable, but there are examples where the state has openly intervened to suppress information or to force the BBC to use information in particular ways, such as during the war.
Although Britain has been taken as the prime example of PSB, many countries have followed suit, including the CBC in Canada and the ABC in Australia. In the USA, though, the dominant model is a commercial one.
PSB existed mainly in the form of “educational TV” until the late 1960s when the Public Broadcasting Act provided for the networking of educational channels and the establishment of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which took control of creative management. The most innovative example of programming by PBS was the creation of the Children’s Television Workshop, which produced Sesame Street.
For many years, public service in the USA relied on programs bought from the BBC, but in the 1980s, the BBC entered an agreement to sell to a cable network, undermining the provision of “quality” programming in America.
The Changing Landscape of Television
In recent years, there has been a massive increase in channels thanks to the introduction of cable and satellite technology. This, and also video, has meant the role of the audience has changed. Current debates have shifted towards deregulation and the changing relationship between providers and consumers. Other developments such as Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services may fragment audiences even more.
Although there are many more channels, much of what is available falls into a limited cultural range. Furthermore, far from Reith’s idea of high culture and education, access to television often depends on one’s financial resources.