Public Service Broadcasting Online

A Comparative European Policy Study of PSB 2.0

B. Brevini

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781137295095
• eBook ISBN: 9781137295101
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Film & Video
• Index: Social Sciences

This book investigates the extent to which a Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) ethos has been extended to the online world in Europe. It examines the most significant policy initiatives carried out by PSBs in Europe on online platforms, and analyzes how the public service philosophy is being reinvented by policy makers.

1

Introduction

In January 2011, the BBC announced that it was to cut its online budget by 25% by 2013. A total of 360 staff in the corporation’s online operation would lose their jobs, editorial policies would be redefined and several news blogs as well as local sites would be ditched. Overall, the BBC promised to close half of its 400 Internet domains.

This announcement illustrates graphically the concerns raised in this book about the extent to which a Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) ethos has been extended to the online world. It also demonstrates how relevant and how vital the issues raised in this study are for the continuing democratic and cultural role of PSB. Not only is this research focused on a relevant European media policy problem of our times – namely supporting PSB on the Internet, or shunning its development – but also it provides a useful framework for explaining the contemporary state of PSB online in Europe, and the forces involved in determining its success or failure. Furthermore, this book develops a framework to explain institutional and structural factors at play when the policies on PSB online are developed in Europe.

This study investigates to what extent the values of PSB have been translated into the online world in Europe. It examines the most significant policy initiatives carried out by PSBs in Europe on the new platforms, and analyses how the public service philosophy is being reinvented by policy-makers at both the national and European level, by PSB institutions and by their competitors. It examines in detail five different European countries as case studies – the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Denmark – in each of which over the last few years PSB has been the object of landmark reforms that have changed their legal and policy frameworks. Concurrently at the European level, the debate about the redefinition and expansion of PSB in the new media has been vigorous.

In March 2009 the French parliament adopted a law that radically changed the financing and organization of France Télévisions (TV Law, 2009). The reform, strongly advocated by Nicolas Sarkozy – the first téléprésident of the French Republic – has for the first time banned advertising from French PSBs.¹ This move has activated an interesting policy transfer process (Dolowitz and Marsh, 2000) in neighbouring Spain. In fact, the French reform triggered the adoption of a very similar policy in Spain concerning Spanish PSB (RTVE). In March 2010 a new law was adopted in Spain that progressively abolished commercials on RTVE, radically changing the traditional funding system of Spanish PSB (Spanish TV Law, 2010). Italy has developed a new PSB Charter, and the UK has also seen the implementation of new and interesting policies concerning its online activities, following the adoption of a new Charter and Agreement.

Moreover, in recent years an intense discussion has taken place at the European Commission (EC) regarding the adoption of the new Communication on State Aid to PSB (European Commission, 2009a) that is impinging on the online expansion of PSBs in Europe.² Denmark is the first country to adapt its framework to the new guidance coming from the EC by introducing in 2011 a ‘public value test’ for the new services of DR, the Danish PSB.

Hence, this analysis aims to provide a valuable insight into the development of national and institutional policies that has shaped PSB online in Europe. But it also attempts to stimulate a debate around the importance of PSB in the online world and elucidates the extent to which the principles traditionally enshrined in PSB in Europe have in fact translated into the new online environment.

Thus, this book addresses three main questions:

1. Which are the main policies adopted by national governments in Europe to develop PSB online? And what are the institutional policies and practices adopted by the PSBs themselves in respect of their Internet activities?

2. What are the key institutional and structural forces moulding these policies across Europe? More specifically, how important are the historical, political and cultural legacies of each nation, the influence of European Union (EU) policies, and pressure from rival commercial competitors in shaping these policies and practices?

3. To what extent has the ethos traditionally enshrined in PSB in Europe in fact been translated into the new online environment? Having outlined the normative values of PSB online (PSB 2.0), has the potential of PSB 2.0 been realized in Europe?

By adding a normative component to the comparative policy analysis, the study seeks to employ another important tool to interpret PSB online and answer Born’s call that ‘we need to break down the boundaries between normative theories and the design of democratic institutions including media systems suited to democratic pluralism’ (Born, 2006: 119).

A normative democratic theory might in fact stimulate a debate around the importance of PSB in the online world and in turn suggest alternatives for improving it. Surely, the structural and institutional factors that will be considered – the historical, political and cultural legacy, the influence of the EU and the commercial pressures – have a bearing on the actual development of the policies under consideration. Nevertheless, a normative theoretical discussion is of great help to ascertain the appropriateness and usefulness of certain policies and practices.

Public Service Broadcasting: Tradition and challenges

As a starting point, it should be clarified that PSB will be framed here as a media policy arrangement. More precisely, since its origin in Western Europe, PSB as a policy framework has been based on a socio-democratic set of beliefs that recognize the crucial function of the State in providing the conditions for an effective social, cultural and political participation in a democratic society.

According to this approach:

media pluralism and diversity are not necessarily best served by the expansion of commercial media, and there remains a strong role for national public broadcasters, either as the principal bearers of public sphere issues in the national media and communications system, or as an important countervailing influence to the commercial broadcasting sector. (Flew, 2006: 296)³

As Van Cuilenburg and McQuail (2003) explain, public service media policy in Europe has been characterized by the following features:

• It is primarily shaped by normative concerns deriving especially from the needs of democratic (thus representative and participatory) politics;

• It is largely bounded by the limits of the national territory and focuses on ‘national interests’;

• It legitimates government intervention in communication markets for social purposes;

• It generally requires active and continuous policy-making and revision; (Van Cuilenburg and McQuail, 2003)

Thus, Public Service Broadcasters have played a prominent role in the democratic life of Western European countries for decades. They performed a function that has been recognized and reaffirmed by all European institutions. For example, the Protocol on Public Service Broadcasting annexed to the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam clearly states that:

The system of public broadcasting in the Member States is directly related to the democratic, social and cultural needs of each society and to the need to preserve media pluralism. (Protocol on PSB, 1997)

Traditionally, PSBs in Europe have been required to fulfil public interest obligations, such as universal coverage, diversity and quality of programming, an appeal to minority groups, an emphasis on local and national content, and a commitment to impartial standards of journalism. Yet, it is important to highlight that each PSB system is developed according to its nation’s particular and unique set of historical, cultural and political traditions. Even so, there has been a common rationale behind European PSBs aimed at developing a ‘new kind of access to virtually the whole spectrum of public life’ (Scannell, 1989: 140).⁴

Throughout its history, the PSB model has showed a remarkable resilience in Europe; PSB institutions have adjusted to ever-changing social and technological changes (Scannell, 1989). Today, the principles behind PSB are facing new challenges posed by convergence, digitalization and global media market pressures (Humphreys, 2006; Helm, 2005; Barnett, 2006). In fact, the traditional role of PSBs as guardians of the public sphere, their impartiality and the quality of their programming is increasingly being undermined by the proliferation of multi-channel platforms, the progressive fragmentation of audiences and increased competition for revenues. Moreover, the recent economic downturn and a cyclical decline in advertising revenues have put the private media sector under aggravated strain around the world. As a consequence, private media enterprises are increasingly demanding that national authorities reduce regulatory control on private enterprises, while raising regulatory oversight on public initiatives and cutting new initiatives within the public sector. The liberal market arguments that see PSBs only as a policy tool to correct ‘market failures’⁵ are gaining more and more relevance.

If the new digital scenario could on the one hand constitute a threat to PSB, on the other hand it also offers new opportunities for PSBs to realign their democratic role by fostering online participation and new ways of social interaction, as well as exploiting online delivery mechanisms for distribution of traditional content. As will be amply detailed in the next chapter, a broad consensus exists among European institutions about the importance of PSB in the changed environment. Also, since 1994 the Council of Europe has emphasized the importance of public broadcasters exploiting new technologies and offering new media services (Council of Europe 1996, 2007). As a consequence, in the late 1990s, several PSBs in Europe started expanding into the online world (Brügger, 2010) with different paces and ranges of investments, according to the distinct nature of each nation.

Academic research

When this study began, no research that had investigated the policies of PSB online was available. Several studies had focused on exploring the theoretical justifications for maintaining PBS in the new digital era,⁶ but none had investigated the policies concerning PSB on the Internet. The only study published at the time was an institutional account by Bakker (2006) on the webcasting offer of the Dutch Public Service Broadcaster (Bakker, 2006). Furthermore, as far as European policies on PSB were concerned, much research had examined the broader framework of European Community audiovisual policies, rather than specifically addressing Member States’ policies on PSB in a comparative perspective.⁷ Conversely, the studies that concentrated on Member States’ PSB policies in a comparative perspective had not directly explored policies on PSB online (see above all Humphreys, 1994, 1996, 2006, 2007, 2009), although they contained some elaborations on PSB online in Europe (Humphreys, 2009; Michalis, 2007). More recently, the only new study that concentrated specifically on PSB online policies in a comparative perspective has focused on Norway, Germany and the UK as case studies (Moe, 2008). Hence, the present comparative study contributes to relevant literature in the field in numerous ways by shedding light on PSBs’ online expansion in the north and the south of Europe. Moreover, the elaboration in this study on normative criteria for PSB online and the establishment of the PSB 2.0 policy framework constitutes an important new critical dimension that might stimulate future investigations of online media developments.

The structure of this book

The book is structured as follows:

• Chapter 2 describes the European and global policy framework of PSB. It considers how EU institutions have reaffirmed the prominent role of PSB in developing democratic life. It also explores the more recent policies developed by European institutions to sustain the development of PSBs into the online world. Furthermore, it elucidates the basis of the European regulatory framework developed by the European Commission with its decisions on State Aid to Public Service Broadcasting. Finally, it catalogues the approach of various international bodies to PSB on the Internet, including the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Trade Organization (WTO) and Council of Europe (COE).

• Chapter 3 discusses the different sets of literature derived from policy studies, sociology, political philosophy and political economy that inform this book. It also describes the main concepts of these literatures and elaborates on the analytical categories for explaining and understanding the policies of PSB online in Europe.

• Chapter 4 adds a new dimension to policy critique. It examines democratic theories shaping PSB values on the Internet. It then elaborates normative values inherent in a revised definition of PSB that can be applied to the online world and that has become known as PSB 2.0.

• Chapter 5 describes the histories of PSBs in European Member States. It also compares historical developments in broadcasting and technology in all the countries considered as well as their Internet and technological take-up. The analysis explores the considerable differences between the backgrounds in which each institution matured and examines the political, cultural and historical legacies of the DR, BBC, RTVE, RAI and France Télévisions.

• Chapter 6 analyses the national and institutional policies on PSB online in the European states considered. It specifically examines how historical, political and cultural legacies that characterize the ethos of each PSB have impinged on and influenced their online expansion in each case considered. It concludes by demonstrating the clear parallel between PSBs’ online and offline activities, in which a typical broadcasting ethos rooted in historical, cultural, political and institutional factors is replicated online.

• Chapter 7 discusses the influence of the EU on national policies of PSB online. In contrast with Chapter 2, it focuses on the most recent policy-making of the European Commission regarding PSB online activities and assesses its impact on domestic PSB policies. It first reviews the most important decisions on State Aid concerning PSB online, and subsequently discusses the newly adopted Communication on State Aid Rules to Public Service Broadcasting (Communication 2...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The European and Global Policy Framework of Public Service Broadcasting
• 3 Theorizing Public Service Broadcasting Online
• 4 A Normative Framework for PSB Online: The Idea of PSB 2.0
• 5 Comparing Histories of PSB in Denmark, France, UK, Spain and Italy
• 6 The Impact of Historical, Political and Cultural Legacies on PSB Online in Europe
• 7 European Union Influence on PSB Online
• 8 Commercial Pressure from Rival Competitors: The Impact on PSB Online
• 9 Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index