Search results

This article aims to investigate whether and how the application of European state aid rules to the public funding of public broadcasting organisations in Europe has advanced public broadcasting as a policy process and made it more adaptive to the challenges of the digital age.

The findings are based on a triangulation of literature study, document analysis and expert interviews (with over 50 stakeholders involved with the topic of state aid and public broadcasting).

The article consists of four main parts. Firstly, the issue of state aid and public broadcasting is contextualised within the heated discussions on the legitimacy of European intervention in a cultural policy domain such as broadcasting. Secondly, the analytical framework is presented. Thirdly, analysis of specific state aid cases follows. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations are outlined. The article concludes that European state aid policy has furthered a public service media project in the EU member states.

The article fills a void in current fragmented and often overly descriptive or overly ideological assessments of the relevance of state aid policy for public service broadcasting.

The paper contributes to ongoing policy debates about the issue of state aid policy for public service broadcasting.

The article fills a void in current fragmented and often overly descriptive or overly ideological assessments of the relevance of state aid policy for public service broadcasting.

The purpose of this study is to review current policy debates on convergence in Korea and the UK. This study compares the two countries' cases of how they prepare for convergence, what are the regulatory frameworks, and what are the conflicting issues in the convergence.

This study conducts a comparative case study between Korean and the UK. Data are collected through literature review, regulatory document and market research.

The regulation in the UK has been focused on how to change the notion of public interest in the convergence era, whereas the agenda in Korea seems to be how to apply a legacy of public interest to convergence services. The laws of public interest in Korea have been drawn from a legacy regime, which makes applying in a convergence era increasingly difficult. There is a compelling need for conceptual clarification in understanding the meaning of public interest in the convergence environment.

Future research may further investigate the effective regulatory framework in the emerging convergence era.

Regulation needs to be transparent, clear and proportional and distinguish between transport and content. This implies a more horizontal approach to regulation with a homogenous treatment of all transport network infrastructure and associated services, irrespective of the nature of the services carried.

This research identifies issues regarding convergences and suggests a way in which the two different principles of broadcasting and telecommunications can be integrated; how public interest laws can be reconciled with considerations of competition and economic efficiency is explained.

The paper aims to identify issues in broadcasting and telecommunications regulation and law arising from technological convergence and to suggest a new framework for an integrated approach to policy and regulation.

A set of South African laws, regulations, bills and policy papers is reviewed to establish to what extent they promote, or at least adapt to, technological convergence using three tests: technological neutrality, integration of policy processes and a “level playing field” for competition.

It is suggested that current law and regulation fails to meet the South African Government's stated aim of promoting convergence. It is suggested that a reason for this may be the difference in the public interest “rationales” for broadcasting and telecommunications regulation, with the former being largely social and political and the latter largely economic. A new paradigm based on the constitutional principle of freedom of expression is suggested as providing a means of establishing a neutral public interest framework for developing and adapting regulation under conditions of technological convergence.

The research methodology is qualitative. Further research on the economic, social and political welfare costs of regulatory failures to adapt to convergence may be helpful in informing policy, legal and regulatory debates in the future.

This paper suggests a new rights‐based means of direct comparison of public interest costs and benefits across broadcasting and telecommunications using a principle that is present in the South African constitution as well as in international law.

This study compares the strategies and impact of six British activist groups, as documented in 1997, with data gathered on the same groups in 2000. These groups, Voice of the Listener and Viewer, Campaign for Quality Television, Deaf Broadcasting Council, Consumers Association, National Consumers Council and National Listeners and Viewers Association, attempted to build a public sphere for generating debate around and catalysing changes to broadcasting policies and programming. They were tracked in 2000 in order to identify those issues, relationships and groups that had endured. The research design provided a telescopic look at their interactions with their targets and with each other during a period of rapid technological and industry change. In a multichannel broadcasting environment where convergence and globalisation are buzzwords, activists used public relations to create a broader public forum for a wide range of significant issues with which to engage demographically, psychographically and geographically diverse publics. The ensuing media education, media advocacy and relationship building, although elite in origins, strengthened democratic discourse, thus reaffirming broadcasting’s invaluable role in civil society.

The research explored, over seven years, the strategies and impact of six UK pressure groups. The main method used was in‐depth interviews. In addition, extensive searches of several literatures and database, archival, print, government and online works were undertaken, as was unobtrusive monitoring of consultations and other group communications. The data strongly suggested that these groups raised awareness of, and debate about, compelling broadcasting issues that affect viewers and listeners as citizens. At times, they achieved legislative changes. Groups that built strategic relationships with target publics, in tandem with media advocacy and media education, were more likely to achieve their goals, but relationship building was itself a successful outcome and contributed to ad hoc alliances/coalitions that increased organizational effectiveness. Overall, these groups had an impact on the range and quality of broadcasting issues discussed and on citizen engagement in broadcasting issues on national, regional and, increasingly, global levels. This research is one of the first studies from the activist perspective and posits public relations' value to democratic dialogue. It also presents a cross‐cultural perspective that may be transferable to other societies.

This paper examines recent Canadian public policies intended to create a window for domestic entertainment programming on television in the face of a series of economic and technological factors which favour greater cultural integration with the American television market. These factors include the limited revenues available to the conventional public and private TV sectors, audience fragmentation through cable, and both the readily availability, and audience acceptance in English Canada, of inexpensive shows from the USA. Recent policies have focussed upon increasing the number of Canadian cable channels in a country where most people subscribe to cable; but paradoxically, public funding for the mainstay of domestic entertainment programming, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, is being drastically cut. The impacts of these cuts on the Corporation’s mandate, and proposed remedies, are outlined. It is concluded that public broadcasting policies are now being determined by economic rather than cultural goals, and that the Corporation is a victim of this trend.

Measuring the value of a public service broadcaster (such as the BBC) is particularly pertinent today given the growing pressures on public service broadcasting. The opportunities offered by digital technologies, increasing demands for accountability, and the upcoming UK Charter Review have all brought public service broadcasting into scrutiny. However, the complexities of measuring the service delivered to the public are immense. First, there are the challenges in defining and meeting the expectations of the public as consumers, and as citizens. These challenges are then multiplied when considering the full range of expectations and requirements imposed on a public service broadcaster by their diverse set of other stakeholders (ranging from regulators to independent producers). This article discusses some of these challenges and provides suggestions as to the measures and approaches to be considered.

This chapter offers an historical overview and analysis of US broadcast regulation. It demonstrates how seemingly race-neutral policies – the interpretation of “public interest,” the preference for incumbents, the application of the First Amendment, and the embrace of colorblindness within US media policy – has functioned to entrench White interests in the broadcasting sector. Drawing on critical policy studies and critical race theory, this chapter illuminates how broadcast regulation has been a technology of White privilege, one that has had substantial consequences for the distribution of both material and symbolic resources as well as for the contours of the public sphere in the United States.

This article focuses on Brazil’s migration to digital television. It shows how, in the case of Brazil, unicasting solely reflected the interests of commercial broadcasters. Comparing Brazil to France and the United Kingdom, it explains why the European choice for multicasting is one of the reasons for the success of digital television penetration in these two countries.

By analyzing viewing shares and the financial relevance of the public broadcasters, BBC, and France Televisions, to the national broadcasting spaces, the study concludes that these European traditional broadcasters profited from digital television, despite their exposure to a more competitive environment.

As I will discuss, the model chosen in Brazil continues to hamper Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) and national audiovisual industries’ developments, as well as slowing digital take-up. In Brazil, public broadcasting continued to play a marginal role in the national broadcasting space and the audiovisual market, concentrated in a few local companies.

The findings of this comparative study, developed from a political economy perspective, provide important insights into both Brazilian and European telecommunications policy.

To analyse the application of competition law and regulation in the value chain for television broadcasting in the UK, and to evaluate the need for intervention through the financing of public service broadcasting.

Arguments relating to public service broadcasting are deployed and UK competition laws and regulatory interventions are analysed.

In the digital age, the need for public intervention in broadcasting is weakened, but further development of competition law is required to prevent abuse of the market power.

A broad debate about the role of public intervention in the broadcasting market place is now taking place, and the paper proposes that such interventions be largely confined to competition policy and regulation directed to the goal of competitive markets.