From problem to solution? Why it is difficult to restrict the remit of public broadcasters

Abstract

This article discusses the conditions for making policy change, and, more precisely, factors explaining why policy change is often hard to achieve even when key policy actors explicitly throw their weight behind it. It draws on a comparative analysis of two specific review processes in Britain and Norway, addressing the future remits of the public service broadcasters BBC and NRK. In both cases, the processes were initiated by governments explicitly stressing the need for radical change, but ambitions were not met although some changes took place. The article combines theories of advocacy coalitions and multiple streams to discuss how key stakeholders within the two processes operated to promote and inhibit change by defining–and re-defining–problems and solutions.