Different ways, same outcome? Liberal communication policy and development of public broadcasting

Abstract

The European Union declares that for democracy and pluralism in member states a strong and independent public service broadcasting (PSB) is needed. Patterns chosen by each country and available time for development vary a lot. Despite the wide variety, the universal intersection and similar characteristics between countries and country groups can be found. At the time of increasing market pressure, securing quality, diversity and pluralism of available media content needed for democratic societies, is a task of communication policy. Analysis of the communication policy from political and economic aspects is a helpful tool for shaping the regulation of public service broadcasting in the digital era. The current article looks into overall relations between a country's economic standard, PSB financing levels, historical background and audience market share trends of European public service broadcasters. More detailed focus is on the Baltic countries' PSB financing and performance developments. The case study will open up a background where major political and economic factors affected the development of TV-broadcasting in Estonia during 1994-2010, as well as the modern role of Estonian Public Broadcasting.