Funding and governance of public service television in times of crisis: the cases of France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom

Abstract

In the context of digitalization and marketization that we live in, public service broadcasters are losing audience share to other broadcasters, and with this often comes pressure to justify their public funding and status specially in an economic climate of soaring public European deficits where other public services are facing significant cuts in funding. Is public service television in terminal, structural decline or is the decline merely relative and gradual with public service broadcasting continuing to occupy a significant, if no longer dominant role, in the broadcasting ecology of most European countries? In this work the aim is to analyze the recent changes in funding and governance of public service broadcasters in France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom (UK). The reason for choosing these countries is that the first ones (France and Spain) have been object of drastic cutoffs and struggle for their survival and legitimacy in a market-oriented audiovisual environment (specially Spain), while the other ones (Germany and the UK) have been referred to repeatedly as 'models' of successful public service broadcasting institutions. Although significant differences remain among them, there is a common line of travel emerging public service media (PSM) companies in response to digitalization and marketization that questions the idea that public service television in these countries fit radically different models of media system and that they are in terminal decline. In fact, and despite the fact of a relative decline of PSM companies, sudden extinction should not be expected.