Enforcing performance: new approaches to govern public service broadcasting

Abstract

The latest buzzword in the world of public service broadcasting is ‘performance’. Following national and international pressures on public broadcasters’ system of public funding, PSB is being urged to ‘perform’, to provide value for money, to meet targets or suffer the consequences. To this end, a new governance system has been or is being implemented in several European countries containing all or some of the following elements: public-service contracts, performance criteria and performance analyses. This new policy approach touches upon issues such as the independence, the accountability and the distinctiveness of public service broadcasting and creates clear opportunities and threats for the future of PSB.