In Search of a Third Way: Balancing Public Purpose and Commerce in German and British Public Service Broadcasting

Abstract

This paper considers the debate in the U.K. and Germany about the continued justification for publicly funded public service broadcasting in an apparently converging media and communications environment. It examines the public broadcasters' responses, which increasingly encompass a broad range of expansionary and commercial strategies. These strategies bring them into conflict with commercial players and policymakers who would like to see a more restricted form of publicly funded provision. In both countries the questioning of public service broadcasting's distinctive publicly funded role is growing as commercial media become both more dominant and confident, and this questioning is reinforced by the difficulties in defining the public service remit and securing sufficient funding for its fulfilment.