Public Broadcasters in the Digital Age

Abstract

In the last decades, European public service broadcasters have faced the erosion of both their viewing share and their revenues. Although they have responded to the challenge from commercial broadcasters, technological convergence and the digitalization of the communication landscape present public broadcasters with new challenges. Public broadcasters may have entered the most difficult phase in their long history since their survival in the new digital and convergent media environment is uncertain. This chapter describes the challenges public broadcasting faces in an increasingly competitive digital television market. It provides an account of the current state of public broadcasters in Europe. It then explores the two major challenges they are going to face, the fiscal crisis and the threats posed by convergence and digitalization. Finally, it discusses the role of public broadcasters in the new European television landscape.KeywordsPublic ServicePublic ChannelPublic BroadcasterCapital InjectionPublic Service BroadcastingThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.