Taking the public service remit forward across the digital boundary

Abstract

Abstract The idea and concept of public service broadcasting was born in the first half of the twentieth century and has undergone fundamental changes ever since. Digitization challenges PSBs fundamentally and requires PSBs to transpose their practices into the circumstances of the twenty-first century. This article scrutinizes the development of key public service values on this journey by studying key public players from Europe and beyond. This research finds that key principles such as diversity, independence, universality and serving the public interest need re-establishment by active media and broadcast policy. The article recommends policy to allow PSBs to become public service media (PSMs), to allow for constant delivery of news in addition to pre-packaged formats, to enable PSMs to enter into dialogue and conversation with its audience, and to allow for sufficient entrepreneurial flexibility towards new business opportunities.