Public Service Media Interventions: risk and the market

This chapter focuses on the relationship between Public Service Media (PSM) and the market through the lens of risk. Much discussion of PSM posits their positive cultural and social influence, while discussions of ‘market impact’ have often functioned to tighten control on PSM organisations and limit their remit and scale. Indeed, the discussion of market impact has often been deployed strategically as a rationale to slim down organisations perceived as bloated and slow. However, discussing the market role of PSM organisations is important for a number of reasons, not least as a useful discursive frame for the financing of PSM and, for instance, their impact on national advertising markets. A discussion of market impact also recognises the increasingly blurred line between linear broadcasting and digital media, with PSM activities increasingly focused on the latter. Seismic changes have happened in the infrastructure of broadcasting and audiences today expect interactivity and online services. Whereas in the past regulators such as the European Commission were more ‘restrictive’ of PSMs’ online efforts, today it seems archaic to approach public media as relating to ‘off-line’ content distribution alone. Therefore, it is a matter of public value and of survival for PSM to engage with the opportunities and challenges of the digital market.