Public broadcasting
Public broadcasting, also known as
public service broadcasting or
PSB (though this term has a specific different meaning in the United Kingdom - see
public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom), where
radio,
television, and potentially other electronic
media outlets receive funding from the
public, has traditionally been the dominant form of
broadcasting around the world. The broadcasters' funds can come directly from individuals through
donations or
fees, or indirectly as
state subsidies that originated in
taxes or other national funding sources. Some public broadcasters supplement this with contributions from
corporations, which may be granted a limited amount of
advertising time in return. However, when advertisements occur on public broadcasting outlets, they are usually much shorter and less attention-grabbing than on
commercial broadcasting stations. Commercial broadcasting now occurs in many countries around the world, and the number of countries with only public broadcasting has declined substantially.
One of the best known public broadcasters is the
British Broadcasting Corporation, based in the
United Kingdom, whose mission is to "inform, educate and entertain". In the
United States, public broadcasting is more decentralized and is not government operated, but does receive some government support. The majority of funding comes from community support to hundreds of public radio and public television stations, each of which is an individual entity licensed to one of several different non-profit organizations, municipal or state governments, or universities. These organizations often produce their own programs, but largely depend upon national producers and program distributors such as
National Public Radio (NPR),
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS),
Public Radio International (PRI),
American Public Television (APT), and
American Public Media. U.S. government support is filtered through a separate organization, the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
There is no standard definition of what public broadcasting is exactly, although a number of official bodies have attempted to pick out the key characteristics. Public service broadcasters generally transmit programming that aims to improve society by informing viewers. In contrast, the aim of commercial outlets is to provide popular shows that attract an audience—therefore leading to higher prices when advertising is sold. For this reason, the ideals of public broadcasting are often incompatible with commercial goals. Of course, public broadcasters also strive to entertain their viewers, but they can still come across as being overly paternalistic in nature.
The
Broadcasting Research Unit lists the following as major goals or characteristics of a public broadcaster:
*
Geographic universality — that the stations' broadcasts are available nationwide, with no exception (a criterion failed by
Five; however, in the case of
PBS in the
United States and the
CBC/Radio-Canada in
Canada, the "nationwide" criterion is satisfied by either member stations (as is the case with PBS) or, as is the case with most public broadcasting systems around the world (including Canada's CBC/Radio-Canada), the system owning transmitters to broadcast nationwide.
*
Catering for all interests and tastes — as exemplified by the BBC's range of minority channels (
BBC2,
BBC Radio 3, and various digital services), but also by the commercial
Channel 4.
*
Catering for minorities — much as above, but with racial and linguistic minorities. (for example Channel 4,
BBC Asian Network,
Radio-Canada, Australia's
SBS).
*
Concern for national identity and community — this essentially means that the stations should in the most part commission programmes from within the country, which may be more expensive than importing shows from abroad.
*
Detachment from vested interests and government — in other words, programming should be impartial, and the stations should not be subject to control by advertisers or government. Even when a station is removed from corporate and government interests, critics argue that it may nonetheless have a bias towards the values of certain groups (e.g., the
middle class, leftist politics, etc.).
*
One broadcasting system to be directly funded by the corpus of users — the
licence fee in the case of the BBC, member stations asking for donations in the case of the US's
PBS/
NPR.
*
Competition in good programming rather than numbers — quality is the prime concern with a true public service broadcaster. Of course, in practice, ratings wars are rarely concerned with quality, although that may depend on how you define the word "quality".
*
Guidelines to liberate programme makers and not restrict them — in the UK, guidelines, and not laws, govern what a programme maker can and cannot do, although these guidelines can be backed up by hefty penalties.
Some of these definition points may not be acceptable everywhere. For example in the
United States public radio may see part of its mission to bring in foreign shows, e.g. shows from the
CBC/Radio-Canada or the
BBC.
The
mass media marketplace is tremendously competitive, and as such, it can be difficult for a public service broadcaster to survive amongst commercial interests. This may become even more of an issue with the increased number of channels that digital broadcasting provides.
Modern public broadcasting is typically a mixed commercial model. For example, the
CBC has always relied on a subsidy from general revenues of the government, and more recently, in the case of the CBC television, advertising revenues, making them competitive with
commercial broadcasting. Some argue that this dilutes their mandate as truly public broadcasters, who have no commercial bias to distort their presentation of the news. In most countries in
Western Europe, state broadcasters are similarly funded through a mix of advertising and public money, either through a licence fee or directly from the government.
Public broadcasters receive all or a substantial part of their funding from government sources, either from the general tax revenues or from licence fees. Since public broadcasters do not rely on advertising as a source of revenue to the same degree as commerccial broadcasters, this allows public broadcasters to air programs that are less saleable to the mass market, such as public affairs shows, documentaries, and educational programs. Some public broadcasters, such as the BBC in the UK and the PBS in the US (
The Newshour with Jim Lehrer) are seen as more trustworthy sources for balanced news and public affairs programming.
An interesting example of this balancing role is the use of the word "
terrorism". While commercial broadcasters often use the word as if it were a category one could observe directly, public broadcasters are forced by their very mandate to justify their use of the word — the BBC at one point claimed it would label no one a "terrorist" as they considered it a political term. Throughout the
IRA crises, the BBC steadfastly referred to "the IRA", "Republican forces" or to "militants".
As well, public broadcasting system facilitates the implementation of
cultural policy (an
industrial policy and
investment policy for culture). Some examples include:
* The Canadian government is committed to
official bilingualism (English and French). As a result, the public broadcaster, the
CBC employs translators and journalists who speak both official languages and it encourages production of cross-cultural material.
Quebec separatists argue that this is also a policy of cultural imperialism and assimilation.
* In the
UK, the
BBC supports multiculturalism and diversity, in part by using on-screen commentators and hosts of different ethnic origins.
* In New Zealand, the public broadcasting system provides support to Aboriginal (Maori) broadcasting, as a way to improve the opportunities and maintain the cultural heritage of these New Zealanders.
Critics of public broadcasting systems argue that this implementation of cultural policy imposes the values of the public broadcaster on the populace. However, it can also be argued that commercial broadcasting has a bias for certain values or cultural forms, such as
pop culture,
militarism,
culture bias, and
consumerism.
Public broadcasting, and also some
pirate broadcasting, provides a counterweight to the
commercial media. Advocates of
deliberative democracy, argue that public broadcasting helps to maintain modern technological democracies. At the same time, public broadcasting systems have also been used by
dictators and totalitarian governments to spread hatred and incite
genocide.
Australia
In
Australia, the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is funded entirely through an
Australian Government grant-in-aid, which has made it vulnerable to cuts in government spending. The multicultural
Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Australia's other public broadcaster, now accepts limited sponsorship and advertising.
In addition, there are a number of community television stations (most operating as
Channel 31 despite being unrelated across different states) and radio stations that survive almost entirely on donations and corporate sponsorship. They are organised similarly to PBS and NPR stations in the US, however are much less powerful; largely due to competition from the ABC and SBS. They also take on the role that
public access stations have in the US.
New Zealand
In
New Zealand, the former public broadcaster BCNZ (formerly NZBC) was broken up into separate state-owned corporations,
Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and
Radio New Zealand (RNZ). While RNZ remains commercial-free, TVNZ although claims they are a Public Service Broadcaster about 90% of funds are from selling advertising during programmes on their two stations, and show they are a fully commercial network being in continuous ratings battles with other stations.
Programmes offered on this so-called PSB include popular shows like Desperate Housewives, E.R, Lost, Cold Case & Dancing With The Stars. TVNZ is no different to any other commercial TV network worldwide and its two stations TVONE & TV2 hold majority ratings in the country. The company has sparked criticism for its role as a PSB with its high advertising content. Because of its high ratings some of the dearest advertising slots in the country are charged.
The Government owns a network of reserved channels for non-commercial regional access broadcasting, and some of them have been awarded to local community trusts to provide public service and access television. Examples are
Triangle TV in Auckland and Wellington; and Channel 7 in Taranaki.
Canada
In
Canada, the main public broadcaster is the national
CBC, which operates two television networks (
CBC Television and
SRC), four radio networks (
CBC Radio One,
CBC Radio Two,
La Première Chaîne and
Espace musique) and two 24-hour news channels (
CBC Newsworld and
RDI) in both of Canada's official languages. CBC's television operations are funded in part by advertisements, in addition to tax dollars from the federal government (Newsworld and RDI are funded entirely be commercials). CBC's radio operations are commercial-free. In recent years, the CBC was frequently battered by budget cuts and labor disputes.
In addition, several provinces operate public broadcasters; these are not CBC subentities, but distinct networks in their own right. These include
TVOntario, which operates two networks (English TVO and French-language
TFO),
Télé-Québec,
SCN in
Saskatchewan, public radio station
CKUA in
Alberta, and
Knowledge Network in
British Columbia. Some of the provincial broadcasters operate through conventional transmitters, while others are cable-only channels. Alberta also has a semi-public television network,
ACCESS, which is licensed to provide some public service programming but is owned and operated by a commercial broadcaster. The network, formerly a public broadcaster operated by the provincial government, was sold to
CHUM Limited in
1995.
CJRT-FM in
Toronto also operated as a public government-owned radio station for many years; while no longer funded by the provincial government, it still solicits most of its budget from listener and corporate donations and is permitted to air only a very small amount of commercial advertising.
Some local community stations also operate non-commercially with funding from corporate and individual donors. In addition, cable companies are required to produce a local
community channel in each licensed market. Such channels have traditionally aired community talk shows, city council meetings and other locally oriented programming, although it is becoming increasingly common for them to adopt the format and branding of a local news channel.
Canada also has a large number of
campus radio and
community radio stations.
Europe
The model, established in the
1920s, of the British Broadcasting Corporation – an organization widely trusted, even by citizens of the
Axis Powers during
World War II – was widely emulated throughout the former
British Empire and later
Commonwealth: the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and
Australian Broadcasting Corporation are simple applications of that model. In
Scandinavia, too, the public broadcasters
Sveriges Radio and
Sveriges Television in
Sweden,
NRK in
Norway,
TVE in
Spain,
YLE in
Finland, and
Danmarks Radio in
Denmark are basically an application of the model used in Britain, funded by
television licence fees and carrying no advertising. So is the Flemish broadcaster
VRT, at least as far as its television channels are concerned; for its radio services it depends on a mix of advertising income and government grants.
In theory, public broadcasting is not beholden to advertisers, political parties, or the government of the day — nor, some critics say, is it particularly responsive to its viewers. In the
Netherlands a different system is used. There, member-based
public-broadcasting associations are allocated time to broadcast their programmes on the publicly owned television and radio channels in proportion to their membership numbers. This system is intended to reflect the diversity of all the groups composing the nation.
Latin America
Latin America has never had a history of European style public service radio or television except for
Chile's
Televisión Nacional, an open channel which serves the entire country (including
Easter Island and
Antarctica bases). Televisión Nacional, popularly known as channel 7 because of its
Santiago frequency, is governed by a seven-member board appointed by the Chilean Senate. It is meant to be independent of political pressures, although accusations of bias have been made, especially during election campaigns.
State broadcasters tend to be either very weak and under-funded (as the
Argentinian ATC), or to be clearly under the control of the party in power. Starting from these singularities,
commercial broadcasting quickly and effectively conquered its audiences, leaving public and state broadcasting a token role. In some countries, such as
Ecuador, where broadcasting was originally legally defined as a commercial venture, a public broadcaster was never born.
Japan
In
Japan, the main public broadcaster is the national
NHK, sometimes informally referred to as Radio Tokyo by English speakers. The broadcaster was set up in 1926 and was modelled on BBC Ltd, the precursor to the British public service broadcaster
BBC created in 1927. Much like the BBC, NHK is funded by a "receiving fee" by every Japanese household, with no commercial advertising and the maintenance of a position of strict political impartiality. NHK runs two national terrestrial TV stations (NHK General and NHK Educational) and three
satellite only services (NHK BS-1, BS-2 and the hi-definition NHK Hi-Vision services). NHK also runs 3 national radio services and a number of international radio and television services, akin to the
BBC World Service. NHK has also been an innovator in television, developing the world's first
high definition television technology in 1964 and launching high definition services in Japan in 1981.
United States
Public broadcasting in the United States is as old as broadcasting itself. Most early public stations were operated by state colleges and universities, and were often run as part of the schools'
cooperative extension services. Stations in this era were internally funded, and did not rely on listener contributions to operate; some accepted advertising. Networks such as
Iowa,
South Dakota, and
Wisconsin Public Radio began in this way.
The concept of a "non-commercial, educational" station
per se does not show up in U.S. law until the 1940s, when the
FM band was moved to its present location; the part of the band between 87.9 and 91.9
MHz is reserved for such stations. Educational television, the forerunner of modern U.S. public television, evolved in big cities in the 1950s; in rural areas, it was not uncommon for colleges to operate commercial stations instead.
Television
In the
United States the
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television network operates on a largely viewer-supported basis (see
telethon), with commercial sponsors of specific programs. Over time, sponsorship announcements have slowly transformed into something resembling regular TV advertisements, though they are usually shorter and have a more muted tone than what is seen on commercial TV, and many organizations still only receive a short thanks for their contributions. Most communities also have
public access services on local
cable television stations, which are sometimes supported in part through donations.
US public broadcasting for television has been under severe criticism from conservative politicians and think-tanks, which allege that its programming has a leftist bias. In contrast to European public broadcasting systems, which tend to dominate their national marketplaces, US public broadcasting is a niche service that provides programming not found elsewhere on the system, such as cultural programs, documentaries, and public affair shows.
Radio
The first publicly funded radio network in the United States was the
Pacifica Radio Network, founded by
pacifist Lew Hill in
1946. Pacifica now operates six stations in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington DC, and New York City, and distributes syndicated programming via satellite to affiliates.
The second public radio network,
NPR, was created in
1970, following the passage of the
Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 which established the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This network (generally exclusive of
Pacifica) is commonly referred to as
'Public Radio. Independent local public radio stations buy their programming from distributors such as
National Public Radio (NPR);
Public Radio International (PRI);
American Public Media (APM), and
Pacifica, most often distributed through the Public Radio Satellite Service (
PRSS).
Public radio stations in the US tend to broadcast a mixture of news and talk radio programming along with some music. Some of the larger operations split off these formats into separate stations or networks. Public music stations are probably best known for playing
classical music, although other formats have been used, including the emerging "eclectic" music format that is rather
freeform in nature (common among
college radio stations, though a well-known eclectic NPR member station is
KCRW in
California). There are also public college radio stations using an
FCC Class D license.
XM Satellite Radio provides a station of public radio programs licensed from all three content providers.
Local stations derive most of the funding for their operations through regular
pledge drives and corporate sponsorship. The local stations then contract with program distributors and also provide some programming themselves. NPR produces some of its own programming such as
Morning Edition;
Weekend Edition; and
All Things Considered. PBS and PRI do not create their own content.
NPR also receives some direct funding from private donors, foundations, and from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Hong Kong
In
Hong Kong, the
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the sole public service broadcaster. Although a government department under administrative hierarchy, it enjoys editorial independence, and its director is promoted from within the department. It operates seven radio channels, and produces television programmes and broadcast on commercial television channels, as these channels are required by law to provide time slot for RTHK television programmes.
North America
*
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation*
Knowledge Network —
British Columbia*
National Public Radio —
United States*
Public Broadcasting Service —
United States*
Public Radio International*
Pacifica Radio Service*
Saskatchewan Communications Network*
Télé-Québec*
TFO —
Ontario*
TVOntario*
CKUA —
Alberta*
CJRT-FM â€"
Toronto,
OntarioAsia
*
Israel Broadcasting Authority*
Japan Broadcasting Corporation(
NHK)
*
RTM*
Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation*
Prasar Bharati - The Broadcasting Corporation of India
**
All India Radio**
Doordarshan*
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)*
Korean Broadcasting System (
KBS)
Australasia (Oceania)
*
Australian Broadcasting Corporation*
Radio New Zealand*
Special Broadcasting Service —
AustraliaEurope
*
ARD (TV) — working partnership of
German public-service broadcasters
**
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk —
Leipzig**
Westdeutscher Rundfunk —
Cologne**
Norddeutscher Rundfunk —
Hamburg**
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg —
Berlin**
Bayerischer Rundfunk —
Munich**
Südwestrundfunk —
Stuttgart**
Saarländischer Rundfunk —
Saarbrücken**
Hessischer Rundfunk —
Frankfurt**
Radio Bremen —
Bremen*
Arte —
France /
Germany*
BBC —
United Kingdom*
BVN —
Flanders and
Netherlands television
*
ÄŒeská televize —
Czech Republic*
Danmarks Radio —
Denmark*
ERT —
Greece*
European Broadcasting Union — association of public broadcasters in Europe and other nearby countries
*
France Télévisions*
HRT —
Croatia*
NRK —
Norway*
ORF —
Austria*
Publieke Omroep —
Netherlands**
VARA**
VPRO*
Rádio e Televisão de Portugal*
Radio France*
Radio TelefÃs Éireann —
Ireland*
RAI —
Italy*
RTBF —
Wallonia,
Belgium*
RTVE —
Spain*
RTV Slovenija —
Slovenia*
RÚV —
Iceland*
S4C —
Wales,
United Kingdom*
SRG SSR idée suisse —
Switzerland*
Sveriges Radio —
Sweden*
Sveriges Television —
Sweden*
Turkish Radio and Television Corporation*
Útvarp Føroya,
Sjónvarp Føroya —
Faroe Islands*
VRT —
Flanders,
Belgium*
Yleisradio —
Finland*
ZDF —
Germany*
Commercial broadcasting*
Community radio*
Campus radio*
Pirate broadcasting*
Religious broadcasting*
Radio*
A Model Public Service Broadcasting Law, by
ARTICLE 19 *
AIR, the Association for Independents in Radio*
Public Radio Exchange, non-profit distribution, peer review and licensing*
Public Radio Fan website, listing public-radio programs and stations worldwide.
*
Radio College, Internet Resources for Radio Journalists and Producers*
Transom, A Showcase and Workshop for New Public Radio*
Comparative Advantage - Some Considerations Regarding the Future of Public Media.
*
Access to the Airwaves: Principles on Freedom of Expression and Broadcast Regulation*
The Association of Public Television Stations
