- Duopoly - Two institutions dominating TV (70's).
- Michael Tracey in 'The decline and fall of public service broadcasting' (1998) - cultural elitism.
- The difference between PSB and Commercial Broadcasting is that PSB acquires money to make programme's and the latter makes programme's to acquire money.
PSB Principles
Universality of availability
- Can broadcast no matter time, place, etc (place is most important)
Universality of appeal
- Has to please everyone - some of the people some of the time and most of the people most of the time
Provisions for minorities
- Minority audiences and groups. Allowing a broader audience - informing others in minorities
Serving the public sphere
- The general public - outside world. 'The media bubble' - modern digital age
Educating the public
- BBC are a prime example of education especially children's TV
Distanced from vested interests
- Distanced from political agenda's, religion, commercial interest. Shouldn't focus on making money
Encourage competition in good programming
- Maintaining and increasing quality
Liberation of programme makers
- Should be allowed to take risks and create new ideas
PBS Model
- Cultural resources
- Inform, educate, entertain
- Programming universality
- Informed citizens (viewers)
- Cultural homogeneity
Market Model
- Commodity
- Provides viewers with what they think they want
- Demand driven programming
- Consumers
- Cultural fragmentation
Up until 1980, there were only 3 channels - BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. BBC2 was seen as a minority viewed channel, so at any one time, the majority were generally viewing the same thing.
The case against the market:-
Culture must be distanced from commerce and dedicated to the tasks of discrimination, evaluating, informed and educating. The very principle of democracy becomes associated with market freedom and diversity, and with customer sovereignty and equality.
Questions arising in reaction to the purpose of PSB:-
- Paternalistic
- Controllers are seen as 'cultural elitists'
- Undemocratic
- Not seen as cost effective
PSB and the BBC:-
The Royal charter and the agreement provide the constitutional basis for the BBC. The Royal charter sets out the public purposes of the BBC and guarantees its editorial independence. The BBC trust will be reviewed in 2016.
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After the bulk of the lecture and slide shows, we then watched 'TV is dead'; a channel 4 show which talks about the changes in the media and how it is effecting TV broadcasting. I decided to, once again, make loads of notes because this is what I do best. I think doing these notes just helps me understand and process the information more as I am very forgetful.
TV is Dead
- The internet and other forms of media are threatening TV's lifespan
- Anybody, anywhere can broadcast to a global audience
- Music went through the same crisis with online music sharing
- People do not want to be passive viewers anymore - becoming users
- UGC is now bigger than ever thanks to YouTube, MySpace, etc
- There is no schedule - public can choose when and why
- Broadcasters now make their content available on the internet
- As broadband speeds increase, so does high quality content
- Current TV
- NarrowStep
- 'Content needs to be funded' - advertising and licencing fees
- Joost
- Advertising can be much more effective online - know the user
- Convergence is going to carry on developing allowing downloaded content to be transferred straight to TV itself
- Microsoft Media Center
- Apple TV
- Choice fatigue - choice is becoming too much - overwhelming. On demand is the reason why people still watch broadcast channels
- Business model for broadcasters in the future will more likely be about the quality and also the ways in which they present themselves will allow them to make more money, than just through TV
Is public service broadcasting still viable? Should we still support the institutions such as the BBC? If we have the freedom to choose then what will we choose?
There are many questions surrounding this cloudy area of the new media age. But as it is constantly developing, we will just have to see what happens and see what the audience decided to do with the new developing technologies of the 21st century.
My Reflection
In this lecture, a lot of the information was new to me; however it wasn't hard to understand and I quite enjoyed it. Learning about the differences between public service broadcasting and commercial broadcasting was useful because I have never spoke about these differences before. I am glad that this information was fully discussed and not just skipped over because we didn't all learn the same things before university and so I appreciate the extra mile that the lecturer went to to make sure everyone understood the lecture.
As for 'TV is Dead' I would like to watch more of this show because it had a lot of people in the industry discussing what they thought about the development of new media and the changes that are currently happening in the industry. I feel that this was the easiest lecture so far on Digital Media Cultures because it wasn't as difficult to understand like the past couple. It is nice every now and again to be in a secure place where you know whats going on and can understand the content.
You Learn Something New Everyday
Television in its broadcast form may not be around for much longer, and TV licencing might not be either. Developments in digital media are taking over and could change the media landscape dramatically in the near future.
Speak Soon!
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