Public broadcasting

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Public broadcasting is a form of public service broadcasting (PSB) intended to serve the diverse needs of the listening public. Except for the United States, it has traditionally been the dominant form of broadcasting in much of the world.

It is a system in which radio, television, and potentially other electronic media outlets receive some or all of their funding from the public. The broadcasters' funds can come directly from individuals through voluntary donations, license fees, or indirectly as state subsidies that originated as taxes. Many public broadcasters supplement this with contributions from corporations, in return for underwriting spots. While these announcements resemble traditional advertisements on commercial broadcasting stations, there are usually limitations, such as a prohibition of making product claims, stating prices, or providing an incentive to buy.

Commercial broadcasting now occurs in many countries around the world, and the number of countries with only public broadcasting has declined substantially. 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.

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[edit] Defining public broadcasting

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: 1 Geographic universality — The stations' broadcasts are available nationwide, with no exception. This criterion is failed by Five in the UK, which a substantial minority of the population cannot receive. Generally, the "nationwide" criterion is satisfied by either having member stations across the country (as is the case with PBS in the United States) or, as is the case with most other public broadcasters around the world, the broadcaster owning sufficient transmitters to broadcast nationwide. 2 Catering for all interests and tastes — as exemplified by the BBC's range of minority channels (BBC2, BBC Radio 3, etc.). 3 Catering for minorities — much as above, but with racial and linguistic minorities. (for example S4C in Wales, BBC Asian Network, Radio-Canada, Australia's SBS). 4Concern 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. 5Detachment 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.). 6 One broadcasting system to be directly funded by the corpus of users — For example, the licence fee in the case of the BBC,or member stations asking for donations in the case of the US's PBS/NPR. 7 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". 8 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 broadcasting may see part of its mission to bring in foreign shows, e.g. shows from the CBC/Radio-Canada or the BBC.

An alternative model for implementing public service media exists, known as Citizen Media. As it relates to broadcasting, this generally means a radio or television outlet which has some sort of public access, that is, most or much of the programming is created by members of the public which receives the programming. This can be in the form of community radio, campus radio, and public access television, although the latter is not a form of over-the-air broadcasting, as it is only available on cable television systems.

[edit] Advantages and disadvantages

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 commercial 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. The fact that public broadcasters do not chase ratings in the same way as commercial broadcasters often leads to the criticism that they are unresponsive to what their viewers want.

Additionally, public broadcasting 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. However, in theory in "western democracies" public broadcasting is not beholden to political parties, or the government of the day. This is especially true where the broadcaster is funded by television licence fees and so, theoretically, not dependent on the government for any of its funding.

[edit] Implementation of public broadcasting around the world

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 Europe, the British Empire, and later the Commonwealth. The public broadcasters in a number of countries are basically an application of the model used in Britain.

Modern public broadcasting is often a mixed commercial model. For example, the CBC has always relied on a subsidy from general revenues of the government. However, more recently CBC television has started taking advertising. This means they must compete with commercial broadcasting. Some argue that this dilutes their mandate as truly public broadcasters, who have no commercial bias to distort their presentation.

The rest of this section looks at some specific implementations of public broadcasting around the world.

[edit] Asia

[edit] Pakistan

In Pakistan, the public broadcaster is the state owned PBC which is short for "Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation". It consists of PTV (Pakistan Television) and Radio Pakistan. In the past PBC was funded publicly through money obtained from television, radio and VCR licensing. Pakistan entered into Television Broadcasting age with a small pilot TV Station established at Lahore from where transmission was first beamed in Black & White with effect from 26 November 1964. Television centres were established in Dhaka, Karachi and Rawalpindi/Islamabad in 1967 and in Peshawar and Quetta in 1974. PTV has various channels trasmitting throughout the world including PTV National, PTV World, PTV 2, PTV Global, PTV Bolan etc. Radio Pakistan has stations covering all the major cities, it covers 80% of the country serving 95.5 Million listeners. It has world service in 31 languages daily.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 the British Broadcasting Company, the precursor to the British Broadcasting Corporation 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.

[edit] Malaysia

In Malaysia, the public broadcaster is the state owned RTM which is short for "Radio Televisyen Malaysia" (Malaysian Radio and Television).RTM was previously funded publicly through money obtained from television licensing, however it iis currently state subsidised as television licences has been abolished.

At present, RTM operates 8 national, 16 state and 7 district radio stations as well as 2 national terrestrial television channels called RTM1 and RTM2. RTM is also currently doing tests on a new digital television channel called RTMi. Tests involving 2000 residential homes in the Klang Valley began in September 2006 and is expected to be complete by March 2007.

[edit] Europe

In most countries in Europe, state broadcasters are funded through a mix of advertising and public money, either through a licence fee or directly from the government.

[edit] Germany

Following World War II, when regional broadcasters had been merged into one national network by the Nazis to create a powerful means of propaganda, the Allies insisted on a de-centralized, independent structure for German public broadcasting and created regional public broadcasting agencies that, by and large, still exist today. In addition to these nine regional radio and TV broadcasters, which cooperate within ARD, a second national television service (ZDF) was later created in 1961 and a national radio service with two networks (Deutschlandradio) emerged from the remains of Cold War propaganda stations in 1994. All services are mainly financed through license fees paid by everybody who keeps a radio or TV set "ready for use", and are governed by councils of representatives of the "societally relevant groups". Public TV and radio stations spend about 60 % of the ~10 Bil. € spent altogether for broadcasting in Germany per year.

[edit] Netherlands

Main article: Public-service broadcasting in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands a different system is used to most other countries. Public-broadcasting associations are allocated money and time to broadcast their programmes on the publicly owned television and radio channels. The time and money is allocated in proportion to their membership numbers. The system is intended to reflect the diversity of all the groups composing the nation.

[edit] United Kingdom

Main article: Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has a strong tradition of public service broadcasting. In addition to the British Broadcasting Corporation, there is also Channel 4 a state-owned commercial public service broadcaster, and S4C a Welsh language broadcaster in Wales. Furthermore, the two commercial analogue broadcasters ITV and Five also have significant public service obligations imposed as part of their licence to broadcast.

[edit] North America

[edit] 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 by 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 the English-language TVOntario and the French-language TFO in Ontario, Télé-Québec in Quebec, 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. One television station, CFTU in Montreal, operates as an educational station owned by the Université de Montréal. Some other universities have dedicated cable channels to broadcast educational programming, but no other university in Canada operates a conventional broadcast television station.

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.

[edit] United States

The Gregory Hall on the campus of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosted an important meeting of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters in the 1940s that spawned both PBS and NPR.
The Gregory Hall on the campus of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosted an important meeting of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters in the 1940s that spawned both PBS and NPR.

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.

In the United States, public broadcasting is 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).

[edit] Television

In the United States the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (Formerly National Educational Television) 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 affairs shows.

[edit] 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, D.C.; and New York City, and distributes syndicated programming via satellite to affiliates.

The second public radio network, National Public Radio (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 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 U.S. 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.

[edit] Oceania

[edit] 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), another public broadcaster, now accepts limited sponsorship and advertising. Imparja is an Aboriginal community broadcaster in Australia that receives funding from the Federal Government. Most of it's programs are bought from Australia's commercial broadcasters though, and it only airs a small amount of local content.

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.

[edit] 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 most expensive 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.

[edit] Latin America

Despite a moderate state presence in television media since the 1970s, Latin America has never had a strong history of European style public service radio or television. The closest model to the British BBC is that of 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.

In most Latin American countries, the private sector has taken the leading role in the development of television networks. In opposition, 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 (like Cuban Cubavisión and Venezuelan VTV). 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.

Recently, under the initiative of the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez, and with the support of the governments of Argentina, Uruguay and Cuba, the public news channel Telesur was created with the declared intent of giving Latin America a continent-wide news channel that can present world news with a Latin American vision and perspective. There is an ongoing debate on whether Telesur will be able become a neutral and fair news channel able to counter the huge influence of American networks like CNN, or whether it will end up as a propaganda tool of the Venezuelan government, which owns a 51 percent share of said channel. [1]

[edit] List of public broadcasters

[edit] North America

[edit] Latin America

[edit] Asia

[edit] Australasia (Oceania)

[edit] Europe

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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