StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Public Service and Commercial Broadcasting in British TV - Assignment Example

Cite this document
Summary
In this paper, an attempt has been made to understand the role of PSB in Britain and the controversy that surrounds it. The aim of the paper is to suggest ideas for the future of PSB and commercial broadcasting on British TV. Public Service Broadcasting has been under considerable scrutiny…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER92.2% of users find it useful
Public Service and Commercial Broadcasting in British TV
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Public Service and Commercial Broadcasting in British TV"

Public Service and Commercial broadcasting in British TV Introduction Public Service Broadcasting, specifically in Britain, has been under considerable scrutiny in the last few years. With the television industry required to turn digital and with increasing political interference, the role of PSB and its future has been under debate recently. While programmes such as Master Mind, Dr. Who and Blue Peter have been hallmarks of PSB, there are certain episodes such as the Hutton Case that have cast PSB under a negative light. In this paper, an attempt has been made to understand the role of PSB in Britain and the controversy that surrounds it. The aim of the paper is to suggest ideas for the future of PSB and commercial broadcasting in British TV. Public Service and Commercial Broadcasting in British TV British TV is unique in the sense that it is greatly dominated by public service broadcasting; a prime example of which is British Broadcasting Company (BBC). This corporation and others of its kind are funded by the government and the contents that they produce are thus controlled and scrutinized before being presented to the public (Scannell, n.d). In Britain, there are four principal broadcasters: BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Independent Television (ITV). BBC is the main provider of public service broadcasting and is funded by the government which uses a license fees from consumers to fund the operations of BBC (The House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Committee, 2010). All of these broadcasters are controlled by Ofcom, an organization responsible for controlling and monitoring communications in Britain. Ofcom has placed a mandate on all broadcasters to provide public service broadcasting in order to earn their right of broadcasting in Britain under the IBA Act for Independent Television and Royal Charter for the BBC (Negrine, 1994). Public service broadcasting in UK serves four main important purposes. These being: to provide knowledge relating to current events to the public; increase the scope of informal learning and its interest in different fields including science, arts and humanities; to bring into consideration the different perspectives to a story; and lastly to bring into focus the importance of diversity and unity on the national level (Ofcom, 2012). Public service broadcasting, in general, allowed the television industry to develop an innovative content that focused on the rich history of Britain and was intent on producing content that was relevant rather than commercially successful; even though most programmes were commercially successful and later adopted by television industries all over the world. An example of this was the television series Dr. Who. The Main Issue Recently the regulation imposed by Ofcom on television broadcasting has been brought under considerable scrutiny. Critics argue that the role of television and its mode of delivery are changing at a rapid change as technology is evolving continuously. This requires a change in regulations that must be considered seriously. One issue surrounding PSB in Britain is the content hat public service broadcasting and specifically BBC is producing. Since BBC has to fight with other commercial providers, it has turned towards adopting a style that is quite similar to that of its commercial peers. When such a condition occurs, there is a danger that the public and legislators may question the direction of their taxes to such an organization (McDonnell, 1991) Another problem that commercial broadcasters have brought forward is that providing public service broadcasting is imposing financial constraints on these companies. They have to compete with BBC that is funded extensively by the government while they have to rely on commercial revenues. These revenues are impeded because these providers are required to provide mandatory public service broadcasting service (House of Lords, 2009). Another issue is the change in broadcast media with the advent of internet. As viewers are moving towards using the internet as the mode of watching television, it imposes further constraints on commercial providers that seek revenue from advertisers. These advertisers can promote their product on the internet at a relatively cheaper price which poses risk of growth of advertising revenues. Also since the BBC provides free internet service, the problem increases multi fold (Brook, 2006). Discussion The most viable option that is being considered by the government is to look for a merger between the providers. BBC should merge with other providers and in this manner could become an institution. However, BBC is not without its problem. BBC faces issues of administration and inability to manage resources properly. In order for BBC to maintain and improve upon its position, it needs to bring about considerable change in the way it is operating. Firstly, BBC needs to be open to knowledge sharing and collaboration. At this point of time, BBC is unwilling to share its resources with other providers and having government support, this means that BBC has more power over resources than any other provider (Foster and Meek, 2009). However, this provides too much power in the hands of BBC. Right now, BBC is dominating the scene not because of its original content or creative coverage but because of the amount of funds it receives from the government (Jakubowicz, 2006). By moving towards a merger, BBC may gain monopoly over the market and this has to be avoided at all costs. Rather than a merger, Ofcom should focus on developing a partnership whereby both the parties can benefit from the situation. A collaborative effort will improve the industry and would provide additional revenues to the industry. Also there has come a need for improving the content of the providers. Reality TV has quickly taken over the main bulk of the content with programmes such as Big Brother (Brown, 2011). While Big Brother attracts its share of viewers, the industry needs to revive some of its old programmes such as Blue Peter to cater to the increasing diverse market. Conclusion Change is coming in the television industry as technology has greatly changed the media landscape. In this era, competition has increased and the industry is trying hard to make a successful shift from analogue to digital content. For this, the industry needs to be more creative and should focus on a collaborative and united front in order to work out the problems plaguing the television industry of Britain. References Brook, S. (2006) Media groups unite against BBC London: The Guardian, Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/may/18/broadcasting.digitalmedia [Accessed 25 December, 2012] Brown, M. (2011) The future of public service broadcasting is brighter than you think, London: The Guardian, Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2011/may/17/public-service-broadcasting-future-bright[Accessed 25 December, 2012] Foster, R. And Meek, K. (2008) Public Service Broadcasting In The United Kingdom, London: The Social Market Foundation Jakubowicz, K. (2006) Public service broadcasting: a new beginning, or the beginning of the end? Retrieved from http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/media/doc/PSB_Anewbeginning_KJ_en.pdf [Accessed 25 December, 2012] House of Lords (2009) Public service broadcasting: short-term crisis, long-term future? Authority of the House of Lords, London : The Stationery Office Limited McDonnell, J. (1991) Public Service Broadcasting: A Reader, New York: Routledge Negrine, R. M. (1994) Politics and the Mass Media in Britain, New York: Routledge Ofcom (2012) Public Service Broadcasting: Annual Report 2012, Retrieved from http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/broadcast/reviews-investigations/psb-review/psb2012/section-a.pdf [Accessed 25 December, 2012] House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Committee (2007) Public service content: first report of session 2007-08, Vol. 2: Oral and written evidence, UK: The Stationery Office Scannell, P. (n.d.) Britain: Public Service Broadcasting, from national culture to multiculturalism (w:) Marc Raboy (red.) Public Broadcasting for the 21st century. Luton: John Libbey Media. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Public Service and Commercial Broadcasting in British TV Assignment”, n.d.)
Public Service and Commercial Broadcasting in British TV Assignment. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/media/1791408-discussing-the-ideas-of-public-service-and-commercial-broadcasting-in-british-tv
(Public Service and Commercial Broadcasting in British TV Assignment)
Public Service and Commercial Broadcasting in British TV Assignment. https://studentshare.org/media/1791408-discussing-the-ideas-of-public-service-and-commercial-broadcasting-in-british-tv.
“Public Service and Commercial Broadcasting in British TV Assignment”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/media/1791408-discussing-the-ideas-of-public-service-and-commercial-broadcasting-in-british-tv.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Public Service and Commercial Broadcasting in British TV

How Effective Are Existing Public Services in Handling the Increasing Expectations

Some of us feel satisfied with the kind of service we get from the public servants, while some of us feel frustrated when the public service offices are not able to provide the service to the best of our satisfaction.... As responsible citizens we too have a responsibility towards the state and nation, which implies that we must allow the public service offices to function in an effective manner without hampering their cause or without burdening them with our irresponsible behaviour....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The Broadcasting Professionals

broadcasting aims to achieve one purpose and that is to make people listen and watch.... It follows then that one of the challenges that faces broadcasting professionals is exactly how to make the audience listen, how to make them believe us and how to make them prefer us from others who have the same purpose.... hellip; To put it simply, we need to know how to address the audience to which we are broadcasting. In this paper, I will be arguing that only thru the knowledge of the institutional framework of broadcasting can we understand how to address the audience....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Is it justifiable to continue to have public funding for the BBC in the twenty-first y century

However, it must be noted that the charter of the BBC as well as the government's view of the BBC makes it a public service and the nature of a public service is such that the public has to pay for it.... However, the demands placed on the BBC as the flag bearing media company of the UK are quite different from the expectations which people have from the competition since the BBC is the only media outlet for which the people pay as a public service (Cox, 2004)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Difference between Funding Models in The Broadcasting Business in Britain

This assignment describes the difference between funding models in the broadcasting business in Britain, This paper analyzes the funding models for the BBC and commercial television and the impact on the type of output of each service.... Public broadcasters are mainly charged with the task of making news, radio, internet and television available for public service.... It won't be wrong to conclude that commercial or private broadcasters function on money – this is why most of the program, content is more concerned with the tastes of the audience rather than whether the program serves to be of any public service....
7 Pages (1750 words) Assignment

The Technological Innovations and the Business Strategy of BBC

It is a public service broadcaster, established by a Royal Charter and funded by the license fee that is paid by UK households.... The BBC uses the income from the license fee to provide services including 8 national tv channels plus regional programming, 10 national radio stations, 40 local radio stations and an extensive website.... Though there is no fee to own a television in the UK, there is a fee to receive the cable tv.... However, the world service of the BBC is funded by government and as the website puts it, “BBC World Service broadcasts to the world on radio, on tv and online, providing news and information in 32 languages....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Media and Entertainment Law

The administrative administration for each… The aggregate sum of time distributed to the television of qualifying projects included in the station gets allotted to the tv of Any exchange of the part of the Commercial Public Sector Broadcasters inescapably concentrates the degree to which it satisfies its transmit to supply public administration tv.... It also involves administrations that, taken together, satisfy the reasons of public administration tv in the UK2....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Broadcasting and Society

"broadcasting and Society" paper depicts the impact that DVR has on advertisers based on the technological advancements that realized in the communication environment.... It is appropriate for advertisers to understand the potential threats and opportunities for them to avoid the prevailing risks....
6 Pages (1500 words) Coursework

The Music in Television Commercial

… The paper "tv Commercial" is a brilliant example of an e-commerce essay.... The paper "tv Commercial" is a brilliant example of an e-commerce essay.... If I were to pick any one particular type of commercial it will have to be those that promote food items.... Back then the most popular commercial that attracted me most was the “I want Pringles” advertisement that was aired in the '90s.... It was the commercial that made me taste the chips and I still enjoy watching it....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us