Public Service Broadcasting

I

Introduction

Public Service Broadcasting, broadcasting intended to serve the public interest. Broadcasting is, by definition, a public service. Programmes transmitted within a given area are available to anyone in the area who has a receiver. At an early stage, however, the concept of public service broadcasting evolved as something distinct from broadcasting for purely commercial or propaganda reasons.

The basis of public service broadcasting is generally accepted to be an obligation to provide “information, education, and entertainment”. This formula (though with the three elements listed in a different order) was first given currency by David Sarnoff, an American pioneer of broadcasting and later President of the Radio Corporation of America, who advocated the creation of a Public Service Broadcasting Company to operate on the basis of it. This did not happen, and the industry in the United States developed in a different direction.

The formula was adopted in Britain, however, by the first Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), John Reith, and written into the royal charter of the BBC when it was set up as a public corporation in 1927. These three strands of broadcasting are sometimes called “The Reithian trinity”.

Opinion varies on the precise meaning of “public service broadcasting”. A narrow interpretation is that it represents only those programmes of minority or specialist interest that a purely commercial system cannot be guaranteed to provide. In Britain, where the broadcasting system is widely regarded as a model of public service, a broad interpretation has traditionally been applied. The following are some of the principles generally identified with public service broadcasting in Britain.

II

Service

The primary purpose of broadcasting is to benefit the public, not any commercial, political, or sectional interest.

III

Universality

The service must be available to everyone and must be free at the point of delivery (that is, apart from investing in a receiving set and, where required, paying a licence fee, the viewer or listener does not need special equipment and does not pay for the service). Satellite and cable channels, especially those available only on subscription, do not meet this requirement.

IV

Range and Quality

There should be an extensive range of programmes, of both wide appeal and minority interest, made to the highest possible production standards. The concept of public service broadcasting, however, relates not just to individual programmes; it concerns the way they are arranged in a schedule. Thus, whereas a television schedule dictated by commercial needs will be likely to concentrate on popular entertainment at peak viewing times, a public service schedule will offer a broader choice.