The Future of Public Service Broadcasting: A Case Study for a `New' Communications Policy

Abstract

Confronted with the privatization of communications in particular and the deregulation of state-linked structures in general, many critical researchers have come to defend public service broadcasting (PSB), despite their previous criticism of both PSB and commercial broadcasting. This article examines the arguments in the debate over the future of PSB in Europe and argues that important developments in new media mean this debate is no longer simply two-sided. Taking account of these new media and drawing on the Belgian example, the author evaluates three possible scenarios for the future of PSB — immobility, free competition, or PSB organized as an audiovisual `holding' — and proposes an alternative Le Monde-like restructuring of PSB.