In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, the term public service broadcasting (PSB) refers to broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests. The communications regulator

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

requires that certain television and radio broadcasters fulfil certain requirements as part of their license to broadcast. All of the television and radio stations have a public service remit, including those that broadcast digitally.

History

The BBC, whose broadcasting in the UK is funded by a

licence fee A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence f ...

and does not sell advertising time, is most notable for being the first public service broadcaster in the UK. Its first director general,

Lord Reith Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

introduced many of the concepts that would later define public service broadcasting in the UK when he adopted the mission to "''inform, educate and entertain''". With the launch of the first commercial broadcaster ITV in 1955, the government required that the local franchises fulfilled a similar obligation, mandating a certain level of local news coverage, arts and religious programming, in return for the right to broadcast. The next commercial television broadcasters in the UK, the state-owned

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

and

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...

, were set up by the government in 1981 to provide different forms of public broadcasting.

was required to be a public service alternative to the BBC and to cater for minorities and arts.

was to be a mainly

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it h ...

programmer. Neither was required to be commercially successful as

was subsidised by the ITV network and

received a grant from the central government. However,

was later restructured under the

Broadcasting Act 1990 The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, initiated in part due to a 1989 European Council Directive (89/552), also known as the Television Without Frontiers directive. The aim of the Act was to liberalise and deregulate the B ...

to be a state owned corporation that is self-financing and from 2013 the BBC took over funding for S4C. When the final analogue terrestrial broadcaster, Channel 5, was launched in 1997 it too was given a number of public service requirements. These included the obligation to provide minimum amounts of programming from various genres, minimum amounts of programming originally commissioned by the channel and of European origin, and maximum limits on the number of repeats.

Future viability

The advent of digital age has brought about many questions about the future of public service broadcasting in the UK. The BBC has been criticised by some for being expansionist and exceeding its public service remit by providing content that could be provided by commercial broadcasters. They argue that the BBC can distort the market, making it difficult for commercial providers to operate. A notable example of this is the Internet services provided by the BBC. However, those who defend the BBC suggest that the BBC needs to provide new services and entertainment, to remain relevant in the digital age . ITV has been attempting to significantly reduce its obligations to produce and broadcast unprofitable public service programming, citing the increased competition from digital and multichannel television. Similarly,

has projected a £100m funding gap if it is to continue with public service broadcasting after digital switch-over. ,

had been consulting on what direction public service broadcasting should take in the future.– The Ofcom Review of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) Television

References

External links

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
nbsp;– Official site
The BBC and the future of Public Service Broadcasting
(archived fro
the original
on 23 Jun 2009).
Channel 4 Television
nbsp;– Official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Public Service Broadcasting In The United Kingdom Television in the United Kingdom

History

Future viability

See also

References

Further reading

External links