Commercialisation and Programming Strategies of European Public Television. A Comparative Study of Purpose, Genres and Diversity.

Abstract

The increase of competition in the European television market has raised concern about commercialisation of public broadcasting. European public television struggles to survive, adapting to a competitive environment and maintaining the principle of public service. Some public broadcasters -it is argued-, have been forced to follow a strategy of convergence of their programming with that of their commercial competitors. In other cases, public televisions have maintained a highly distinctive programming, with more “serious” content, including political issues. This paper presents the main results of a study on prime-time programming of European public and commercial broadcasters, which has been carried out in 14 countries of the European Union, in 2003 and 2004. The main results indicate that European public television has reached a significant level of commercialisation, although there are still some differences with private programming, since public broadcasting is more oriented to information and maintains a higher level of diversity.