From Analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television: How to Ensure Universal Access after the Analogue Switch-off?

Laurence Hauttekeete, Lieven De Marez, Pieter Verdegem, Steve Paulussen

Research Group for Media & ICT (MICT), Ghent University (UGENT), Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology (IBBT),

Abstract

When talking about the digital age, the digitisation process of the television landscape catches the eye. Dependent on the specific characteristics (geography, existing infrastructure) of each Member State, the transformation from analogue to digital television in Europe has been initiated from one of the traditional transmission channels (terrestrial, satellite or cable). Digitisation has now reached a crucial phase, i.e. the replacement of the analogue terrestrial system by its digital equivalent. The European Commission has urged all Member States to switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial television by 2012. This analogue switch-off has consequences for both users and providers of television services, particularly for public service broadcasters (PSB).

This paper focuses on the switch-off plans and strategies in Europe and assesses the implications of the digital switch-off, especially with regards to the role of public service media. After a brief literature review on public service broadcasting in the digital era, we focus on one principle that might be at stake when analogue terrestrial television is to be switched-off: the principle of universality. A substantial part of the citizens who watch television by means of an analogue antenna signal, risk to be excluded or neglected after the analogue switch-off. In the light of democratic and social ideals, European governments must be aware of this and must develop suitable alternatives and communication campaigns.

Policy makers are confronted with a duality in the highly competitive digital environment: they must join the digital era by offering additional services via the new digital platforms while on the other hand they are supposed to keep television available for all citizens, including those who watch (analogue) terrestrial television. In this context, the Flemish Government – who scheduled the switchover to digital terrestrial television in 2008 – ordered a study on the profile and needs of analogue television viewers in Flanders. The study, of which the findings are presented in this paper, used a multi-methodological design (a survey supplemented by focus group interviews) to identify the characteristics, media behaviour and needs and expectations of Flemish analogue antenna viewers.

On the basis of our research, we can conclude firstly that there are three types of analogue antenna viewers: the primary antenna viewer, the secondary antenna viewer at home, and the secondary antenna viewer in a holiday home/second residence. Making a distinction between these three segments clearly has its implications when it comes to communication. Especially the primary antenna viewer has a distinct opinion. Secondly, the results demonstrate that the antenna viewers are badly informed about the upcoming analogue switch-off, which may lead to a negative attitude and may impede a smooth transition. Lastly, antenna viewers are rather conservative viewers: they wish to keep on watching television on the same place, with the same program offer. Moreover, digital terrestrial television is their most preferred alternative.

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Off Public Service Brands and Enhanced Content: The VRT’s Cultural Delta Project and the move to Branded Public Service Media

Hilde Van den Bulck

Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp

Abstract

Taking the ‘Cultural Delta Project’ of Flemish/Belgian PSB VRT as a case in point, this contribution analyses the move of VRT towards Public Service Media in the context of key questions regarding the aim and objectives of public service institutions today.

With a mandate to create one digital channel with cultural content, VRT’s plans for a new linear channel were quickly abandoned for financial reasons and a perceived lack of added value to the public, the cultural sector and the media institution. Instead, a system combining multimedia participatory web platforms with digital, enriched radio and television services is being developed throughout 2008). Building on the strength and loyalty of VRT brands, it seeks to create cultural breadth and depth through extra (archival and new) information, and by engaging the cultural sector (information provision) and the audience to participate (UGC options similar to YouTube/MySpace) through an open structure combining internet and other digital applications.

Analysing the introduction and branding of the Cultural Delta Project, the paper touches on key issues including: the role and potential of strong brands and branding in developing new media applications within PSM, the position and role of culture in contemporary public service institutions run by an competitive business logic, the legitimate role of PSB in new media ventures,  the question of universality in a multi-platform world, in short the reality and future of core PSB characteristics in an era of convergence, UGC, competition and brand-oriented media marketing (cf. among others, Meier & Trappel, 2007; Lowe & Bardoel, 2008, d’Heaenens, & Saeys, 2007),

Methodologically, desk research is combined with in-depth interviews with executives, producers and others involved in the project, as well as with actors from the field of culture. Eventually the Flemish case will be intrepreted in an international context.

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Dividends of change: Can deregulation, commercialisation and media concentration strengthen public service media?

Josef Trappel

University of Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract

The concept of public service broadcasting has lately been framed in the public and scientific debate as eroding, vanishing and almost collapsing. Despite the fact that public service media are still performing quite strongly in audience markets, public support for this well established institution has indeed weakened. License fee payments require permanent legitimacy and the massive influx of so called “free media” (private commercial television, corporate online media, free sheets) in many European countries is questioning the license fees anew. Despite these challenges to defend the legitimacy of public service media, the international meta trends in public communication development might result in a growing need to maintain the concept of public service media.

The paper argues that the most important mass media trends might eventually strengthen the position of public service media. Commercialisation, deregulation, internationalisation, media concentration, convergence and other meta trends are likely to widen the gap between what can be called the political logic and the media logic. All these trends contribute to the strengthening of the power of big corporate media and enable them to distance themselves from democratic power structures. It is most likely that those trend-setting mass media become less interested in comprehensive information on policy processes and democracy. By this development private commercial and internationalised mass media erode their relevance to national and transnational policy institutions and policy processes. Thereby, a window of opportunity opens for public service media that are less exposed to these trends than private commercial mass media. Consequently, the relevance of public service media for the democratic process and the policy discourse increases.

There seems to be a trade off between the on-going and irreversible trends towards larger and more commercial media conglomerates with increasing economic power and the need for distinct and profound public discourse on policy issues. Contemporary democracies require information, interest mediation and control. Mass media are requested to contribute to these fundamental principles of democracy. However, the larger and more commercial corporate media become, the less they are interested to enable and fulfil these essential democratic requirements. Public service media with their remit gain strength and relevance in return. Democratic policy making requires specific forms of media coverage that is not offered by commercial transnational corporate media. Public service media are well placed to fill this important vacancy.

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Stakeholder Claims or Programming Targets. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) in a Public Service Media Firm.

Angelica Håkansson, Sune Tjernström

Media Management, School of Communication and Design, Kalmar University

Abstract

Against the somewhat skeptical theoretical background of Mintzberg’s analysis of the rise and fall of strategic planning (1994), this article makes the observation that the Swedish Television Corporation (SVT) at one stage had three planning systems, one for each of the three cultures that Engwall (1978) claimed were typical of media companies. It all depends on what you mean by planning and planning systems, of course. In this case, planning means any formal analytical process that involves ‘thinking about the future’ and ‘integrating various decisions related strategies for the future’. With planning thus loosely defined, it can be argued that the professional culture in SVT, the public service ideologists, have produced one system, the processes that lead up to the Public Service Evaluations. These are a thorough assessment of the extent to which the public service mission has been fulfilled during each year of review. The emphasis is on ex-post evaluation, but to the extent that these statistics are used in program planning, the focus may also be on future programming strategies.

The technical culture in SVT has produced a series of innovations, especially related to access and distribution via the Internet, which all could be seen as the result of a second approach to thinking about the future. Here innovations related to e.g. high definition TV and a host of other technical development work was disregarded, for the sake of simplicity. Finally, the administrative culture, management, produced a planning system by and large modeled after the Balanced scorecard approach (BSC), stating the overall programming goals in market terms (reaching a young segment of the public). This goal-oriented planning system in SVT seemed to share the strengths and weaknesses of most other strategic planning system. In the discussion, it is argued that some sort of convergence of these planning systems, based on stakeholder claims, programming targets or development of Internet services would be desirable to achieve more of what Mintzberg called ‘integrative decision making’.

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The Spirit of Public Service

Ida Schultz, Line Thomsen

University of Aarhus, Roskilde University

Abstract

Research on public service broadcasting tends to highlight norms and values at the strategic level. This paper explores ‘public service’ as an institutional logic guiding the everyday practice of journalists. The theoretical framework draws on Pierre Bourdieus’ field theory and recent works on cultural production and news work.

In order to understand the macro perspective of public service institutions today, we believe it is crucial to explore the public service news making and the micro perspective of the different norms and roles at play within the newsroom. Thus, through our fieldwork in the newsrooms of public broadcast TV stations, we both set out to explore the journalists’ own definitions and uses of public service in their everyday work. However, our fieldwork, conducted with a five year gap, in the same two newsrooms, revealed a complete change of attitude to the notion of public service. Why and how has this change of attitude come about? And what does it mean to public service journalism today? With Denmark’s Radios’ TV newsroom as our case study, through this paper we aim to explore and analyse these questions based on our fieldwork observations and interviews with journalists inside the newsroom.

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Public Service Media and the Economic Theory of Collective Action

Christian Steininger

University of Salzburg, Department of Communication, Division of Media Economics

Abstract

The relationship between the market and public sphere, as addressed by early Zeitungswissenschaft (‘Newspaper Studies’) and also implicitly taken up by Jochen Röpke, highlights the need for a thorough examination of the theory of public goods in order to heterodoxically arrive at a theoretical concept of the public sphere. Elaborating the work of Mancur Olson in particular, on whose edifice of thought Röpke’s observations are largely founded, shows that neither the concepts of media or public sphere have, to date, been attributed to precise commodity segments. Yet it is precisely such a classification and assignment of marketability which allows a debate to be conducted on the paradoxy of a private (commercial), institutional and organizational form of public media.

It was Röpke (1970a, b) who, without explicitly referring to any of the classic works of economic theory, made a noteworthy — and still unjustly neglected — attempt to link elements of economics and communication theory, and to apply them to the question as to how far the workings of the market can create or sustain an open system of communication serving the democratic ideal. In addressing this question, Röpke deals with the public sphere, public opinion, democracy, competition, the market, media innovation strategies and the special nature of media products as economic goods. By öffentliche Meinung (public opinion) Röpke means media content that contributes to the formation of public opinion, as opposed to the content that offers selective incentives. In discussing the special nature of media products Röpke distinguishes between collective goods (opinion forming content) and private goods (selective incentives). Röpke was thus quick to apply Olson’s theory of public goods (1968) to the media. With the aid of these analytical tools he succeeded in arriving at a fully fledged theory of the various forms of media embodying the public sphere. Classifying media products according to their character as economic goods, and hence their marketability allows conclusions to be drawn about media content and its consequences for the creation of public spheres.

For markets to function, property rights must be defined and enforced. They will only work properly if the exclusion principle is feasible, i.e. economic actors can be excluded from using a good. Yet exclusion is scarcely central to the definitions of the public sphere offered by communication theory, and payment of the price demanded by the owner is not a necessary condition of access. From this it follows that marketization and competition legitimize PSM.

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Children’s Television– ‘The Soft Underbelly of Public Service Broadcasting’

Alessandro D’Arma, Jeanette Steemersii

Communications and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), University of Westminster, London

Abstract

The provision of children’s content should be a key constituent of the public service brand, but has often been viewed as a programme category at risk.  Certainly in many countries children’s television has moved from the ‘scarcity’ associated with terrestrial provision, to the ‘plenty’ of digital (see Ellis 2000). However in spite of a range of dedicated public service children’s channels in Europe (CBeebies, Kika, Z@ppelin), domestically produced children’s television in Europe is notoriously under-resourced if not marginalised. There is a pronounced reliance on imports (particularly on commercial television) notwithstanding the launch by US-owned multinationals (Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network) of localised versions of their children’s television channels in many European countries.

Within the broader context of global developments in children’s media, this paper starts by outlining the recent and rapid crisis in British children’s television and the factors that caused it. This was a crisis, which caught broadcasters and producers by surprise in the middle of 2006, but reflects many of the challenges faced by the children’s television sector in other countries.  It clearly demonstrated how a combination of the lack of regulatory protection, a change in commercial priorities among broadcasters, advertising restrictions, budgetary pressures and the competitive environment at home and abroad all combined to reinforce the trend towards a contraction of domestic production. The crisis also served to underline the dominance of the BBC – both as a representative of public service principles, and as the dominant producer and commissioner in the market.

With the reasons underpinning the crisis explained, the paper will then analyse how the children’s television community responded to the crisis and with what effect. Based on interviews, contemporary accounts and documentary evidence the paper will chart the converging and diverging views of broadcasters, producers, regulatory authority Ofcom, and a range of advocacy groups which represent children’s interests and the industry. What arguments were elaborated in favour of protecting children’s television as an integral part of the public service media brand? Can lessons be learned about how best to ensure the origination of children’s media within a public service environment?  Can developments in the UK be used to provide insight into how children’s media might develop further?

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Redefining Journalism: A Conceptual History of Objectivity and Balance in American Journalism

Alan G. Stavitsky

Senior Associate Dean and Professor, and Director, Turnbull Portland Center, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, USA

Abstract

How do journalists sift and winnow the limitless number of possible items that could conceivably be reported as “news” to determine which stories will be read, seen or heard across the range of communication channels? Though journalists may resist the notion, media sociologists argue that news is a social construction. “To say that a news report is a story, no more, but no less is not to demean news, nor to accuse it of being fictitious,” wrote sociologist Gaye Tuchman. “Rather, it alerts us that news, like all public documents, is a constructed reality possessing its own internal validity.” To understand objectivity and balance – as both idea and application – across the history of American journalism, then, requires consideration of fundamental questions about the nature of news and, as a corollary, the professionalism of journalists.

This historical review indicates that objectivity and balance is multi-dimensional in concept and practice.  It has been manipulated for political purposes, commodified to gain commercial advantage (as in Fox’s “Fair and Balanced” promotional slogan), and – in extraordinary times such as the Red Scare, Vietnam and Watergate – even suspended. Journalists need to understand this conceptual and practical ambiguity, for it sends us back to the clarity of journalism’s core principle: “to provide people with the information they need to be free and self-governing.”

Journalism in the digital age is no longer a spectator sport. It is daunting to serve audience members who have seen behind the curtain and have the technology to bypass us, to say nothing of producing their own content. In this mediascape it is no longer sufficient to rely upon a legacy concept such as objectivity and balance, which is laden with ambiguity and contention.  We must reconceptualize objectivity and balance to account for profound structural and technological change.  This has significant practical implications for public media professionals around the globe.

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PSM and Media Personalisation – a Conflict?

Jannick K. Sørensen

Institute of Literature, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Southern Denmark

Abstract

PSBs experience currently the challenge from personalised social webservices which let their users customise web pages. BBC’s re-launched front page is one response to this, this paper examines another widget-based project, namely the Danish PSB ‘DR’s ‘MitDR’ [MyDR]. Through in-depth research interviews during the design process of ‘MitDR’, tensions between the concept of PSM and the concept of personalisation are identified. The findings from the ‘MitDR’ project are analysed as a balance between getting attention and insisting on intention with Herbert Simon’s concept of attention economy, and with a proposed concept of ‘narrative economy’. Furthermore it is discussed whether PSMs have customers and whether the management method of Customer Relation Management is relevant in relation to PSM.

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Rethinking the Canadian Youth Audience for News

Philip Savage

Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Abstract

This paper draws attention to a range of recent data on broadcasting and internet media use by young Canadians from a range of quantitative and qualitative studies, which try to determine if youth new media use provides a model for how broadcasters – especially the CBC – may meet changing audience expectations. The new “mediascape” notion of youth interaction with a range of digital and other media is place within the current policy debates enunciated in the latest Canadian Parliamentary study in CBC and new media, released in early 2008. Politicians suggest that youth models of new media use should shape the direction of public broadcasting, but an examination of the range of news media usage shows that while youth in Canada differ to some degree from the older cohort, their mix and approach to on-line media have some similarity with older groups.

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