Off Public Service Brands and Enhanced Content: The VRT’s Cultural Delta Project and the move to Branded Public Service Media
Published for 2008, RIPE@2008Hilde 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.