Why Should I Pay the License Fee? Issues of Viewers as Customers in the Twenty-First Century

Robert G. Picard

Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Sweden

Abstract

This paper explores the context of viewer payments for public service television within the environment of a dual system of PSB and commercial broadcasting and the increasing reliance upon digital distribution services. It examines viewer license fees, service fees, hardware fees and their implications to viewers and public service broadcasters. The paper shows how the changing policies and technologies are altering the traditional relationship between public service broadcasters and viewers.

The author explores the nature of relationships between viewers and firms analyzing the bases of relationships and bonds between them and reveals how changes in contemporary society and media acquisition transactions affect the relationship between public service broadcasters and viewers. The author argues that the contemporary media environment is creating a clear consumer pay-for-service orientation toward broadcasting among viewers. This relationship and the variety of information and entertainment choices now available are increasingly empowering viewers and are reducing bonds to public service broadcasters.

The author argues that the new environment is increasingly making evident a disconnection between public service broadcasters and their viewers and that this situation will endanger broad public and political support for compulsory broadcast viewing licenses unless broadcasters employ improved methods to build, solidify and maintain stronger, positive relationships with viewers. If this disconnection is not addressed, the author argues, the central role of public service broadcasting in creating and nurturing a common cultural and social gathering point will be further diminished.

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