In September 2007 the BBC rounded up an international group of ‘the usual suspects’ for a conference. Public broadcasters, policy makers and media researchers from Britain and beyond deliberated Repositioning Public Service Broadcasting: The BBC Charter Renewal and its Global Aftermath. Emphasising the ‘global aftermath’ hints at an important strand of conference discourse: The BBC experience can be a model for public broadcasters in other countries. Although a subtext initially, this became an explicit line of discussion when the premise was challenged by participants representing smaller countries in Europe.
There is within the continental broadcasting community a long and frequently fruitful tradition of looking across the Channel for inspiration. That is evident when governments and regulators (domestic as well as EU) are designing policies related to industry structures and the governance of public service broadcasting [PSB]. It is also evident when executive managers in both sectors of the broadcasting industry seek fresh possibilities for organisational restructuring or strategic renewal. As with many traditions this has often passed without critique. It is simply taken for granted that big countries with big markets and big operators are suitable for modelling, and that it is desirable to do this. This book questions that assumption and tries to answer a range of relevant questions on the basis of empirical research.