1. Universal The PSBs (BBC, ITV/STV, C4, C5, S4C) are – unlike most news and entertainment media – universally available and free at the point of use. They are a big part of almost everyone’s life in the UK – far more than any other media – but even more so for older, poorer people living alone, especially those without pay TV and broadband. 2. Shared values and experiences The PSBs, including their portfolio channels and online services, account for the great majority of UK TV viewing, bringing the country together through shared values and experiences when there are many issues and other media – especially social media – dividing us. 3. Impartial news The British public trusts broadcast news far more than other news media. The UK’s ‘due impartiality’ broadcasting rules ensure that political debate in Britain is largely based on shared facts, helping us avoid the extreme divisions we’ve seen in the US and elsewhere. 1 This is especially important in today’s world of growing disinformation. For instance, it is probably the main reason why we have the lowest level of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in the developed world. 2 4. Other public service content The British public trusts broadcast news far more than other news media. The UK’s ‘due impartiality’ broadcasting rules ensure that political debate in Britain is largely based on shared facts, helping us avoid the extreme divisions we’ve seen in the US and elsewhere. 1 This is especially important in today’s world of growing disinformation. For instance, it is probably the main reason why we have the lowest level of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in the developed world. 2 5. Complementary revenue sources The PSBs compete against each other (and against the non-PSBs and, increasingly, the deep-pocketed streaming services) for talent, ideas, audiences and critical acclaim. The commercial PSBs also compete against each other – and, now, Google and Facebook – for advertising revenue. But part of the strength of our PSB system is that the BBC has a different funding source and does not compete for revenue against either the commercial PSBs or the pay TV and streaming services. 6. British programmes for British viewers The PSBs still account for the great majority of investment in original British TV programmes, excluding sport, ensuring that most UK viewing is still of UK content. 7. Soft Power Largely thanks to commissioning by the PSBs, the UK is the world’s second biggest exporter of TV programmes after the US, and the biggest exporter of TV formats, 3 contributing significantly to the country’s high global soft power ranking. 8. Global reach of BBC News The UK’s soft power is further reinforced by BBC News, with a global weekly reach of 468 million, and growing, outside the UK – more than any other international news service. This reflects its high trust level around the world. 4 Because it provides impartial information to people in countries with little or no independent journalism, authoritarian governments (eg in Russia, China and Iran) actively harass it and seek to prevent their citizens from being accessing it. 5 9. The heart of the creative industries The PSBs have driven the growth of the UK’s world-class independent production sector and are at the heart of many of our successful wider creative industries. 10. A high-quality, high-reach advertising medium The commercial PSBs’ regulated content and universal reach, combined with the ASA’s self-regulation, provide a crucial way for advertisers to reach British consumers without excessive ‘clutter’ and repetition, while avoiding the numerous problems associated with social media advertising. 1. The rules cover all UK broadcast news and current affairs, including on non-PSB services such as Sky News and Independent Radio News, but most broadcast news consumption is of the PSBs’ news services. Until recently, Sky News was – like Fox News and The Sun – part of the Murdoch Empire but, unlike Fox News and The Sun, it has always reported the news impartially. (Fox News, which has played a big part in stoking the divisions in the US, has never been regulated for impartiality. It was launched after the ‘Fairness Doctrine’, which had ensured that TV news covered controversial topics fairly, was removed in 1987). 2. Justine Alford, ‘COVID-19 vaccine confidence is growing, global survey suggests’, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, 5 March 2021. Research at Zurich University has shown that people in countries with strong PSBs are more resilient to false conspiracy theories: Edda Humprecht, ‘Why resilience to online disinformation varies between countries’, LSE Media Policy blog, 8 April 2020, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/2020/04/08/why-resilience-to-online-disinformation-varies-between-countries/. 3. Format sales cover the rights to make local versions of shows such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Top Gear, The Great British Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing. Jean K Chalaby, The Format Age: Television’s Entertainment Revolution, Polity, 2015. 4. For instance, it is the second most trusted news source, after local TV news, in the US (Source: Reuters Institute). 5. In recent weeks, two organisations have attacked the BBC almost daily: the Chinese Communist Party and the Daily Express. Explore content and articles from a variety of news and media sources.FOR US. BY US. ABOUT US.
PSB, 10 Key Points
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