Can the BBC live to be 100? Public service broadcasting after digital switchover

The trend towards pluralism and a super-abundance of TV channels and radio stations has in general posed a risk for public service broadcasting (PSB) organizations whose roots lie in conditions of spectrum scarcity. The increased number of broadcasting outlets means that public service broadcasters’ audience share is almost inevitably set to decline, and raises questions about the residual purposes of public service programming when so many other choices are available without any form of tax funding. However, perhaps unexpectedly, the era of digital television switchover has proved a good one for many PSBs, since governments value their role in facilitating the change. Once analogue terrestrial switch-off is complete, and the distinctiveness of television is further eroded by its convergence with the Internet, the prospects are different. This article examines the challenge of the all-digital broadcasting environment for the BBC in the United Kingdom, asking whether the 1986 Peacock Report’s long-term vision was quite wrong or just premature – and finding in the BBC’s history the underlying values that can provide the basis for its survival. The analysis draws out points applicable to PSBs in other countries within the constraint that no two PSBs, and no two national broadcasting markets, are ever quite the same.