Commercialisation and Programming Strategies of European Public Television.

Authors

  • Bienvenido León University of Navarra

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS12200768

Keywords:

public television, commercialization, information, entertainment, diversity

Abstract

The increase of competition in the European television market has raised concern about commercialisation of public broadcasting. European public television struggles to survive, adapting to a competitive environment and maintaining the principle of public service. Some public broadcasters –it is argued-, have been forced to follow a strategy of convergence of their programming with that of their commercial competitors. In other cases, public televisions have maintained a highly distinctive programming, with more “serious” content, including political issues. This paper presents the main results of a study on prime-time programming of European public and commercial broadcasters, which has been carried out in 14 countries of the European Union, in 2003 and 2004. The main results indicate that European public television has reached a significant level of commercialisation, although there are still some differences with private programming, since public broadcasting is more oriented to information and maintains a higher level of diversity. Estratégias de Comercialização e Programação da Televisão Pública Europeia O acréscimo da competição no mercado televisivo europeu colocou a preocupação acerca da comercialização da difusão pública. A televisão pública europeia batalha pela sobrevivência, simultaneamente adaptando-se a um ambiente competitivo e mantendo o princípio do serviço público. Alguns operadores público de televisão têm sido forçados a seguir uma estratégia de convergência ao nível da sua programação com os seus competidores comerciais. Noutros casos, os operadores públicos têm mantido uma programação distintiva, com conteúdos mais “sérios”, nomeadamente assuntos políticos. Este artigo apresenta os principais resultados de um estudo sobre a programação do prime-time dos operadores televisivos públicos e privados europeus, que foi realizado em 14 países da União Europeia, em 2003 e 2004. Os principais resultados deste estudo indicam que a televisão pública europeia atingiu um nível significativo de comercialização< no entanto, permanecem algumas diferenças ao nível da programação que diferenciam operadores privados de operadores públicos, revelando estes últimos uma maior orientação para conteúdos programáticos informativos e com maior grau de diversidade.

Author Biography

Bienvenido León, University of Navarra

Associate Professor, School of Public Communication, University of Navarra. Periodista y doctor en Comunicación Pública, es profesor de las asignaturas de Producción Televisiva y Divulgación Científica Audiovisual. Sus líneas de investigación se centran en la comunicación de la ciencia en televisión y en el documental televisivo. Es director de TeleNatura, Festival Internacional de Televisión para la Naturaleza. Anteriormente fue director de informativos de la agencia Editmedia TV, coordinador de reportajes informativos de Tele 5 y director de la productora Euroview. Desde hace varios años, trabaja también como realizador, productor y guionista de reportajes y documentales para televisión. Sus obras han obtenido varios premios, como los de mejor documental en el Festival internacional de Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) y en el Festival Internacional de Cuzco (Perú). Es autor del libro 'El documental de divulgación científica' (Barcelona, Paidós, 1999), así como de numerosos artículos científicos y divulgativos sobre comunicación, publicados en revistas españolas y extranjeras.

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Published

2007-09-28

How to Cite

León, B. (2007). Commercialisation and Programming Strategies of European Public Television. Observatorio (OBS*), 1(2). https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS12200768

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2007)

Section

Articles

License

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