Adapting Public Service Media for the Age of Platforms: Balancing legacy, technology and audience needs for future development

Public service media (PSM) worldwide have consistently been subject to social and technological changes. However, recent years have brought several new challenges. These include radical changes in media use, the advent of streaming services, and the dominance of big tech. The new competitors for the attention of citizens have challenged public service media as an institution and project. Moreover, the profound changes in the media landscape have affected the broadcasters themselves, requiring them to transform into fully digital, online-first organisations. In this context, we present results from research conducted during the second year of PSM-AP, a large-scale comparative research project analysing ‘Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms’. In this brief, we put forward a series of findings and recommendations on the organisational and cultural challenges facing PSM in six markets across five countries (Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Poland and the UK). This report is based on in-depth interviews with PSM employees (top and middle management) in nine European PSM organisations (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, DR, TV 2, TVP, RAI, RTBF and VRT). The collected data was analysed in line with country-specific organisational reports and industry documents.