Behind the Screen: How streaming is changing public service media

As public service media shifts from universal television channels to personalised streaming platforms, civil society and public institutions face immense challenges in attempting to monitor what is available for audiences to watch and, critically, what is being recommended.

In the past, television schedules showed the range of programmes that were available on each channel. This could be analysed and the results used to hold broadcasters to account. In the new world of ‘digital-first’ public service media, each audience member increasingly has a bespoke ‘schedule’ of recommended and promoted ‘content’ determined by an opaque combination of editorial decisions and algorithmic determinations.

The Media Act 2024 insists that programmes which contribute towards public service remits must be easily discoverable and promoted. How this will be monitored by the media regulator (Ofcom) remains unclear.

In this report we examine the availability, prominence, and discoverability of programmes that support the civic function of public service media across four platforms: iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, and 5. The result of a collaboration between the University of Leeds, the International Broadcasting Trust, the Campaign for the Arts and the Sandford St Martin Trust, here we focus specifically on television programmes about the arts, international issues, religion and belief. These are amongst a number of ‘at-risk genres’ that were removed from the public service remit in the Media Act 2024. We set out a series of recommendations that reflect our findings and concerns, and respond to the challenges of monitoring on-demand services.

Our findings raise serious concerns about the transparency and accountability of PSBs to the public, civil society, regulators, and government. We hope this report will begin a process of opening-up these platforms to far greater scrutiny so we can, at the very least, understand what is available, discoverable, and prominent.