Online Media Engagement and Public Value: the German and UK Cases Compared, invited speaker at Centre for Cultural Policy Research (CCPR), University of Glasgow

The paper explores the theme of the impact of digitization on public service broadcasting by examining the competition issues raised by the public broadcasters’ new media engagment. In particular, it examines the application of European Union (EU) ‘state aid’ rules to the public service broadcasters’ new media engagement. It provides an analyis of the strategic and policy responses of media policy makers, regulators and the public service broadcasters in Germany and the UK. In doing so, it considers the debate about the extent to which public service broadcasters should be allowed to develop new media services. It points to the fierce lobbying by private communications interests and certain political actors who seek to restrict the scope of public service broadcasting, with regard to their programme remits and particularly with regard to their new media operations,. The paper provides an empirical account of how the related competition issues have been dealt with. In particular, it examines the development and implementation of the Public Value Test in the UK and its equivalent in Germany, the Three-Step-Test (Drei Stufen Test). In concluding, the paper considers the implications of these new procedures for the output of public service broadcasters in the two countries. Have the public value tests, for instance, acted as a constraint on the public service remit? Are they a way of ‘disciplining’ (Freedman 2008) public service institutions? Or have they rendered public service institutions more accountable to those they exist to serve, namely the citizenry?