Future Roles for Public Service Broadcasters

Public service broadcasters (PSB) all over the world face the challenge of a rapid change in media usage including structural changes like a shift towards social media. Germany is a special case inasmuch as the PSB are rather strong and well protected by the constitution. However, an EU state aid case brought against Germany concerning the financing of PSB has changed the scene dramatically. The newly established three-step-test which PBS have to meet before launching an online offering serves as a role model for European media policy (despite the fact that it is a bureaucratic monster) and has triggered a debate among academics of various disciplines on
editorial quality and the role of publicly financed content online. In this context the relevance of services with "journalistic-editorial content" is a point of debate. The lecture will sketch some insights from the German experience.