Public Service Broadcasting: Challenges and Responses*

Abstract These two statements capture much of the debate that has recently been waged over policy for public-service broadcasting in Europe and the United States. Of course, public broadcasting has always lived with controversy. In most industrial societies, however, there usually existed a firm consensus that public-service broadcasting ideals and institutions were necessary and appropriate, if not central, to enlightened modern culture and civilization. During recent years that consensus has verged on breaking down, as several major factors have served in country after country to challenge the rationale for and operational terms of public broadcasting: