Research project
Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms (PSM-AP)
- Start date: 1 November 2022
- End date: 31 October 2025
- Funder: PSM-AP is supported by UKRI, United Kingdom; FWO, Belgium; DAFSHE, Denmark; and NCN, Poland, under CHANSE ERA-NET Co-fund programme, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement no 101004509.
- Primary investigator: Professor Catherine Johnson
- External co-investigators: Tim Raats, Michał Głowacki, Hanne Bruun, Massimo Scaglioni, Serra Tinic
- Postgraduate students: Postdoctoral researchers: Catalina Iordache, Daniel Martin, Julie Mejse Münter Lassen, Filip Świtkowski, Antonio Nucci. Supporting researchers: Jacek Mikucki, Katarzyna Gajlewicz-Korab. Research assistant: Mattia Galli.
Value
€ 1,335,910
Partners and collaborators
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Aarhus University, University of Warsaw, University of Alberta, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA), European broadcasting Union (EBU)
Description
PSM-AP is a three-year research project that examines how public service media organisations, regulators and policymakers are adapting to a new platform age dominated by the likes of Netflix, YouTube, Apple and Amazon.
For almost 100 years, public service media (PSM) have played a central role in European culture and society. However, since the 2010s the rise of global platforms and streaming services has transformed the environment within which PSM operates. PSM organisations are having to compete with global streaming services, such as Netflix and YouTube, for audiences, revenue and talent. And they have had to develop new on-demand services and online content that can only be delivered through the online systems owned by global platforms such as Google, Apple and Amazon.
PSM-AP asks how PSM organisations, regulators and policymakers are adapting to this new platform age, and how this might alter the social and cultural values of PSM and its ability to operate in the public interest.
PSM-AP focuses on television, which remains at the heart of PSM. It will compare data gathered within and across six countries and 10 PSM organisations: Belgium (RTBF, VRT), Canada (CBC), Denmark (DR, TV 2), Italy (RAI), Poland (TVP), UK (BBC, Channel 4, ITV). We will look at policy, regulatory and trade debates/documents, undertake interviews with commissioning, channel/service, curation, marketing and audience research teams within the selected PSM organisations, and analyse the linear schedules, video-on-demand interfaces and programmes of those PSM organisations.
Comparing this data across each country will enable us to understand how different factors, such as language, size of nation and legitimacy and funding of PSM, might affect the ways in which PSM organisations, regulators and policymakers are adapting to the platform age. Knowledge exchange with PSM organisations, regulators, policymakers and civil society groups will be used to identify what actions might be needed to ensure that PSM operates in the public interest.
Impact
The project will generate industry and policy briefs, reports, blogs and press articles aimed at securing the public value of PSM.