PSB has faced many challenges to succeed in the current UK broadcasting market. Reasons such as existance of new technologies, politicians and the 1990 Broadcasting Act are just a few of the reasons this has happened.
PSB's general requirments are to maintain a high standard and wide range of programming, including topics such as education, and current news and affairs. It must also cater for all tastes and minorities. PSB's are meant to be for the people, which may mean too much focus is on customer satisfaction that finanical success. UK television moved during the Thatcher years from programme-led production to advertising-led production. In turn, this means current producers are much less likely to be supported by management if risky ventures do not show quick results in terms of audience members. PSB broadcasting is in doubt if their ratings become the only factor concerning programme success, as it simply diminishes the purpose of PSB's aim for public benefit. Although during the mid 1990's channels like the BBC and 4 have done well in this area, as they have maintained their audience share whilst ITV have been losing them. However in the long term it could jeopardise the original PSB aims.
Even dating back to the earlier years PSB's, particularly the BBC have struggled to survive the broadcasting market. When Rupert Murdoch planned to expand commercial television, the government questioned the BBC lisence fee, which was a conerstone of its purpose. Ministers argued that unless the corpration produced programmes that everyone watched, they could not expect universal funding. Eastenders, a serious BBC rival to Coronation Street was what met this challenge, and by rivalling ITV without the assistance of commercial funding it maintained its licence fee. However it was once again questioned due to the Jonathan Ross/Russel Brand incident in 2008, when they made a series of prank calls to Andrew Sachs on Radio 2. Not only does this question the fee but it also questions the way the BBC is run, which makes the scandal hugley damaging, and it may have now seriously undermined the case for the licence fee.
We also have to consider the emergence of technologies such as Sky, and Digital programming. Particulary in the noughties, the rise of popularity in Digital TV has been huge, with almost 87.1% of the televised population now having it. The endless variety of channels digital T.V provides means consumers are free to view almost anything they wish, including all minorities, and this does question the purpose of PSB's. Their morales of customer satisfaction are echoed now through digital TV, and a 2009 survey states that 42.6 % of people decide to watch "Other Programming" on their T.V, compared to just 19.4 % for the BBC. Although much popular than any other terrestrial channels its clear Digital TV's proliferation has impacted Public Service Broacasters hugely, and by the time the Digital Switchover happens in 2012, it could be what ends PSB all together.
Even through all this however PSB's still seem to maintain their audience figures, as well as their customer satisfaction. So for now we can guarantee its saftey. However the future does not look bright, and with the switchover fast approaching, and the endless minorities and cultures that now represent our country, PSB's may find it hard to follow its principles that orginally made them; and thats customer satisfaction
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I like this essay George, well done! Some of it is clearly lifted straight from the material you were given but if you can memorise that for the exam then who am I to argue?! I would say that your arguments are a little outdated due to using that material which is from an older textbook so you must do some research into how the situation might have changed in the last ten years, particularly focussing on funding and the digital switchover. Keep up the good work practicing these essays, it will make the real exam much less scary for you!
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