Public service broadcasting in the market place: the BBC and KBS in the 1990s

Abstract

With the advent of digital era, the broadcasting landscape is radically changing. Technological development, deregulation and globalisation, as well as changes in social structure and lifestyles combine to shift the established broadcasting paradigm. In the broadband communications environment, bandwidth scarcity, the basis of public service broadcasting, is relieved and thus hundreds of channels are available. Audiences once united in their loyalty to public service channels. are now fragmented. In these circumstances, public service broadcasting, which has been regarded as indispensable, is losing its rationale. Public service broadcasters, irrespective of region and country. are forced to battle for viewers and funding, to redraw their mission and range of activities. and to reshape themselves for the digital world. This study explores how the public service broadcasters (the BBC and KBS) of Britain and Korea have been restructuring themselves to adapt to the changing broadcasting environment. It also traces how the concept of public service broadcasting has evolved in Britain and examines the development of Korean broadcasting, proposing that the distorted operation of Korean public service broadcasting directly resulted from that country's history. Finally, it analyses the reasons why broadcasting in Korea has never been operated on principles of public service despite its proclaimed 'public service system' and explores how to secure the public-ness and public interest of Korean public service broadcasting in the future. For this study in-company research at the BBC and KBS was conducted between 1998 and 2003, along with a literature review. During this period over forty senior staff members were also interviewed, representative of both broadcasters