Table Of ContentTowards a Market in Broadcasting
Towards a Market in
Broadcasting
Communications Policy in the
UK and Germany
Christian Potschka
Palgrave
macmillan
© Christian Potschka 2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-29861-3
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First published 2012 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-33482-7 ISBN 978-0-230-37019-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230370197
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix
Foreword x
Acknowledgements xii
List of Abbreviations xiii
Part I Introduction, Theory and Methodology
1 Introduction 3
Primary and secondary data 8
Structure of the book 10
2 Theorizing Broadcasting Marketization 11
The fate of PSB 11
Market, state, regulation and communications policy 14
Analytical frameworks 22
3 The Logic of Comparison 28
Similarities and differences 28
Four theories of the press 31
Comparing media systems 32
The choice of comparative dimension 36
Part II Developments and Transitions in British Broadcasting
4 From the Origins of Broadcasting to the Post-war Period
(1920–45) 43
The world of wireless 43
The BBC: from company to corporation 45
The turn towards centralization 49
Summary and conclusion 51
5 Welfare State and Broadcasting Duopoly (1945–55) 53
Towards the post-war social democratic consensus 53
The Beveridge Committee 55
The struggle for commercial broadcasting 58
ITV and the broadcasting duopoly 60
Summary and conclusion 63
v
vi Contents
6 Social Democratic Consensus and BBC2 (1955–64) 64
ITV expansion 64
Competition 67
The Pilkington Committee 69
Summary and conclusion 73
7 A Changing Society (1964–79) 74
The heyday of public broadcasting: ITV and regional culture 74
Broadcasting and politics in the 1960s 76
The Annan Committee 80
Summary and conclusion 83
8 The Turn to Market-Driven Politics (1979–90) 86
The economics of freedom and Channel 4 86
DBS 91
Broadband cable 93
The Peacock Committee 96
Broadcasting reform: the shift to the commercial sector 102
Summary and conclusion 106
9 From Broadcasting to Communications Policy
(1990–2003) 109
The franchise auction and Channel 3 consolidation 109
Producer choice and global competition 112
A framework for digital broadcasting 114
Communications policy under New Labour 117
Summary and conclusion 122
10 Ofcom, Public Value and Beyond (2003 onwards) 124
Ofcom: legal basis and development 124
The commercial sector and ITV 127
The BBC in the digital century and public value 129
Summary and conclusion 135
Part III Developments and Transitions in German
Broadcasting
11 From the Origins of Broadcasting to the Post-war
Period (1920–45) 139
Early broadcasting, government and the press 139
Expansion and decentralization 141
Recentralization 144
Summary and conclusion 145
12 From Partial Sovereignty towards Independence
(1945–55) 147
The post-war media in the four occupation zones 147
Contents vii
NDR and WDR foundation: the origins of proportional
representation 151
ARD foundation and the commencement of television 153
Summary and conclusion 156
13 Federal Government vs. Länder: The Battle for
Broadcasting (1955–69) 158
Adenauer and the media 158
The First Broadcasting Judgement 161
ZDF foundation and the start of Third Channels 163
The post-Adenauer era: broadcasting and the press
during the 1960s 165
Summary and conclusion 170
14 From Public Oligopoly to Commercial Competition
(1970–82) 172
Federal Government and the Berlin press vs. the public
broadcasting oligopoly 172
Politics and broadcasting in Bavaria and the NDR Länder 173
The KtK, telecommunications reform and broadcasting 177
Towards cable pilot projects and external pluralism 181
Summary and conclusion 183
15 The Start of Commercial Broadcasters: Competition
(1982–89) 185
The cable pilot projects 185
Broadband cable 189
Satellite 190
Legal parameters for the dual system 193
Public broadcasting and competition 194
Summary and conclusion 197
16 Reunification and Consolidation (1990–2004) 200
Reunification and broadcasting in the new Länder 200
ARD enlargement 202
Broadcasting and regionalization: SWR and RBB
foundation 205
Sector-specific regulation and media concentration 207
Pay-TV and digital broadcasting 210
Summary and conclusion 212
17 Centralized Governance, the Three-Step Test and
Beyond (2004 onwards) 214
Media integration and unitary governance 214
Standortpolitik and the licence fee 216
viii Contents
EU competition law and the Three-Step Test 219
Summary and conclusion 223
Part IV Assessing the Dynamics of Broadcasting
Regulation in the UK and Germany
18 Interdependencies between Public and Private Sector 229
Political and legal parameters for broadcasting
development 229
Income, competition and the common market 232
Broadcasting and the public interest 234
19 Centralization vs. Federalism: Implications
and Responses 238
Political and legal parameters 238
Regional broadcasting in the UK and Germany 240
Broadcasting and regional culture and diversity 242
20 The Market and the State 244
Broadcasting and market-driven politics: reforms
in context 246
Key actors and broadcasting philosophy 249
21 Policy-Making, Continuity and Change 255
Appendix: Short Biographies of Interviewees 258
Notes 262
Bibliography 297
Index 319
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
9.1 T otal regional output BBC and ITV1, 1962–2009 112
10.1 U K multi-channel development, 1993–2011
(number of homes in thousands) 130
12.1 B roadcasting organization in South West Germany
until 1998 149
17.1 G erman multi-channel development, 1993–2011
(TV homes in %) 220
Tables
8.1 T hree stages of broadcasting developments and
policy regimes 100
10.1 U K TV channels’ annual share of viewing time (%) 130
17.1 G erman TV channels’ annual share of viewing
time (%) 217
ix
Foreword
The notion that the products of the mass media are as much market
commodities as cultural necessities has been central to our understand-
ing of mass communication since the appearance of broadcasting and
the immense changes in the media environment in Europe during the
past century. On the one hand the media provide marketed goods and
services which we buy, choose from and enjoy, much as we would other
cultural commodities such as clothes or food. On the other hand they
are also carriers of the ideas, symbols, rhetoric and information we need
to act as engaged members of the societies in which we live. In other
words, in a couplet that has almost become a cliché, we encounter the
media both as citizens and as consumers.
This dual role poses any number of difficulties for formulating the
proper role of government in relation to communications. Is it the
place of regulation to control quite strictly the content and availability
of media products, so as to protect the interest of vulnerable groups,
ensure the maintenance of public information and democratic par-
ticipation, or guarantee widespread and comprehensive availability of
a range of information and views? Or is it more properly the role of
government simply to ensure a ‘level playing field’ in which goods and
services are available for purchase in the market place, but to do no
more? And is it the structure of the media (their ownership and control)
or the substance of what they produce (content) that is of priority for
governments? Governments that seek to control both we may regard as
authoritarian, while those who seek to control neither are plainly liber-
tarian. I have explored elsewhere the simple two by two dichotomy this
notion suggests (Golding and Van Snippenburg 1995).
This dilemma, and its many complexities and implications, lay at
the heart of the development of broadcasting throughout Europe in
the post-war period in the middle of the last century. It remains central
to debate in the age of the internet and pan-European regulation and
cultural production. Understanding how we have arrived at our current
structure, and on what principles and arguments decisions have been
made, is thus a crucial foundation for the formation of current and
future policy. In addressing this issue by a study of the UK and Germany
Christian Potschka has provided not only an unprecedented explana-
tion and analysis of the formation of broadcasting policy in these two
x
