Exporting the Public Value Test

Public service broadcasters across Europe are venturing into the digital world, launching niche TV channels, building extensive websites, developing commercial services, entering into partnerships with external actors, and exploring new ways to reach users, whether its through smart phone apps or screens in public spaces. Such endeavours intensify fundamental discussions about what we need public service media institutions for. These are complex discussions, building on history, encompassing new technology, and involving a range of strong stakeholders. Recently, the so-called public value test has emerged as the focal point for these discussions. As a detailed regulatory scheme to measure the public worth and possible market impact of planned publicly funded media services, the public value test is causing controversy across Europe. This collection of short essays from academics, regulators, public broadcasters and private media representatives, provides thought-provoking perspectives on the state of play of public value tests in a range of European states. In so doing, the book is a topical intervention in the ongoing debate about the future of our media systems.

Content

Editors’ preface

Ex Ante Tests in Europe: From Diverging Perspectives to Infinite Conclusions
Hallvard Moe, Karen Donders

In Search of the Holy Grail? Comparative Analysis in Public Broadcasting Research
Tim Raats, Caroline Pauwels

The Public Value Test: A Reasoned Response or Panic Reaction?
Karen Donders

Ex Ante Regulations, the EU and its Member States: Back to Brussels?
Ross Biggam

Public Value, the BBC and Humpty Dumpty Words – does Public Value Management Mean What it Says?
Richard Collins

The Three-step Test: Three Steps Forwards or Backwards for Public Service Broadcasting in Germany?
Irini Katsirea

The ZDF Three-step Test: A Dynamic Tool of Governance
Renate Dörr

ZDF’s Three-step Test as a Societal Debate about the Future of Public Service Broadcasting
Stoyan Radoslavov, Barbara Thomass

The Public Service Remit in Norway: What’s In and What’s Out?
Marie Therese Lilleborge

Ex Ante Limits Public Broadcasting and Gives the Public Less Attractive Services
Hilde Thoresen, Erik Bolstad

Two Steps Towards a Public Value Test: Danish Public Service Broadcasting Between Two Lines of Control
Erik Nordahl Svendsen

Swedish Pre-screening of New Services: Treading Lightly
Nina Wormbs

Dutch Public Service Broadcasting Between Bureaucratic Burden and Political Choice: Implementing the Amsterdam Test in the Netherlands
Jo Bardoel, Marit Vochteloo

Publishers’ Fight for Fair Competition in the Digital Era
Herman Wolswinkel

Ex Ante Test in Flanders: Making Ends Meet?
Hilde Van den Bulck

Long Live the Ex Ante Test: The Ex Ante Test Is Dead!
Ben Appel

Ex Ante Assessments for Public Broadcasters in Southern Europe: Delayed Europeanization?
Benedetta Brevini

The Authors