A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD
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A <strong>FUTURE</strong> <strong>FOR</strong> <strong>PUBLIC</strong> <strong>SERVICE</strong> <strong>TELEVISION</strong><br />
It is worth considering some of the key<br />
relationships within the television ecology<br />
and how people and ideas flow within it.<br />
Between broadcasters<br />
The UK’s leading broadcasters are all acutely<br />
aware of each other and sensitive to each<br />
other’s role in the ecology. Senior executives<br />
meet at conferences and seminars, staff<br />
at rival companies frequently interact,<br />
collaborating or socialising. They commission<br />
programmes to compete with each other and<br />
often to differentiate themselves from each<br />
other. They get inspiration from each other;<br />
they copy each other, and they learn from<br />
each other’s mistakes. Many staff move from<br />
one company to another. Broadcasters set<br />
standards for each other too. Commercial<br />
broadcasters such as ITV and Sky have<br />
to pit their arts and drama output against<br />
the publicly funded BBC. The BBC’s<br />
sports coverage has to compete with the<br />
benchmarks, including the levels of spending,<br />
set by Sky.<br />
Between broadcasters and producers<br />
Producers, whether in-house or independent,<br />
provide the output that makes broadcasting<br />
happen. Without channels or distribution<br />
networks there would be nowhere for<br />
producers to take their products. Channel<br />
4 relies virtually entirely on independent<br />
production; indeed, its launch in 1982 gave<br />
birth to a whole industry. The production<br />
sector has expanded vastly since then<br />
thanks to quotas imposed on broadcasters<br />
and the rapid growth in channels, and now<br />
encompasses giants such as Endemol/Shine<br />
and Fremantle as well as boutique companies.<br />
Talent flows between the broadcasting and<br />
production sectors.<br />
Between broadcasters and the cultural<br />
world<br />
The BBC in particular has strong links to<br />
the cultural sector. Its support for classical<br />
music involves not just Radio 3 but funding<br />
orchestras and showing the Proms concerts.<br />
Both the BBC and Channel 4 play a very<br />
important role in film production. All<br />
broadcasters screen films, expanding the<br />
market for cinematic releases. Drama can<br />
feed off source material and then stimulate<br />
further interest in and sales for that material<br />
– Wolf Hall, for example, has been a huge<br />
success story as a novel, on the stage, and<br />
on TV. Documentaries and news items are<br />
often timed and themed to coincide with<br />
exhibitions at major museums and galleries.<br />
Between television companies and the<br />
wider creative industries<br />
The makers of television – whether<br />
broadcasters or producers – rely on the skills<br />
of so many people outside the industry.<br />
Costume designers, make-up artists and<br />
special effects experts all play a crucial<br />
part in making drama possible, for example.<br />
Musicians benefit from the exposure that TV<br />
can bring and from royalties on the use of<br />
copyright material.<br />
Between broadcasters and the public<br />
There is straightforward link between<br />
broadcasters and viewers, and in the BBC’s<br />
case a direct ownership link owing to the<br />
mechanism of the licence fee. But TV also<br />
nurtures other relationships with the public:<br />
for instance, talent shows from X Factor<br />
to The Great British Bake Off or The Choir.<br />
These shows in their very different ways not<br />
only allow the public to participate directly in<br />
television but stimulate interest in crafts and<br />
skills.<br />
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