At the Cliff-Edge: Public Service Broadcasting in the United Kingdom

Public service broadcasting in the UK faces an existential crisis. Rapid evolutions in the media landscape have prompted sweeping changes to media legislation, regulation and broadcasters’ corporate strategies. However, these efforts have exposed contradictions in how UK politicians and public broadcasters think about the purposes of public service media. The declining appeal of UK public media has also revealed the consequences of routine political interference in how these organisations are funded, regulated and governed. This briefing reviews developments in UK PSB over the last 5 years, and details how major policy debates over the next 5 years will be decisive for the survival – or terminal failure – of public media in the UK.