Efficiency and benchmarks of regional public service broadcasters in Spain

Abstract

The current high public deficit situation of the Spanish economy lead us to analyse the management of public service companies, their allocation of resources and how well they are used. Within this article, we shall compare the efficiency of regional public service broadcasters (PSBs) in Spain using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and benchmarking. That will be done with two goals in mind. One, to evaluate and compare the performance of regional public television networks. And two, to propose policy measures to improve management efficiency. The results from the study indicate that more than a half of public television services in Spain are inefficient. It is recommended that the television services change some of their inputs/outputs to enhance efficiency and ensure future sustainability

Economic performance of the Spanish regional public service broadcasters according to the political party in government: An empirical analysis (1995-2016)

“…These networks include the regional public service entities of Aragon, Valencia, Galicia, the Canary Islands, Asturias and Madrid. Later, Artero et al (2015) confirmed these results and proposed some performance measures in order to address the inefficiency in production management based on variation of inputs. To this end, they suggested that certain networks needed to considerably reduce their external expenses and implement actions aimed at increasing their audience share.…”

“…In order to do this, researchers have analysed different variables and used different methodologies and approaches. Some of the variables that have been considered in the literature are the professional, business and political profile of the directors, presidents and boards of directors of the regional entities (López Cepeda, 2012), the input-output ratio necessary to achieve production efficiency (Campos & Velasco, 2013;Artero et al, 2015), the influence of the management model (classic or outsourced) used by the channel on the economic performance obtained (Fernández Alonso, 2002;Cuesta, 2011;López Vidales et al, 2012;Orive et al, 2016) and the effects that regional public policies have on the activity of regional broadcasters (Miguel de Bustos & Casado, 2012;Marzal et al, 2015;Casado et al, 2016).…”

“…However, these public entities have been called into question regarding various issues such as their high cost, the independence of their content with respect to the corresponding regional political government, and their management of production activities (Muñoz, 2011;Campos, 2012;Artero et al, 2015;Olmo & Navarro, 2015). In addition, audiences have decreased significantly over time.…”

Spanish media in a new digital world: The great bonfire of the vanities

“…This has led to a balancing out of revenues generated by advertising, payments and subsidies at around €1,800Mn. However, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and benchmarking more than a half of regional public television services in Spain are inefficient (Artero, Orive & Latorre, 2015). To ensure their future sustainability they should change their governance.…”

Determinants of the efficiency of Spanish public broadcasting channels: A data envelopment analysis bootstrapping approach

“…However, there are practically none that study the productive efficiency of communication groups at a regional level. The only known works are those of Asai (2005, 2011), Campos and Velasco (2013), Artero et al (2015), Latorre Martínez et al (2016) and Orive Serrano et al (2016), which use the non‐parametric technique data envelopment analysis (DEA). However, there is a wealth of work on productive efficiency in other areas of the public sector, such as education (Berbegal‐Mirabent et al, 2013; Cordero Ferrara et al, 2005; Muñiz, 2001) or health (Carrillo & Jorge, 2017; Cordero et al, 2016; Pérez‐Romero et al, 2019).…”