The Structural Developments of Regional Television in Britain and Germany

Abstract

This paper compares the structural developments of regional television in Britain and Germany from the early days of broadcasting to the present from an institutional and organisational perspective. Drawing on a series of interviews with policy-makers and other key personalities, it is argued that the combination of political administrative borders and regional television boundaries, as exists in the German Länder, provides a fruitful basis for a strong regional television service. During the post-war period divergences between Länder borders and Consortium of Public-Law Broadcasting Institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany (ARD) broadcasting boundaries, palpably manifest in south-west Germany, have been harmonised, leading to thorough conformity. However, in centralised England questions of regionalism have strangely played such an important role in the evolution of television, and there are evident disjunctures between regional boundaries and television regions. This applies to the regional structure of Independent Television (ITV) as well as to the regional initiatives of the BBC, which, since the mid-1980s, increasingly takes over ITV"s regional duties, fulfilling primarily political demands.

‘Rooting’ the BBC: An interview with Rhodri Talfan Davies, Director of BBC Nations

“…Whilst several scholars have examined the relationship between individual nations and regions to the BBC (Christophers, 2008; Cushion et al, 2020; Genders, 2019; Hibberd, 2010; McElroy et al, 2019; McElroy and Noonan, 2016; Noonan, 2012; Potschka and Golding, 2012), few scholarly accounts have looked holistically at the relationship between the BBC and the concept of Nations and Regions. The exception to this is Harvey and Robins (1993).…”

Methodological Proposal for Sustainable Territorial Communication—The Case of Castilla y León

“…Furthermore, both the media and political parties play the role of guardians of the people and articulators of the public interest, which Chadwick (2011) highlights. Digitalization and social media allow public service media to gain more consumers and participate more actively in public debates, but they also require public service media to keep pace with the trends in and maintain their traditional principles of public service, high-quality content, and reach (Potschka and Golding 2012). As pointed out by some authors (López-Olano et al 2022; Larrondo Ureta and Alonso Jurnet 2023), achieving sustainability in regional television requires innovative approaches.…”

Policy streams and public service media funding reforms in Germany and Finland

“… 1. The ARD combines nine independent Länder -based public service media (PSM) organizations (ARD Third Channels). For the development of the regional television system, see Potschka and Golding (2012). Apart from ARD and ZDF, Deutschlandradio is a public broadcasting radio station which is also funded by the licence fee. …”