PSM Predictions 2026

Independence of public service media

Marius Dragomir is the director of the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC), a global think tank dedicated to the study of media, journalism, politics, and technology.

In 2026, I expect the independence of public service media to be influenced by shifting political winds more than ever before. In some countries, renewed political competition or strengthened institutional protections may offer space for reform and reinforce editorial independence. Yet in others, increasingly polarised governments are likely to further tighten control, drawing public broadcasters deeper into the orbit of state messaging and partisan narratives.

Forecasting the precise scale of capture is, of course, speculative. However, in my view, the broader context points in a worrying direction. Commercial media operators are exerting growing pressure on the public service model, sometimes in alignment with political actors to undermine trust in public broadcasters. At the same time, many public media institutions are losing audience connection, driven by fragmented media habits and declining institutional trust. In this context, I expect the financial instability to continue to accelerate this trajectory in 2026: budget freezes, cuts, and restructuring are no longer restricted to crisis-affected states but are expanding to systems once considered stable.

A decisive development to watch will be the debate around the BBC Charter 2027 renewal, arguably the broadcaster’s most consequential test of mandate and resilience since its early days. If the BBC loses its independence, the very idea of public service media I think will weaken massively all over the world.

That being said, leaving forecasts aside, this moment should also serve as a warning: without renewed public awareness and engagement, we risk losing the central piece of the public interest media sector.

The funding of public media 

Katherine Maher is the President and CEO of NPR, with deep experience leading public interest institutions through technological disruption and strategic transformation. 

It is worth taking a moment to appreciate the distinct peculiarity of public media in the United States. In a media landscape increasingly dominated by algorithms designed to fracture our attention for profit, public media stands as a quiet, stubborn act of defiance. It is not funded to make money; it is funded to make sense. 

The financial architecture of NPR — a complex system of member station fees for programming and services, corporate underwriting that builds brand trust, and listener support — is often misunderstood as fragility. But we must be pragmatists and see it for what it truly is: a firewall. This diversified funding is the scaffolding of independence. It ensures that no single billionaire, political faction, or advertiser holds the keys to the newsroom. It allows journalists to answer to the public, rather than to a stock price. 

To support public media is to engage in a radical act of civic imagination. When a listener contributes to their local station, they are not buying a service; they are supporting civic infrastructure and upholding shared reality. They are asserting that high quality news and information is a utility — like water or electricity — essential for the flourishing of our community. In 2026, funding this mission is not charity. It is the necessary maintenance of our democracy’s most vital infrastructure. 

[Image credit: Leah Nash] 

Media resilience 

Chris Liu serves as Vice President of Radio Taiwan International, Taiwan’s leading public broadcaster. 

The global media landscape is under growing pressure. Shrinking public funding makes it harder to sustain quality journalism; information manipulation continues to undermine public trust; and fast-moving AI tools are blurring the line between truth and fabricated content. At the same time, hostile cyberattacks are increasingly aimed at media infrastructure, threatening the public’s access to reliable information during moments of crisis. 

In the next 12 months, media resilience will depend on three major shifts. 

First, public media will need more diverse funding sources while safeguarding editorial independence. Greater international cooperation and innovative thinking on business models will be essential for long-term stability. 

Second, fact-checkers, public broadcasters, digital platforms, and governments will need to work more closely – developing coordinated systems to respond faster to emerging threats. 

Third, cybersecurity will become crucial to public media strategy. Broadcasters must strengthen their digital systems, apply stronger security standards, and train staff to handle more frequent and coordinated attacks. 

Resilience will come through collaboration—locally and internationally—with cybersecurity at the core of public media strategy in the year ahead. 

The year public media becomes securitised 

Martin Scott is the Professor of Media and Global Development at the School of Global Development, University of East Anglia. 

In October 2025, it was reported that the BBC World Service had lobbied the UK government for funding from the national defence budget to help offset recent reductions in its funding. It argued that some of its operations – including media monitoring and anti-disinformation work – are vital to maintaining national security. 

I predict that in 2026, the securitisation of public media – or the tendency to interpret journalism’s societal functions though a national security lens – will intensify significantly. This shift is being driven by rapidly changing geopolitical dynamics and the growth of hybrid warfare, which have made reliable and trustworthy information an increasingly rare and valuable commodity. In this context, supporters of public media are likely to find it much easier to argue for financial support on the basis that journalism promotes national security, rather than democracy or human rights. 

But while this change in approach could lead to more stable funding and stronger political support for public media, it also carries serious risks. Without robust safeguards for editorial independence, security-focussed public media could inadvertently promote self-censorship or erode public trust. Put simply, the securitisation of public media could make us safer – and yet less free. 

Trust in public media  

Jane Patterson is currently RNZ Director, editorial quality and training, a position she took up after more than two decades of political reporting. MBA from Victoria University of Wellington.  

When it comes to decreasing levels of trust, public media is not immune. Resentment towards democratic institutions, including the media, exploded into anger and mistrust through the pandemic and it’s never recovered. The challenges are numerous; press freedom is under attack while influencers and social media platforms provide alternative outlets to those seeking publicity outside of the traditional news setting.   

It’s time to get back to basics. Strong writing, bold journalism, and keeping faith with the fundamentals of impartiality, accuracy, balance, and fairness. Public media journalism needs to keep a keen eye on what’s happening in local communities, to be a valued and visible part of positive change. Gearing up in times of crisis, providing vital information and comfort to those in distress.  

Now is our opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past; to read the room and listen to what our public is telling us they need. The next big test is already upon us – how we as news organisations use Artificial Intelligence, how we disclose it, how it shapes our workforce, and whether we can guarantee quality and independence if we choose to leverage this technology.   

Perhaps the consumption of AI could create a path back to higher trust. If we get it right, we could move into a future where authentic, credible, human-made content becomes more valuable, boosting the value of the news media as a result. 

International public service media  

Claire M Gorman is Head of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s International broadcast and digital services and media development teams. She has driven the reinvigoration of the ABC’s International media operations over the last five years and looks forward to continuing this mission into the future.  

With increasing uncertainty across the globe – the continuing shift to a multipolar world order, and ongoing great power tension – it is likely that more countries across the Indo Pacific region will launch and support their own international media services. This presents an opportunity for more established international broadcasters such as the ABC to create partnerships which allow for content exchange and collaborations. These partnerships allow us to diversify our modes of distribution.   

As digital transformation continues across the media sector and more audiences switch off traditional linear TV channels and terrestrial radio networks and move to VOD/AOD and streaming on smart TVs and third-party platforms, a more diversified distribution strategy is important to reach audiences where they are. New and established international media services will be harnessing AI tools to localise language and make content in higher volume and more accessible to broader audiences.  It is vital that we respond to changing platform preferences of younger audiences and serve the content they are seeking on the platforms of their choice. We will double down on our remit as PSMs but adopt and be responsive to new modes of information propagation.

AI versus revenue maximization at Public Broadcasters in 2026  

Menesia Muinjo is the Chief of News and Programming Officer (TV, Radio and Digital/Online) at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation. 

Some National Broadcasters continue to grapple with insufficient annual budgets. This is due to reasons including dwindling subsidies, shareholders’ competing interests, limited market sizes, and effects of globalisation. National Broadcasters’ leadership are now investigating the possibilities that AI tools bring to increase revenue generation in 2026.  

At the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, the leadership invited experts to train AI content production heads, news editors, and producers on how to apply AI tools to enhance content quality on multimedia platforms (radio, tv and digital/online) and subsequently retain audience while attracting new ones. They hope to sell eyeballs (viewers), ears (listeners) and followers to the potential buyers. They were trained to enhance the interactivity between the audience and the content producers and assess what the audience needs in real time.  

It is data analytics – from especially the digital platforms – which are part of the targeted untapped revenue streams that the leadership wants to exploit, with the aim to sell those audience views and clicks to the buyers for increased revenue. The management understands that AI is “cool”, but it must not be implemented without Human Intervention based on Editorial Control and Ethical Conduct. 

The Indigenous algorithm  

Johan Ailo Kalstad is the Director of NRK Sápmi. 

For Indigenous broadcasters, the battleground has shifted. We spent decades fighting for airtime on linear schedules; today, we fight for visibility in a digital landscape governed by algorithms trained on majority data. As we enter 2026, we face the next frontier in this enduring challenge. 

On the one hand, AI threatens to amplify stereotypes, standardise our distinct cultures and marginalise endangered languages. On the other hand, it offers efficiency to bring to life the stories we have only dreamt of broadcasting. 

But we cannot automate our way to relevance. 

My prediction is a bold reinvestment in our core competence, deepening our commitment to offer what neither Silicon Valley nor Shenzhen can replicate: cultural intimacy. 

We are mobilising to get closer. We need to dig deeper into the complex realities facing our communities and stand closer to our audience. In a synthetic world, our competitive edge lies in storytelling and deep journalism that operates where algorithms cannot reach—face-to-face, anchoring truth through relationships, not just data. 

While AI can translate words, only we can translate the way we see the world. That requires authentic Indigenous presence, not just code in a server farm. 

[Image credit: Marie Louise Somby, Árvu]

Media Archives: The New Digital Oil of the AI Era  

Virginia Bazan Gil holds a PhD focused on Artificial Intelligence applied to media archives and currently serve as President of FIAT/IFTA and Director of the RTVE Archive in Spain. 

In 2026, media archives will stand at the heart of a global shift: as Generative AI accelerates, audio-visual collections will become strategic training fuel for AI models. The idea of media archives as the new digital oil captures a profound change: archives are becoming essential infrastructure in the global AI ecosystem. 

Generative AI is already reshaping archival workflows. Tools for automated metadata creation, multimodal search, restoration, rights analysis, and accessibility enhancement are generating real operational value. However, this value depends on institutions’ ability to adapt and calibrate AI systems for their linguistic, cultural, and production contexts. 

At the same time, technology companies are intensifying their search for high-quality, well-described datasets to train the next generation of models. Public media archives fit this demand exceptionally well, offering scale, diversity, verified metadata and trusted, professionally produced content. As publicly available data becomes exhausted, pressure to license archival datasets is rising rapidly. 

Lawsuits such as The New York Times vs. OpenAI have accelerated this conversation, triggering multi-million-dollar licensing agreements between AI companies and media organisations, and even the emergence of specialised AI-training licensing intermediaries. 

Meanwhile, governments and broadcasters will explore national LLMs and corporate models, positioning archives at the centre of new data-sovereignty strategies. 

Effective action in 2026 requires three immediate priorities: 

1. Assess the strategic value of archival collections in the AI landscape, including the specific strengths of professionally curated, rights-managed datasets.
   
2. Establish clear legal, ethical, and policy frameworks governing whether archival assets may be licensed or used for model training. 
3. Determine the institution’s position within emerging national, sector-specific, or sovereign AI strategies, including whether to engage in licensing agreements, consortium models, or public-interest data initiatives. 

Call to action: Choices made in 2026 will shape who controls access to trusted cultural data, and will determine whether public-interest archives become empowered actors in the AI era or passive sources exploited by others. 

[Image credit: Moris Puccio]

Public media and audio trends 

Andrew Davies is Head of Radio at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. The ABU serves more than half of the world’s population as the biggest global broadcasting union with 230 members in 65 countries. Prior to this role, he spent 20 years working in radio, podcasting and digital content at the ABC.  

While radio continues to be listened to and loved by millions of people globally, daily listening time and reach are steadily dropping. This trend is set to continue in 2026. However, one of the points of distinction for public media is in spoken word audio – particularly news and talk formats – which will remain very strong. 

A key issue will be the push for radio’s prominence in connected cars. In-car listening is vital for the sector, yet live radio services are increasingly hard to find. The European Broadcasting Union and commercial radio groups are spearheading this effort. 

A major podcasting trend in Europe and North America is the rise of video podcasts. This will continue, along with YouTube’s growing influence for consumption and discoverability. The blurring of audio and video is likely to have implications for PSMs with dedicated audio and video apps. 

Unsurprisingly, AI is another audio trend which will escalate in 2026. Many PSMs are already experimenting transparently with audience-facing use-cases. Examples include KBS’s bold Station X, RNZ’s use of AI in a true-crime podcast or the BBC’s My Club Daily pilot, but we’ll see more experimentation as new possibilities emerge.  

Whatever happens, the ability of audio to connect, surprise, entertain and solve will remain as powerful as ever. 

Public media and gaming 

Wesa Aapro is Metaverse Lead for Yle Digital Services, looking at the possibilities of new technology and trying not to get too hyped up about the impossibilities. He is knee-deep in The Metaverse, which is already here if we include game worlds in the definition as we should. He is excited about Roblox and especially in the vastly creative yet genderless avatars, the souls of our quickly growing up Generation Alpha.  

Modern multiplayer games were invented in the nineties. In the 2000s about pretty much everything possible on the gaming front had already been done. But games didn’t break into the mainstream media as the Millennials and Gen Z got their high from social media only for letting the following generation see how foul it was. Generation Alpha, the teens of today, escaped to the virtual platforms invented roughly at the same time with The Matrix movie. It took a whole generation for the 20-year-old game called Roblox to become mainstream. Over 100 million teens fill this virtual social space each day to express themselves in the creative avatar form, instead of trying to mimic the old influencers on social media by a makeup mirror. 

Media companies move slowly, sailing one or two generations behind the competition. Now with games there’s a real need to think about changing the course. Gen Z followed Millennials so we tend to think we know what’s coming around the corner with each generation. But we don’t have a skibidi 67 clue unless we start to engage with the young gamers. The laws of physics have been reinvented: Generation Alpha is able to teleport, to be killed and being respawned back to life. And from the viewport of a virtual utopia they’ll surely see our boomer attempt of building a sustainable planet pretty pathetic and start showing us how it’s done, through the voting booths. 

Young audiences, a transmedia approach

Lieke Decosemaker is a project coordinator at Future Media Hubs, responsible for the Audiences & Formats. 

Within Future Media Hubs, we talk about many innovation topics, ranging from the latest developments in AI towards games, interactive formats, news, business strategies and reaching (younger) audiences. When we focus on young audiences in particular, one thing is clear: you have to meet them where they already are: on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or Roblox. At the same time, these platforms don’t always offer what young people increasingly seek: a sense of belonging and a safe environment where they can express themselves authentically. 

That’s why for 2026, we predict more transmedia strategies within media organisations. Begin with strong, vertical-first formats designed to reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha on their own turf, then guide these audiences back to trusted, owned platforms for richer, deeper content. By creating spaces that feel supportive, relatable and community-driven, we can earn young people’s trust without positioning ourselves as an authority figure. 

We will explore these and many more media innovation trends in our upcoming 2026 Trend Report. Follow Future Media Hubs on LinkedIn or subscribe to our newsletter to receive a notification when our Trend Report is published. 

Mitigating the environmental impact of PSM  

Athena Trastelis is the Director, National Sustainability Strategy for CBC/Radio-Canada.  

In 2021, CBC/Radio-Canada, launched Greening Our Story, our sustainability strategy in response to the global call to action against climate change. This strategy solidified our position as a public media company with clear targets and ambitions, and a long-term vision of embedding sustainable thinking in all we do.  

From operations to production, from procurement to engagement, our approach has set the foundation for our desire to lead by example. As Canada’s national public service media, with significant presence on traditional and digital platforms, we spearheaded the creation of two new coalitions (Canadian Broadcasters for Sustainability and Green Frame), each focused on harmonizing sustainability efforts across broadcasters and content funders. We know our biggest opportunity lies in how we collaborate with all stakeholders including independent producers in our ecosystem.  

The foundation of much of our work has centred around measurement and assessment. These two aspects will continue to remain critical in 2026 and beyond. Measurement in the way we stream our services, in the tools we develop to measure the footprint of an advertising campaign, and the inclusion of production emissions data in our Scope 3 calculations, are three prime areas of focus.  

As we share our learnings, so will our ability to further analyse opportunities to collaborate. Sustainability is not a singular activity – it requires all public media to work together across a shared vision for all to do their part. 

Towards more supportive newsrooms 

Leona O’Neill, Founder of MediaStrong and Head of the Undergraduate Journalism programme at Ulster University, is a former news reporter from Ireland who is dedicating part of her work to the improvement of newsrooms culture to mental health support. 

In 2025 we saw a seismic shift in conversations around journalists’ mental wellbeing. Thanks to newsroom wellbeing champions worldwide, the issue finally moved from the margins to the centre of newsroom strategy. Research over the last few years has consistently shown how the rising toll of trauma exposure, online abuse, shrinking resources and AI-driven uncertainty is impacting journalists’ mental health. Court cases for occupational PTSD have also sharpened the minds of many newsroom leaders. 

As someone who works in this field – immersed in the research, delivering mental wellbeing training, and bringing together media organisations globally through the annual MediaStrong conference – I believe that in 2026 this shift will only accelerate. 

Out – and good riddance – will go the notions that mental wellbeing cannot or should not be discussed in newsrooms; that journalists should simply ‘get on with it’; that they can somehow detach from the horrors they witness, expecting their human brains not to have human responses to trauma. 

In will be the normalisation of conversations about the emotional toll journalists carry, and the destigmatisation of support. In will be structured wellbeing frameworks such as the MediaStrong Newsroom Wellbeing Charter. In too will be psychological safety treated with the same seriousness as physical safety, alongside leadership training, trauma-aware mindsets and peer-support networks. 

And most importantly: in will be the recognition that journalists are trauma-facing professionals who need – and deserve – support. 

Public media post-hurricane 

Gary Allen is Chairman of the RG CARES Foundation and Group Senior Executive, Corporate and External Affairs for the RJRGLEANER Communications Group. 

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Melissa on Jamaica in October has exposed the fragility in the media industry in general, but public service media in particular in small vulnerable island states, which are susceptible to a disproportionate level of climate change activities. More ferocious cyclones are anticipated as we continue on this global warming path.  

The hurricane knocked out electricity nationwide. Broadcast networks were disrupted for weeks, cable networks are down for months to come, so the national television public broadcaster, delivered on cable only is accessible solely in the areas, least affected. 

With radio being the easiest medium to access in these circumstances, the absence of a public service radio broadcaster leaves a huge gap. It is anticipated that long, slow moves in that direction will be accelerated in the new year and a radio public service player should join the landscape. 

This hurricane triggered some innovations and a return to some old technologies too, like using “town criers,” driving through the streets to make critical announcements. Now, commercial broadcasters have recognised that what is in the public interest is also saleable and so, collaborating to do more public service programming is growing. 

As fuel for Standby Power Plants was expensive and scarce in the early days after the hurricane, solar generators in these tropical climes, to power small radio transmitters, are now being explored and should be a key component of future infrastructure. 

A new tool has dropped into the toolboxes of media and emergency management professionals alike during this period – the StarLink brand of low orbit satellites used for Internet services and helping telecommunications providers with Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP services. It is also helping broadcasters, connecting studios to transmitter sites and it is the transport method relied on for Outside Broadcasts from the field. 

It seems that critical public service content, transported via satellite will drive change and innovation in our industry in the immediate future. However, the big prospect and hope that seems likely is for an acceleration of the switch from analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television in Jamaica, where multiple channels including the public broadcasting one which is now only available on cable will be sped up and delivered to consumers free of charge by broadcasters. 

Prominence for content and services from SVT 

Henrik Selin is a Senior Adviser with SVT, responsible for regulatory relations. 

On December 15, 2025, a government-appointed inquiry proposed the introduction in Sweden of a law on the prominence of PSM content and services. The committee highlights as grounds for the proposal PSM’s importance for democracy, its funding by taxpayers and the special requirements that apply, including PSM’s role in crisis and emergencies. 

The report comes at a crucial time as SVT’s new public service remit for 2026-2033 comes into force. SVT’s content remit will remain broad across all genres with funding set for the full eight-year period (SVT is fully funded by a special public service fee). For the first time ever this technology-neutral remit comprises all SVT activities online, including an expanded responsibility for maintaining high levels of security and robustness online. This will require considerable investment not only in programming, but also in measures to ensure the audience can always access SVT content and services online.  

Sweden like other EU countries is awaiting developments at EU level to ensure that national rules for prominence also apply to market players registered in other member states. The committee’s report will shortly be submitted by the government for public consultation. 

The big transatlantic regulatory showdown  

Pascal Albrechtskirchinger is Head of EU Public Affairs for German public broadcaster ZDF in Brussels.  

In 2026, audiovisual policy will play a centre stage role in the wider transatlantic relations. Whereas the European Union is actively promoting and developing its values-based ex ante regulation – of which PSM is a constituent part – the Trump administration is trying to impose its own approach more forcefully than ever.  

For the U.S. industry, the transatlantic market is simply indispensable, since it represents two thirds of the global buying power. As early as February 2025, the U.S. administration issued a warning against any “exploitative, burdensome or restrictive” measure to be imposed on U.S. companies. What is unprecedented however, is the conjunction with the ideological dimension. The recently published U.S. National Security Strategy Paper states it in the clearest terms: “We will oppose elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe, the Anglosphere, and the rest of the democratic world, especially among our allies.” 

The proposal for a revision of the AVMSD, expected for 2026, will most likely tackle the findability of public value content and of reliable news in order to strengthen Europe’s democratic fabric. Both sides fully understand the global repercussions of that struggle and remain adamant. The scenes are set.