JOURNAL

Different diversities: Policies and practices at three European public service VoD services 

Cathrin Bengesser & Jannick Kirk Sørensen | Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 

Diversity has inherently been linked to public service media (PSM) due to their fundamental ideals of universality and pluralism. PSM have a duty to serve all members of a society and to have a pluralistic and diverse programme offer.  

This article explores the expression of the different perception of diversity in PSM’s legal and policy requirements, in the audits they issue, and more particularly, how diversity is presented on PSM’s VoD platforms. The research looked into the diversity strategies of three major European PSM SVoD, namely BBC iPlayer, the Danish public broadcaster’s DRTV and Germany’s ARD Mediathek. It showed how differently diversity could be conceptualised and exposed in these VoD services. It also uncovered the conflicting relation between public service ideals and the notion of identity-based ‘branded diversity’ of SVoD.