JOURNAL

Public service media as drivers of innovation: A case study analysis of policies and strategies in Spain, Ireland, and Belgium

Sabela Direito-Rebollal and Karen Donders | Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research 

2023

Public service media (PSM) organisations must adapt to the post-broadcast era by innovating, staying current with new content consumption methods, and experimenting with the plethora of options that interactivity presents for audience involvement. They still have a duty to fulfil their public service mandate. This article examines PSM’s innovation strategies and policies to determine if they are becoming more user-centric rather than technology-centric. It assesses the innovation policies set forth by public broadcasters, as well as whether these priorities are consistent with the innovation objectives put forth by academics for PSM organisations. Three public broadcasters – RTVE (Spain), RTÉ (Ireland), and VRT (Belgium) – with diverse sizes and locations in various political, cultural, and economic contexts are the subject of this article. It finds that innovation is still predominantly centred on technology.