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consequences for the perception of the content and for the societal value it renders. As PSB content disseminates better over linear broadcasting than over
non-linear broadband (where it can be fractionated, personalized and avoided), the attempts to attract additional attention for this content by multiplat‑
form strategies have to be balanced against the additional obstacles of PSB to fulfil its mission, and against the harassment of PSB social role and societal
value. By using the theories of social value and public economics for analysing and comparing case examples from Germany, the UK and Finland, we intend
to show how the policies are biased on favouring such solutions which provide or promise the highest economic output in monetary terms. We argue also
that some of the broadcasters’strategies are based on false or nationally limited understanding on the cost structure and the economics of the platforms.
PN 175
The Television Programme as a Participatory Practice in Content Production and Distribution: Yle’s A2 Theme Night
E. Mäntymäki
1
1
University of Tampere, School of Communication- Media and Theatre CMT, Tampere, Finland
Economic pressures and the necessity of keeping up with a rapidly changing media environment have encouraged public broadcasters like Finland’s Yle
to develop public service media operations on the Web. This change is keyed to the increasing personalisation of media use and the individualisation
of consumption. Public service organisations are responding with strategies that seek to preserve traditional public service values and embrace consum‑
er-oriented collaborative practices simultaneously. They are challenged by the perceived need to develop workable compromises between broadcasting for
the nation and engaging individuals. Linear television broadcasting has been the very heart of the national public service mission historically. TV competi‑
tion was handled with carefully scheduled channels. The contents of a channel were distinct television programmes. In this paper the author demonstrates
how recent developments in non-linear media bring into question the concept of a television ‘programme’. This paper focuses on Yle’s efforts to develop
the means for adapting traditional public service values in a new context and situation. The paper reports on a case study that analyses the transforma‑
tion of one long-running current affairs discussion programme, the A2 Theme Night (Teemailta) from 1989–2015. The findings emphasise developments
and experiments with social media and other interactive platforms in recent years. On the basis of content analysis and interviews with key producers,
the author argues that the programme per se has remained largely the same during the lifecycle to date. Real-time interaction with viewers has been ele‑
mentary to the the programme from the beginning. Despite this continuity, the position of a television programme is by now only one element of a much
larger production that features a range of collaborative activities in social media and as cross-platform tactics that begin before the show, develop during
the show and continue after the show. In short, it is no longer only a‘show’.The case study sheds light on the changing position of the television programme
in a multimedia, cross-platform practice. We question claims that the historic concept of a programme and its capability to continue the national legacy
of broadcasting is antiquated. Contrary to much of the buzz about new media taking over, the growing role of social media seems to actually strengthen
the role of live television because an interactive real-time experience can enhance viewer engagement. Moreover, despite significant changes broadcasting
has not lost its unique, and uniquely important, power to unite diverse viewers and act as a source of national cohesion. The best known television brands
tend to have a broadcast television programme as the heart of the cross-platform operation. The case of A2 confirms this. The programme is still popular
and promotes itself as a forum for the hottest current debates affecting the nation. The broadcast programme is the indisputable driver and the interactive
elements are heavily invested in hopes of better serving the public.
PN 176
Adapting Media Policy to the Multiplatform Age: The Case of Austria
J. Trappel
1
1
University of Salzburg, Institute for Communication Studies, Salzburg, Austria
The conflict is straight forward: The Austrian public service broadcaster expands its operations from radio and television into web-based services; the Aus‑
trian commercial media corporations (press, radio, television) consider this move offensive against their business interest. In the absence of clear cut media
policy regulation, Supreme Courts had to rule. The political and legal conflict is not solved. As a consequence, vested business interests dominate over
legitimate interests of Austrian citizens. The Austrian conflict is paradigmatic for the ongoing development difficulties arising from platform convergence,
enabled by digital technologies since the 1990s. By then, only few media business actors realized the enormous opportunities, but also conflict potential,
of the technology-neutral architecture of the upcoming internet. Today, the pretty level playing field allows all kinds of incumbent and generic actors to
compete technologically on equal footing with one another. In the strictly neo-liberal reading of economics, such enhanced competition should result in
the market optimum: low prices, low barriers to enter, best quality. The political economy perspective, by contrast, would emphasize growing inequalities
in market power with transnational or even global corporations dominating the virtual market place. Ownership concentration abound unequalled in
media history. Either way, competition does not seem to work properly in internet markets. Too many rules and restrictions apply to incumbent media
organizations and at the same time too little regulation at the transnational level result in a sub-optimal market and performance structure. Research in
content quality shows considerable problems, explained by diminishing numbers of professional journalists hired by news organizations, by considerably
less time for research and investigation for the remaining editorial staff and by serious shortages of financial resources following from the ongoing economic
recession. Below the line, paradoxically, citizens are much less supplied with diverse and high-quality media content by the converging media industry
with much higher numbers of media outlets than ever before. In this paper, Austria is chosen as a case in point. The public service broadcaster ORF while
defending its market leader position is severely constrained it is online activities. But at the same time, private competitors for all kinds of reasons do not
manage to develop innovative online features. This deadlock might serve vested business purposes of the contenders but it certainly is not in the best inter‑
est of Austrian citizens. Despite their payment of license fees for public service broadcasting, the delivered services are restricted and not comprehensive.
Private commercial media have not yet invented business models for monetarizing their content supply in the internet. Media policy in the post-broadcast
era needs to overcome this deadlock by drafting platform-neutral rules for private-commercial and public service media. The traditional media policy
values still apply: diversity of opinion, universality of availability and appeal, provision for minorities and competition for quality rather than for numbers.
The paper ends with a catalogue of policy measures responding to platform convergence.