Covid-19 and public service media: Impact of the pandemic on public television in Europe

This article analyses the response of European Public Service Media to the crisis caused by Covid-19, especially the impact of the pandemic on Europe’s major public broadcasters, with a particular focus on technical and professional constraints, alterations in audience volume and habits, production...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Túñez López, Miguel, Vaz Álvarez, Martín, Fieiras Ceide, César
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC)
Repositorio:Minerva. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:minerva.usc.gal:10347/45001
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10347/45001
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Television
Public service media
PSM
Broadcasters
Chains
Audiences
Television programming
Production strategies
Covid-19
Pandemics
Coronavirus
Advertising
Platforms
News
Co-creation
Interactivity
Trends
Europe
3325 Tecnología de las telecomunicaciones
Descripción
Sumario:This article analyses the response of European Public Service Media to the crisis caused by Covid-19, especially the impact of the pandemic on Europe’s major public broadcasters, with a particular focus on technical and professional constraints, alterations in audience volume and habits, production strategies, type of broadcast content and journalists’ routines. The research is based on public information from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and 19 in-depth, structured interviews with a convenience sample of innovation and strategy managers from public broadcasters in Aus tria (ORF), Belgium (VRT and RTBF), Denmark (DR), Finland (YLE), France (France TV), Germany (ARD and ZDF), Great Britain (BBC), Ireland (RTÉ), Italy (RAI), Netherlands (NPO), Portugal (RTP), Spain (RTVE), Sweden (SVT), Switzerland (RTS) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The results indicate that the corporate projection of PSM was increased by emphasising their role as essential services and their defence of the values that characterise them. The pandemic forced the adaptation of programme production from technical standards to an emotional approach, accelerating a formal hy bridisation with native online contents. Dependence on software grew and newsmaking processes were altered towards ‘remote journalism’. Changes are drawn that may be maintained in the future.