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1 J. Media L. iii (2009)

handle is hein.journals/joomaw1 and id is 1 raw text is: [2009] 1 Journal of Media Law 1-13 COMMENT AND ANALYSIS The Future of Public Service Content in the United Kingdom Thomas Gibbons* BACKGROUND Public service broadcasting still has a central position in the production and content of media programming in the United Kingdom. Yet that position has never been taken for granted, with the rationales, organisation, financing and regulation of public service media being subjected to continual scrutiny since the 1920s. A succession of broadcasting committees, Parliamentary committees and Royal Commissions has been supplemented by debates each decade about renewal of the BBC's charter and by policy consultations prior to frequent legislative reform. The history of UK media policy has been one of deregulation of public provision, as new markets and technologies become available. However, the process has been gradual and incremental because, when assessing developments in programming genres and their delivery, concerns about the possibly negative implications for public service broadcasting have led to caution about the pace of reform. Over the years, there have been moments when the very survival of public service broadcasting has seemed to be at stake, but there is now a real sense that a critical turning point has been reached, a sense reflected in the title of the recent report, Public Service Broadcasting: Short-term Crisis, Long-term Future?, from the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications.' That report is a response to Ofcom's Second Public School of Law, University of Manchester. 1 House of Lords Select Committee on Communications, Public Service Broadcasting: Short-term Crisis, Long- term future?2nd Report of Session 2008-9 (HL Paper 61, April 2009) (hereinafter 'House of Lords Report'). 1