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Introduction / P. Iosifidis -- PART I: PSB 3.0: Re-inventing European PSB / K. Jakubowicz -- Pluralism and Funding of Public Service Broadcasting across Europe / P. Iosifidis -- EU Broadcasting Governance and PSB: Between a Rock and a Hard Place / M. Michalis -- The European Union's Competition Directorate: State Aids and Public Service Broadcasting / M. Wheeler -- PSB and the European Public Sphere / B. Thomass -- Civic Engagement and Elite Decision-Making in Europe: Reconfiguring Public Service News / F. Corcoran -- For Culture and Democracy: Political Claims for Cosmopolitan Public Service Media / K. Sarikakis -- Public Broadcasters and Transnational Broadcasting: Coming to Terms with the New Media Order / J.K. Chalaby -- Public Service Media and Children: Serving the Digital Citizens of the Future / A. D'Arma & J. Steemers -- Heritage Brand Management in Public Service Broadcasting / G.F. Lowe & T. Palokangas -- PART II: The BBC and UK Public Service Broadcasting / J. Tunstall -- France: Presidential Assault on the Public Service / R. Kuhn -- Public Service Broadcasting in Germany: Stumbling Blocks on The Digital Highway / R. Woldt -- Public Service Communication in Italy: Challenges and Opportunities / C. Padovani -- Spanish Public Service Media on the Verge of a New Era / B. Le(c)đn -- Squeezed and Uneasy: PSM in Small States-Limited Media Governance Options in Switzerland and Austria / J. Trappel -- The 'State' of 'Public' Broadcasting in Greece / S. Papathanassopoulos -- Public Service Broadcasting in Poland: Between Politics and Market / P. Stepka -- From 'State Broadcasting' to 'Public Service Media' In Hungary / M. Lengyel -- Future Directions for US Public Service Media / W. Baer -- Identity Housekeeping in Canadian Public Service Media / P. Savage -- Public Service Media in Australia: Governing Diversity / G. Hawkins -- New Zealand on Air, Public Service Television and TV Drama / T. Dunleavy

Petros Iosifidis investigates the challenges that Public Television (PTV) broadcasters in Western European countries encounter in a competitive digital broadcasting environment and looks at the policies and strategies that these broadcasters are adopting in order to remain accountable, competitive and efficient. By looking at a number of large and small PTV broadcasters, the book reveals the different policies and strategy patterns that exist across Europe and uses European experience to propose workable strategies to be adopted by national PTV broadcasters

This article argues that national policies for digital television (DTV) are largely determined by markets, political contexts and supra-national influences, notably European Union (EU) audiovisual policy, which puts pressure on member states to speed up digital switchover.This creates a tension between the push of the EU to harmonize the switchover process and set target dates and the struggle of some of the countries to comply with this policy. In terms of the strategies that could be employed to accelerate digital uptake, the article points to setting a prompt date for analogue switch-off, subsidizing the relevant equipment to receive DTV, offering triple play services, ensuring active management to complete conversion effectively and, above all, adopting free-to-view DTV. The wide reach free-to-air model, in which public broadcasters have a leading role, ensures that the universality principle is maintained in the digital age.

The aim of this article is to examine the way technological developments and the internationalisation of the television industry affects public television (PTV) broadcasters in Europe. The work focuses on the policies pursued by PTV broadcasters in selected European countries in response
to the challenges that confront them in the era of digital convergence. The changes in the European television landscape force public channels to rethink their position towards new digital technologies, organisational structures and programming policy and scheduling. To illustrate the difficulties
but also the opportunities that arise during this period of change, the article analyses specific activities and strategies undertaken by public channels in the main areas examined (reorganisation, programming and technology) in one large (France) and one small European country (Greece).

This paper investigates the challenges that Public Television (PTV) broadcasters in small Western European countries encounter in a competitive digital broadcasting environment, and looks at the policies and strategies that these broadcasters are adapting in order to remain accountable,
competitive and efficient. The paper starts by charting the privileges that PTV broadcasters have enjoyed, notably political support, relatively secure funding and longevity. Then it moves on to analyzing the enormous technological, economic, political and wider social changes that have occurred
in the European broadcasting ecology in the past two decades and the competitive and financial challenges these shifts have brought about for the public corporations. The third and final part of the paper focuses on the factors affecting PTV broadcasters operating in the smaller territories
of Europe and analyzes the organizational, scheduling and programming strategies adapted by these broadcasters. The paper concludes that PTV in Europe has shown resilience but has largely adapted a more populist tone.

Foreword -- Contents -- List of Tables -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- Bibliography -- Part I: Theory and Practice -- chapter 2: Social Media, Public Sphere and Democracy -- Introduction -- The Traditional Public Sphere and the Mass Media -- The Traditional Paradigm: The Public Sphere and the Media as the 'Fourth Estate' -- The Decline of the Traditional Public Sphere -- The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: The Fifth Estate -- The Globalisation of the Public Sphere -- The Democratisation of the Public Sphere -- Democratic Deficit: Putnam's Concept of Social Capital -- Social Media and the Public Sphere: John Keane's Cautious View -- The Internet's Contribution to Politics: Bang's Theory -- The Public Interest and Media Governance -- Social Media and Democracy -- Unstructured Participation -- Unreliable Information -- Censorship -- Corporate Online Activity and Privacy Concerns -- Absence of Critical Discussion -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- chapter 3: The Political Economy of Social Media -- Introduction -- Media Market Shifts -- Political Economy and the Role of the State -- The Growth of Social Media -- Political Economy, Social Media and Corporate Activity -- The Audience as a Commodity -- Public Service versus Public Choice Philosophies -- Social Media Policy Challenges: Intellectual Property Rights, Electronic Surveillance and Privacy Issues -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- chapter 4: Western Media Policy Frameworks and Values -- Introduction -- Media Governance and the Public Interest -- Media and Communications Policy in the USA -- Federal Communications Commission -- The FCC, Media Ownership Rules and Media Mergers -- The FCC and Convergence Policies -- Media and Communications Policy in the UK -- The Setting Up of Ofcom -- Media and Communications Policy in the EU.

Social media is said to radically change the way in which public communication takes place: information diffuses faster and can reach a large number of people, but what makes the process so novel is that online networks can empower people to compete with traditional broadcasters or public figures. This book critically interrogates the contemporary relevance of social networks as a set of economic, cultural and political enterprises and as a public sphere in which a variety of political and socio-cultural demands can be met. It examines policy, regulatory and socio-cultural issues arising from the transformation of communication to a multi-layered sphere of online and social networks. The central theme of the book is to address the following questions: Are online and social networks an unstoppable democratizing and mobilizing force? Is there a need for policy and intervention to ensure the development of comprehensive and inclusive social networking frameworks? Social media are viewed both as a tool that allows citizens to influence policymaking, and as an object of new policies and regulations, such as data retention, privacy and copyright laws, around which citizens are mobilising. Petros Iosifidis is Professor in Media Policy at City University London. He is author of six books and numerous articles in refereed journals. He is Editor of theInternational Journal of Digital Television and Co-Editor of the Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business Book Series. Mark Wheeler is Professor of Political Communications at London Metropolitan University. He is the author four books including Politics and the Mass Media(Blackwell, 1997), European Television Industries (British FiIm Institute, 2005) (with Petros Iosifidis and Jeanette Steemers), Hollywood: Politics and Society(British Film Institute, 2006) and Celebrity Politics (Polity, 2013). He has contributed to numerous peer reviewed articles to academic journals and has written many chapters in collected editions.

This article focuses on governmental control over state broadcasting media in Greece and analyses whether Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation can be considered as public or state broadcaster. The first part explores the interrelationship between media, politics and the state in Greece, and the ways the latter has affected the development of Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. By doing so, it makes references to similar Southern European broadcasting models that are also characterised by clientist manners, ministerial censorship, a powerful state and a weak civil society. Furthermore, it looks at the devastating impact of haphazard deregulation and market liberalisation on Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation since the early 1990s, when the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation lost much of its formerly loyal audience and advertising income to a number of newly launched commercial television channels. Part 2 assesses the degree of political, editorial and financial independence of Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation under the current SYRIZA-led administration. Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation was re-launched by the left-wing SYRIZA government after a temporary 2-year closure, but it is struggling to maintain a competitive advantage and a politically neutral output.

In 2013 the Greek government closed down public broadcaster ERT and made its employees redundant as part of the latest public spending cuts imposed to meet the terms of the country's bailout deal. In effect, this has left the commercially dominated Greek broadcasting landscape without a public channel and its citizens dependent on the private media sector for the provision of information, entertainment and education. One can rightly accuse ERT of lacking clear public interest objectives, overstaffing, bureaucracy, wastefulness and over-rewards for senior management, but its abrupt closure without consultation and a strategic plan is an attack on free speech and public space by the Greek government. ERT required restructuring, but not closing down. Public service broadcasters play a crucial role in producing and disseminating public service output that brings citizens together and enhances the educational and cultural aspect. This paper is concerned with analysing the reasons behind, and consequences of seizing a public service broadcaster such as ERT. After providing a background of the historical role and remit of ERT, the article focuses on the legal questions surrounding the Council of State decision regarding ERT's closure. The final part examines the legality of ERT's closure from the EU and ECHR perspective. The central argument is that the closure of a public channel limits pluralism and freedom of speech in a market-driven Greek economy.