Is the Role of Public Service Media in Estonia Changing?

Abstract

The need to re-structure established media systems needs to be acknowledged. In a situation where new services will be provided by different actors of the digital economy, the role of public service media (PSM) requires attention. If, generally, PSM are under pressure in Europe, the situation in small national markets is even more complicated. PSM are under pressure and also need to find ways to reformulate their role in society and culture. Broad discussions and new agreements between politicians, citizens and the media industry are necessary to change this situation. We will approach the question of whether a specific gap still exists in the media market that can be filled by PSM? The article will seek these answers based on various survey data and collected statistics in Estonia.

Quantifying public value creation by public service media using big programming data

“…If we compare ERR channels with Kanal2 (Figure 10), we see that the latter airs notably more fiction content and has also experienced growth in domestic non-fiction entertainment and infotainment in 2010-2020. The growth in both of these content types is an interesting trend given its decreasing viewership and revenues (Jõesaar and Kõuts-Klemm, 2019). Yet, the commercial channel contributes little to the public sphere when it comes to content on arts and culture or informative and documentary content.…”