Etching The Mission Statement On The Head Of A Pin Without Pricking A Finger

Michael Hedges July 2, 2012 Follow on Twitter

Public broadcasters have enjoyed a certain enviable status within the media sphere. Financing reasonably assured, free from the rowdy marketplace and bolstered by national identity many have become iconic brands able to innovate on many levels. But times, like economics, have changed and public broadcasters are asked to explain, exactly, what it is they do.

Switzerland’s public broadcaster SSR-SRG has many advantages. Relative to the country’s size, it is the best financed of all European public broadcasters. As an institution it enjoys broad public and political support. Yet over the last three years the SSR-SRG board has been asked to make tough decisions not for directly competitive reasons, effectively it has no television and scant radio competition. Its long held strategy of getting bigger and bigger because it can is slowly being challenged; costs are rising and increasing the license fee, its primary financial support, is politically untenable.

Last week (June 28) Director General Roger de Weck informed the management and staff of English-language national channel World Radio Switzerland (WRS) that the SSR-SRG board concluded this service was not within the public broadcaster’s mission. “As part of efforts to refocus its services, SRG SSR has decided to transfer World Radio Switzerland into private ownership,” said the brief public statement. WRS has operated on DAB multiplexes across Switzerland since 2007 when its precursor, World Radio Geneva (WRG), was absorbed by the SSR-SRG. WRS also broadcasts, some say primarily, on an FM frequency in the Geneva region.

Mission is a subject near and dear to all public broadcasters, more in recent years, as they are called to explain it to politicians who set its funding, other media outlets who compete with it and, occasionally, to the general public. All European public broadcasting institutions derive from State broadcasting services, changing over several decades to indirect (hypothecated) tax funding sometimes mixed with advertising or State subsidy and management at arms length, often symbolic, from politicians. Through the end of the last century it had all worked out very well for the public broadcasters; funding, generally, generous with few constraints. They developed horizontally and vertically, investing in technology from color television to digital radio, advertising sales management and measurement, commercial audio and video production and sports rights. There were no complaints; not from publishers who feared an unrestrained commercial television market nor from politicians who could still demand appropriately fawning news coverage.

The new century brought unexpected challenges to public broadcasters who, like many in the traditional media sector, had to face the digital revolution. Transition from analogue to digital television meant a sharp rise in competition, both free-to-air and pay-TV platforms but also IPTV. Once supportive newspaper publishers discovered that digital transition meant public broadcasters were now major competitors. Public broadcasters’ primary support and lobbying group, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), began referring to “public service media,” broadcasting being limiting if not anachronistic in the digital age. And then there was the Great Recession with governments chasing austerity and public broadcasting presenting an attractive target.

Separated from local politics and able to take a broad view, the EBU executive has taken steps to move from the “we’ll know it when we see it” definition of public broadcasting to a statement of purpose more in tune with the digital and political zeitgeist as well as the ‘head of a pin’ 140 character information culture. At the EBU general assembly in Strasbourg (June 22) the public broadcasters adopted a “declaration on the core values of public service media” intended to bring the mission statement into line with present reality: “universality (to reach everyone, everywhere), independence (to be trusted program makers, excellence (to act with integrity and professionalism, diversity (to take a pluralistic approach, accountability (to listen to audiences and engage in meaningful debate) and innovation (to be a driving force for innovation and creativity).”

“These values are our public pledge,” said EBU president Jean-Paul Philippot in the statement, “a commitment to our audiences, and the benchmark by which we’re ultimately assessed. The declaration reflects our strong commitment to society. We are working for citizens, not shareholders; for democracy, not profit. This is what sets us apart from commercial media.” (See the EBU statement here)

WRS was born in 2007 amidst competing realities. The English-language Geneva-based FM station WRG, operated as a local commercial station, had grown popular in a community significantly populated by English-speaking expats but venture partner UK international broadcaster BBC World Service was having second thoughts about the expense as well as its own non-commercial mandate. The Swiss Federal Council had also told SSR-SRG to shed certain non-core commercial businesses. The decision was made to absorb WRG entirely within the SSR-SRG, specifically to the French language regional public radio operation Radio Swiss Romande, with rebranding as national channel WRS, distributed across the country on digital radio, internet, satellite and, in the Geneva region, an FM frequency.

This fit within SSR-SRG’s digital audio broadcasting (DAB) strategy, which included multiplex construction and operation. Along with DAB investment, the SSR-SRG lobbied the government to approve analogue-to-digital switch-over by 2018. By consequence, no new public or commercial FM radio licenses are being awarded although a few exceptions have been made. After considerable marketing and the launch of a few DAB-only channels, the Swiss public has preferred digital TV upgrades and smartphones to DAB receiver purchases.

The mission of WRS has been to explain Switzerland to the foreigner residents rather than providing a radio meeting point for expats, which after a decade of fits and starts WRG had accomplished in the Geneva region filled with the UN and its related international organizations, a myriad of NGOs, huge banks, commodity traders and multi-national corporations. The Geneva city and canton (state) governments broadly supports “international Geneva” and an English-language radio station fits nicely. Mr. de Weck informed the WRS management and staff last April of his opinion that the channel no longer fit the SSR-SRG mission but invited them to motivate supporters to convince him otherwise. Overwhelmingly, support for continuing WRS as part of the SSR-SRG came from the Geneva region, which is barely recognized as part of the same country by the politically dominant Swiss-Germans.

Giving a slightly longer explanation, SSR-SRG spokesperson Daniel Steiner, quoted by Tribune de Geneva (June 29) reiterated, “The station is not at the heart of SSR’s main mission. It does not fit into its public service strategy. The SSR already has a channel for the English-speaking public – Swissinfo – under mandate from the government. Finally, we believe that WRS will have better opportunities moving into the private domain.” Without coincidence, Swissinfo is domiciled in the Swiss-German region.

 Five years ago, the SSR-SRG board decided against full privatization of the old WRG because it was felt not to be commercially viable. And now they will revisit terms under which “private or institutional hands” might take over WRS. “Three or four candidates have already announced,” said Mr. Steiner, though only Geneva region English-language internet radio station Radio Frontier has publicly expressed interest, largely in the Geneva FM license.

Of late both the Portuguese and Spanish governments suggested partial (or more) privatization of the national public broadcasting systems only to discover little if any interest. The Danish government forced public broadcaster DR to give up a national radio channel but the conditions were so restrictive – no advertising plus a heavy news commitment – there was only one taker, newspaper publisher Berlingske Media. Denmark has virtually no radio broadcasting in the private sector.

“Many of our members are at different stages of development and working in quite different circumstances,” noted EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre after the big June meeting. “The objective of the declaration is to encourage solidarity, for members to progress. We want to support each other to achieve sustainable funding, editorial independence and to increase quality and editorial standards.”

Progress for public broadcasters in present terms means keeping the message simple and the politicians happy.

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