Defining European Public Service Broadcasting

European Community audiovisual policy, and particularly public service broadcasting (PSB), exhibit tensions between different types of policy objectives: the social, political and cultural on the one hand and economic on the other. Thus, while the Community recognizes the importance of PSB as a public good (i.e. non-individualized goods or benefits, which are for the benefit of, and enjoyed by, the community), which has democratic potential, it also subjects any state funding for PSB to the limitation that `such funding does not affect trading conditions and competition in the Community to an extent which would be contrary to the common interest'. This article aims to identify the Community view of PSB as necessitated by its perceived role in society and juxtapose those requirements against the operation of Community competition policy.