Strategy, positioning and projection in digital television: Channel Four and the commercialization of public service broadcasting

Recent years have seen a frenetic public debate in Britain concerning the desirability, feasibility and timing of the introduction of digital television (DTV). The debate has occurred in the context of impending convergence between television, computer and telecommunications technologies, augur-ing radical changes in the media ecology, and the numerous uncertainties – economic, technological, regulatory and cultural – that accompany such shifts. Some writers, observing these unstable conditions, argue that public service broadcasting (PSB) faces new threats; Chalaby and Segell (1999) took this perspective when deploying Beck’s (1992) risk society thesis to elucidate the outlook for PSB in the digital era. Others argue that PSB bears new responsibilities (Graham, 2000; Inglewood, 2000). As yet, little empirical light has been shed on how the public service broadcasters are responding to digitalization and convergence. This article, based on recent research,1 analyses the response of one of Britain’s two main public service broadcasters, Channel Four (C4). In Britain the introduction of DTV is proving difficult. By late 2001 about 35 percent of British households had one of the three available platforms, and of digital households 65 percent had subscribed to Sky’s digital satellite service, the dominant platform. But many consumers are resisting: between 30 percent and 40 percent say they have no interest in moving to DTV.2 Tony Blair’s Labour government has been a powerful advocate of early adoption of DTV, driven by larger policy interests. These include the desire to give Britain a leading role in the new economy and t