Context and purposes – The UK’s public service media‘ecology’ The modern era of UK public service media(PSM) 1 began with the Communications Act 2003 and its creation of the statutory media regulator Ofcom. Amongst its suite of responsibilities for media and telecommunications, Ofcom regulates the UK’s five designated public service broadcast­ers(PSBs) – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and the Welsh-language channel S4C 2 – by issuing quotas and requirements to provide public service audiovisual content in e.g. news, children’s programming or original content produced in UK regions outside of London. Ofcom is required to report to the UK Government on how well the PSBs have fulfilled the overarching purposes of PSM as set out in legislation. Until the Media Act 2024 (passed by the previous Conservative government, see below) significantly reduced and narrowed these purposes, the PSB remit was a comprehensive list of genres and ideal outcomes closely associated with the democratising ethos of PSM, including: → free-to-air services and programmes that meet the needs and interests of all audiences; → facilitating“civic understanding and fair and well-in­formed debate on news and current affairs”; → providing educational programmes and those dealing with science, religion, social issues and matters of inter­national significance; → ensuring that“cultural activity in the United Kingdom, and its diversity, are reflected, supported and stimulat­ed” through drama, comedy, music and other creative arts; → reflecting the communities, cultures and identities of the UK; and → providing high quality and original programmes for chil­dren and young people. 3 The Communications Act also grants benefits to PSBs, such as reserved use of the broadcasting spectrum or(for the BBC and S4C) guarantees of public funding. This‘car ­rots and sticks’ approach helps compensate PSBs for tak­ing on non-commercial obligations, and it ensures PSM content is widely available and accessible to all UK audi­ences. The UK’s PSM model has thus been described as a ‘mixed ecology’, 4 in which the publicly-funded, public­ly-owned and commercial publicly-regulated broadcasters jointly provide a wide choice of free-to-air public purpose content that creates value for British society, culture and democracy. UK PSBs, it is further argued, engage in a “competition for quality”, 5 rather than a direct competition for funding or audiences, making the individual remits of each broadcaster more distinct and effective. 1  This briefing uses Public Service Media(PSM) to refer to the organisations, regulations and principles that seek to provide public purpose audiovisual media content across television, radio and online formats. This briefing also uses Public Service Broadcasters(PSBs) to refer to the five UK broadcasting companies that are formally designated as the primary producers of PSM content and services. 2  S4C= Sianel Pedwar Cyrmu, lit. Channel 4 Wales. 3  See Communications Act 2003, Section 264 as originally legislated in July 2003. 4  Ofcom(2018) Public service broadcasting in the digital age. 8 March 2018 5  Chivers, T. and Allan, S.(2022) What is the public value of public service broadcasting? Creative Industries Policy& Evidence Centre, January 2022 At the Cliff-Edge: Public Service Broadcasting in the United Kingdom 3