Week 4 MCS 101 MEDIA INSTITUTIONS Public Service

Week 4 MCS 101 MEDIA INSTITUTIONS Public Service Broadcasting İbrahim Cansızoğlu, Burak Doğu ibrahim. cansizoglu@ieu. edu. tr, burak. dogu@ieu. edu. tr Media and Communication, IUE

Public service broadcasting The starting point must be the responsibility delegated to broadcasting authorities by the state, and the manner which those authorities interpret their responsibility. Government intervention to regulate broadcasting has been the outcome of wavelength scarcity and problems of financing. The portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for broadcasting is limited. Broadcasting media are enjoyed in people’s homes, therefore they appear as natural resources available. Sykes; “Wavebands available in a country must be seen as a valuable form of public property. ” Broadcasting serves as a cultural, moral, and educative force, but it also has social and political functions.

TRT was founded in 1964 as the only national broadcaster of Turkish Republic. Test transmissions started on TRT 1 on January 31, 1968.

The structure of TRT channels Yücel Yener; "The technology being used was old and the channels were lack of identity. " According to a research of Başbakanlık Aile Kurumu (1993); "Besides the purpose of the programs, television is an important medium which has the power to change the society. It has the power of mainstreaming. The viewers are living the life of others during the viewing experience. "

TRT 1 It is the first channel of TRT. Amongst the TRT channels, TRT 1 has the highest rating. It has a coverage of 98, 4% of the population in Turkey. It aims to reach a target audience most of which are grown-ups. It is possible to come across various programs types aiming to educate and entertain. Most of the programs are designed with regard to the interest of families.

TRT 1 (cont'd) Since 1996 some programs like Merhaba Asya, Avrasya Gündemi were produced tending to reach consanguineous nationalities. A huge number of anniversaries are celebrated each year on TRT 1. A couple of programs are shown for the farmers. The number of cultural programs on TRT 1 are relatively low. Religious programs also occupy an important piece of the timeline.

TRT 1 (cont'd) The understanding of "educating while entertaining" was transformed into sole entertainment with the beginning of 2000 s. Gülseven Güven; "1998 Türkiye'sinde Türkiye‘nin işgücünün %78'i ilkokul mezunudur. Bir rating savaşında bunu dikkate alıyorsak ve yayınlar giderek bu çevre ve topluluk ihtiyaçlarına, beğenilerine göre hazırlanıyorsa, o zaman nasıl büyük kentlerimizi gecekondu kültürüne terk ettiysek, bu sefer bütün genel kültürümüzü de onlara teslim etmek zorunda kalıyoruz. "

Issues on social responsibility: The case of 75 th anniversary of the Turkish republic It was also the 30 th anniversary of public broadcasting. 28 Şubat induced the attention given to the celebrations. Some documentaries were produced besides the series like Cumhuriyet (former Kurtuluş). Fay Hattı can be taken as another sample for social responsibility.

TRT 2 It began broadcasting in 1986 as a consequence of development plans. The first intention was to set TRT 2 as culture and arts channel. At first, TRT 2 broadcast was very similar to the on TRT 1. In 1991; the percentage of education programs on TRT 1 was 35% and the share of cultural programs was 12%, whilst TRT 2 had 13% for the first category and 20% for the second. Dramas occupied 34% coverage on TRT 2.

TRT 2 (cont'd) Sinema ve Edebiyat, Sinema 100 Yaşında, İki Film Birden, and Gündemde Sanat Var were some distinctive programs to change the content of the channel. At that time, TRT 1 was mostly broadcasting popular shows. In 2002, the name of the channel was changed to "News and Information" and the channel began to take news as the main focus. It was thought to revise TRT 2 to make it look like NTV, CNN Türk, and TV 8. A news room was established for the TRT 2 channel and it was proposed to work in collaboration with the TRT news centre. TRT 2 works with 1763 transmitters to cover 97, 5% of Turkey.

TRT 3 It began broadcasting in 1989. Its broadcasting time was shared to cover the TRT GAP programs. In the weekdays, it was switched to TBMM TV. Özal wanted the politicians to own their public channel. • How do you evaluate this argument? It was founded with the insight of broadcasting sports programs. Its broadcast reaches a population of 96, 8%.

TRT 4 As experienced on TRT 3, its broadcast also began without necceessary preparations in 1990. Its purpose is to support the universal education. Therefore, it was used to broadcast distance learning programs produced by the hand of Anadolu University. It is possible to come across horseracing broadcasts besides Turkish classical and folk music programs.

TRT GAP Its broadcast began in 1989 on TV 2. Its broadcast covered such cities like Mardin, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman, Gaziantep, and Kahramanmaraş at the southeastern part of Turkey in order to correspond to their needs. Its aim was to reach rural villages and the people who migrated to cities to provide an educatory content. It had some programs directly aiming the women audience. Then it shared the same channel with TRT 3, broadcasting 11 hours a day.

TRT INT It was named as TV 5. It was founded in 1990 with the aim to reach Turkish citizens living in Europe. It reached 14. 500. 000 people in Germany, 624. 000 in Austria, 3. 959. 819 in the Netherlands. . . It broadcasted 24 hours a day. Programs like Merhaba and Kimlik Arayışı pointed the identity issues for the ones living abroad.

TRT Türk (AVRASYA) It broadcasts to the Caucasus and Middle East. It was named as TRT AVRASYA when began broadcasting in 1993. Its programs did not have the sight of the people's interest living in the Turkic Republics, even the broadcast had a coverage of central Asia. Some additions were made to the European broadcast. The nations of central Asia were already fed up with the one way broadcasts of Moscow. The issue of timing was another problem. It has a limited coverage provided by Türksat 1 C.

The picture today - domestic I • TRT 1 (launched January 1968) - General entertainment channel with a broad schedule featuring local and foreign series, Turkish and Hollywood cinema, live shows with Turkish folk music, Turkish classical music and pop music, live sport, news and current affairs plus special events such as the Eurovision Song Contest. • TRT Haber (launched September 1986 as TRT 2) - The daytime schedule of TRT Haber consists of news and current affairs, plus sports news and weather. Primetime programming focuses on culture, arts, documentaries and world cinema.

The picture today - domestic II • TRT 3 (launched October 1989) - Broadcasts live and archive sport including Formula 1, World and European Figure Skating Championships, World and European Athletics Championships, Turkish Women's Volleyball league, U 18 Basketball plus feature programmes. When parliament is in session, TRT 3 relays live coverage of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM-TV). • TRT Gap (launched October 1989) - TRT Gap airs programming aimed at the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. The channel timeshares with TRT 3. • TRT Çocuk (launched November 2008) - TRT Çocuk airs children's programming, animated programmes and educational programmes. The station timeshares for most of the day with TRT 4, which signs on in the primetime hours.

The picture today - domestic III • TRT 5 Anadolu - Broadcasting with regional TV channels of Turkey. • TRT 6 (launched January 2009) - TRT 6 broadcasts Kurdish language programming in line with Turkish law. • TRT el Türkiye (launched April 2010) - Broadcasts 24 hours a day in Arabic language with programs aimed at Arabs in Turkey, as well as the wider Arab world and Middle East. • TRT Müzik (launched November 2009) - TRT Müzik is a 24 hour music channel with for Turkish folk and Turkish classical music. It also airs pop, rock, jazz & ethnic music. • TRT Belgesel (launched November 2009) - TRT Belgesel is a 24 hour documentary channel. • TRT HD (launched May 2010) - High definition television channel of TRT.

The picture today - international • TRT Türk (16: 9, but this is not encoded in DVB signal) (formerly known as TRT INT) - Broadcasts international news, current affairs, documentaries and cultural programming aimed at both Turks and Turkish speaking audience living abroad. It's the first TRT channel to make extensive use of a private production company for news programming. • TRT Avaz (formerly known as TRT Türk) (launched March 2009) - International channel broadcast aimed at the Turkic Republics and Turks living in the Balkans. The channel has a focus on entertainment and documentaries as opposed to TRT Türk's new focus on news. Programmes are broadcast in a mixture of languages including Turkish, Azeri, Kazak, Uzbek and Turkmen.

TRT NET and Teletext (Telegün) TRT website was founded in 1999 with the name of TRT NET. The unit responsible with the project was SAYTEK. Sample: www. trt. net. tr Telegün was renewed to standardize the page formats in accordance to TRT logo. Telegün is consist of 500 pages which are updated anytime during the day.

TRT under change Even if it is regarded as an autonomous organisation, TRT has always been under the influence of political forces. During Özal governence, TRT had to go to a major change due to the existence of external forces. It was intented for TRT to act like BBC, but at the same time the advertising shares came to the agenda. Değişim Ofisi was founded in 1999. Mc Kinsey Company and Strateji-Mori made research on the media consumption patterns of the Turkish audience. An agreement was made with Pittard Sullivan Company for the revision process of TRT in 2001. These attempts to change brought the understanding to see audiences as consumers. In 2001, TRT switched to the digital system.

TRT news Former TRT workers employees were transfered to the commercial television channels. Protokol haberciliği News from Anadolu Ajansı were directly given to the audiences before the second half of the 1990 s. TRT news centre is consist of; Centre, Parliament, Nation, Foreign, and Sports.

TRT news (cont'd) TRT centre is located in Ankara, however it has news management offices (haber müdürlükleri) in İstanbul, İzmir, Antalya, Çukurova, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Trabzon, Cyprus. It has some agencies (haber büroları) in several other cities like Edirne, Kocaeli, Aydın, Muğla, Manisa, Uşak, and Elazığ. Besides, 1000 freelance reporters (kaşeli) are working in other cities. Berlin, Asghabat, Washington, Baku, and Cairo are the cities in which the foreign news centres are located.

TRT news (cont'd) News centre works for all the TRT channels. It produces news also in English, French, and German. 2450 hours of news was broadcasted through the TRT radio stations in 2001. TRT is also a member of EBU (European Broadcasting Union) and ABU (Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union). In 2001, TRT bought an approximate number of 300 programs from international companies and distributed 250 videos in return.

TRT newscast An average of 20 -25 news are presented in each newscast. 90% of all news have political references. 50% of news are on opening ceremonies and on visits of the political actors. Cliches like "coming up next" do not exist on TRT newscast. Hidden cameras are forbidden to use. No violence and abuse are permitted.

Magic Box Inc. was founded in 1989 and two channels were rented from Eutelsat. Star 1 began its broadcasts with sports competitions, talk shows, and newscasts. Many employees from TRT were transferred to Star 1. Magic Box was advertising through the newspapers, however TRT did not gave place to those ads. Some problems occured between TRT and Star 1 regarding the advertising case. Advertisers didn't pay for taxes for the ads presented on Star 1 since Magic Box was broadcasting from Germany. Illegal ads were also shown on Star 1. Magic Box made agreements with the Turkish football league. İncirlik case during the Gulf War eroded the reliability of TRT news.

The rise of commercial broadcasting Five other companies were founded in 1990; Sabah's Satel, Türkiye's Vizyon, Nadir's NTV, Hürriyet's Ulusal, and Karacan's Karaca. Star 1 supported ANAP in the 1991 elections. Mega 10 was founded to serve SHP during the elections. Show TV started broadcasting in 1992. Its goal was to gain rating by making broadcasts of violence, red spot movies. . . TGRT was the first formal commercial television. Its policy imitated Türkiye Gazetesi. Kanal 6 aimed to reach Central Asia. Doğan's Kanal D, Satel's ATV and others followed the tradition.

Regulations Commercial televisions were established in the beginning of 1990 s even if it was not permitted. They did not pay for the taxes. Therefore the rules of law were not fulfilled. Commercial broadcasts were critical alternatives to TRT. In 1993, monopoly of government over broadcasting was removed with the change in the constitution (Law no. 133). In the frame of this revision RTÜK was founded. Law no. 2954 (TRT Yasası) was not changed. So that the influence of political forces continued.

Regulations: A new agreement European Convention on Transfrontier Television (Avrupa Sınırötesi Televizyon Sözleşmesi) was signed in 1992. Regarding the new regulation, the freedom of watching foreign broadcasts in Turkey was secured (according to the issue of freedom of speech/press). Advertisements were due to the regulations.

Regulations (cont'd) It was a neccessity to make another regulation, since not all the laws were precise. Bosnian War was on the agenda and the broadcasts of TGRT and Inter. Star triggered new regulations. Even Inter. Star was banned from broadcasting, its programs were offered by Teleon. Finally, Law no. 3984 (Radyo ve Televizyonların Kuruluş ve Yayınları Hakkında Kanun) was legislated in 1994. TRT is also in the frame of the Law no. 3984, in case of an exclusion to Law no. 2954.

Regulations In 2002, Law no. 3984 was changed to 4756 bringing a new regulation on broadcasting. Sample: p. 342 RTÜK also influenced the functioning of TRT. It is possible to come across some punishments in the past.

TRT budget According to Law no. 3093 (Türkiye Radyo-Televizyon Kurumu Gelirleri Yasası) - 3383 Sayılı Yasa ile değiştirilmiş 2. madde. . . Incomes of the TRT budget are as follows; • Radyo, televizyon, video ve birleşik cihazlardan alınacak bandrol ücretleri, • Elektrik enerji hasılatından bu kanuna göre ayrılacak paylar, • Genel bütçeden yapılacak katkılar, • Radyo ve televizyon vasıtasıyla yapılan her çeşit ilan ve reklam ile faaliyet gelirleri, • Film, bant, plak, nota, dergi, kitap ve benzerlerinin yapım, yayın ve satışından elde edilecek gelirler, • Düzenlenecek konser, temsil ve benzeri programa giriş ücreti ve bu yerlerde yapılacak ilan ve reklamdan elde edilecek gelirler, • Yapılacak her türlü bağış, yardım ve diğer gelirler olarak sayılmış olup, bandrol ücretleri ile elektrik hasılat payı ve yasayla düzenlenmiş, ancak diğer gelirlerin saptanma yetkisi kuruma verilmiştir.

TRT budget (cont'd) Label fee (10%) is taken once at the time of the sale. It represents a total of 15 -20% amount in the budget income. TEDAŞ and TEAŞ collect a fee of 3, 5% for TRT from their sales. It corresponds to an amount of 50 -70% in the budget income. Other revenues are program sales, audio-visual retails, sports competition video sales. One of the most important problems for TRT is that it is not possible to maintain the budget with broadcasting revenues. If the advertisements become the main source for revenue, it will be a problem to continue to follow the principles of public service broadcasting. However, due to cross-ownership it is not possible for TRT to compete with the commercial channels in the means of advertising revenues. It may be a solution to cut down the costs with the help of sponsorships.

Founded in 1922, The British Broadcasting Corporation is the principal public service broadcaster in the United Kingdom.

The founding Back in the 1920 s, the BBC was licensed to broadcast by the Post Office financed by an annual licence fee charged on all households. Unity of control in broadcasting The mandate of national service broadcasting was interpreted as a meaning that anyone in the UK was entitled to good quality of reception of the BBC. Twin transmitters were used for regional and national programs. Wide range of programs adressing to the interest of public sections. The 1950 Beveridge Committee endorsed the BBC’s monopoly, but within a couple of years the conservative government opted to establish commercial television.

An independent network Independent Television Authority was responsible for establishing a commercial television. ITV (1955) was founded as an extension of public broadcasting (not an alternative). Tv programmes of ITV aimed to reach the largest audience possible, so that their methods were safe. But this was lack of originality. Due to the ‘failing’ of commercial television, a third channel was awarded to the BBC (by the Pilkington Committee, 1960). Duopoly between the BBC and ITV

Annan Committee on the future of broadcasting (1974) The committee recommended: • • BBC funding by licence fee Fourth independent television channel Long-term restructure and diversification of broadcasting Establishment of Broadcasting Complaints Commission Privatisation of local radio Independence from direct political control Increase in independent production Outcomes: • Increased licence fee • Channel 4 (1980)

Public or private? Channel 4 can be seen as the expression of a continuing political commitment to regulating broadcasting as a public good and in the public interest. The Peacock Report (1986) has redefined broadcasting as a private commodity rather than a public good. However, they favoured retaining the licence fee as they believed it was the 'least worst' option. Openness depends on the social, economic, and political climate. Bandwidth has made competition possible, but it’s unlikely to produce a perfectly competitive market. It only removes one of the barriers to entry in the market. Competition will increase choice but it will not guarantee quality, diversity, and impartiality. Intervention will still be needed?

Overview of British media I The largest UK broadcaster is the BBC which runs two national television channels (with national and regional sub-divisions), five national radio stations, cable and digital TV channels, and more than 40 local radio stations. The Corporation has global enterprises in both television and radio, as well as a broadcast monitoring service, and Europe's most visited content website. Although predominantly a public service organization, which raises revenue from a universal licensing system, the BBC also operates commercially in many domains both inside and outside the UK.

Overview of British media II The Broadcasting Standards Commission has responsibility for regulating the portrayal of violence and sexual conduct, and issues of taste and decency in all television, as well as handling complaints of invasions of privacy and unfair treatment. The Independent Television Commission (ITC) regulates commercial television, and the Radio Authority commercial radio. BBC is ultimately responsible to parliament through its 12 publicly appointed governors. There also national Broadcasting Councils in Wales, Scotland Northern Ireland. The BBC's Producer Guidelines act like a code of practice and the Corporation has a Programme Complaints Unit available to the general public. For the most part, the UK media are regulated more by general law. In total, it is estimated, more than 140 pieces of legislation have specific relevance to the media, and litigation remains a favoured method of bringing the media to account.

Audience share of British Tv channels (2001)

Share of British Tv channels over a decade

Discussion • Would you prefer to pay-per-programme? • Do you think that deregulation could be an option for PSB? • Can the licence fee survive? • Is it possible to increase revenues while remaining as a vertical monopoly? • How do you interpret narrowcasting?

Concept definition Narrowcasting A term of the moment in the early to mid-1990 s. Efforts to find gaps in the market resulted in developing new types of programming that would attract viewers. Target audience Narrowcasting is a term used for communications such as radio or television signals that are limited to subscription customers or otherwise prohibited from being broadcast. While broadcasts are transmitted to the general public, available for any general receiver with the capability to capture the signal(s), narrowcasting is directed to a particular audience via proprietary equipment and encryption, or by some other discriminatory means.

Concept definition Narrowcasting (cont’d) The most common examples of narrowcasting are cable Tv and satellite radio. Narrowcasting doesn’t always involve a fee. It is assumed that only a limited number of people, or a particular group of people, would be interested in a particular programme. It is a notion exploited successfully in subjects like music and sport by MTV and Sky.

Structural conditions of PSB Legal acts, regulation, financing model and programming structure, etc. • What are the requirements for having a good PSB? The two problems of PSB: • Political independence from the government, measured with regard to the news and current affairs output of the broadcaster; Government may have formal and informal controls for influencing broadcasters. The rules can be so constituted that a publicly owned broadcaster is effectively independent. • The pursuit of inclusive and diverse programming strategies aimed at doing something more than reaching the largest possible audience at the lowest feasible cost. In order to broadcast according to the public interest, the broadcasters must be in a position to make program decisions independent of considerations of audience size and production costs. The starting point for PSB is the needs of programming, rather than the needs of profitability.

Types of PSB fundings • • • License fee Mixed - License fee and advertising revenues License fee, advertising revenues and public funding Public funding and advertising revenues State subsidies and advertising revenues

European Broadcasting Union Tv program categories • • • News Information Sport Human interest Infotainment Arts, Humanities, Culture Religion Education Music Light entertainment Fiction Other/not attributable

The missions of PSB (The Council of Europe) • A common reference point for all members of the public and a factor for social cohesion and integration of all individuals, groups and communities; • A forum for public discussions on a broad spectrum of views; • Impartial and independent news coverage; • Pluralistic, innovative and varied programming which meets high ethical and quality standards; • Programming which is both of wide public interest and attentive to the needs of minorities; • Reflection of the different philosophical ideas and religious beliefs in multicultural societies; • Greater appreciation and dissemination of the diversity of national and European cultural heritage original productions by independent producers; • Extended viewer choice by offering programs which are not provided by the commercial sector.

Conclusions • The model of PSB should be chosen according to political and economical situation in the country, which is different in every case. Neither of presented countries should copy the exact model of the other country. • The funding model, legal acts and accountability influence the content of programming which is related to the mission of PSB. The problem is the question of competition with other channels. • The example of BBC proves that PSB may have the biggest audience share. • The successful PSB model should; ◦ meet the mission of PSB, ◦ choose the funding model according to political and economical aspects in the country, ◦ not rely on audience share, funding model or accountability.