Changing the public : ratings, broadcasting and the Internet

This paper offers a preliminary exploration of some of the ways the Internet is changing free-to-air commercial television broadcasting. As the Age of Broadcasting gives way to the Information Age, audiences are coming to expect enhancement of the viewing experience in the form of opportunities for interactive engagement with programs. The problem is that free-to-air commercial television is caught in a double bind. If it changes its public to pursue the audiences that advertisers want, it stands to lose its role as ‘public’ broadcaster. If it doesn’t engage audiences more actively, it stands to lose both audiences and advertising revenue. A brief case study that explains ratings figures released in the press is used to demonstrate how the competitive strategies used by the free-to-air channels continue to rely on market concentration and centrism theory, leaving program diversity to the publicly funded channels, pay TV and other new media. It is argued that enhanced TV is not a passing phase in television production but marks a major break with television as we have known it. Equally, the public service that broadcast television provides is not replicated in the Internet’s cyber-environment. Developing a vision for television broadcasting in the Information Age is argued to be a national priority.