RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

recognized , understood and shared. These pressures acted to modlfy the pure public service idea into something which , while đifficult to defend the theory , in practice manageđ to prođuce a program policy which combined material attractive to iarge audiences with the production of high-grade programs of the Kind that regularly receive applause from intellectuals . The notion of 'public service-' was pervasive in the culture and regulation of all broadcasting in Britain . Thus the 198 1 Broađcasting Act, the provision currently regulating commercial companies reads : 4t shall be the duty of the Authority (a) to provide the television and local sound broadcasting services as a public service for disseminating information , education and entertainment; (b ) to ensure that the programs broadcast by the Authority in each area maintain a high general standard in all respects (and in particuiar in respect of their content and quality) , and a proper balance and wide range in their subject matter, having regard to the programs as a whole and also to the days of the weeK on which, and the times of day at which, programs are broadcast (Broadcasting Act; Section H.H) 3^ Obviously, again, the conditions for that sort of ideology are breaKing down . Particularly in TV, the multiplication of channels means that the struggle for audience-maximization will become more intense and therefore the ideology of entertainment will become a necessary conđition for commercial success . However , experience in a number of areas shows that , if the conditions for the capture of the enormous audiences characteristic of the old TV systems were a restriction of channels anđ very large resources, there are other , smaller audiences prepared to рау quite highly for specialized forms of programming . To taKe one simple but much-touted example, in areas of cultural consumption as varied as the cinema , cable TV , publishing and value-added telephone services , the mar Ket for pornography has proved very buoyant. Here, too, then the demands of economic Miberalization' go hand in hand with the opportunity ,if not the need , for more authoritarian controls over program contents. If we then return to the sKetch we outlmed above concerning the economic and political position of broadcastmg m Britam , we can add to our positional điagram a sense of the directions of movement in the present period :

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