As a pro­fessor with a back­ground in pub­lic ser­vice broad­cast­ing (PSB), I’m often asked — What exactly is pub­lic ser­vice broadcasting?

Take a pop­u­lar pro­gramme like Neigh­bours. From 1986 to 2008 it appeared on the BBC and was an import­ant piece of PSB, pop­u­lar with view­ers, and val­ued for its air­ing of gritty but uni­ver­sal human themes played out in an Anti­podean setting.

Alas, in Feb­ru­ary of last year it moved to Five, and became a piece of com­mer­cial, schedule-filling tat that appealed to the low­est com­mon denom­in­ator. Con­tinue read­ing →