Even though public policy is usually a rough mix of 99% pragmatism and 1% principle, there are a few occasions when the principle is asked to puts it head above the parapet.

In policy relating to public service broadcasting in Britain (infotainment’s soup kitchen for the soul), pragmatism means preservation of a ‘strong’ BBC.

And the principle behind public service broadcasting is old and frail (market failure when last spotted) and very rarely seen.

But today it sneaked out – twice – in a speech by David Currie, the outgoing chairman of Ofcom.

[M]arket provision may now be such that the consumer market failure arguments that sustained the old rationale for PSB, have been superseded. We are left largely with the citizenship arguments …

Universality is not an end in itself but a means to an end: successfully meeting the citizenship rationale for public service broadcasting.

This citizenship rationale sounds impressive, but actually it is this from an earlier Ofcom review:

Changes in the market will eliminate many of the structural requirements for intervention… However, the factors that continue to drive intervention in linear television – namely that public service content continues to deliver economic and social benefits that would not be realised without intervention – are also relevant for wider digital media.

1.15 These factors are at the heart of the citizenship-based rationale for intervention to support public service content. For instance, individuals may receive more benefit from content – for instance through news and information – than they realise. Similarly, an individual’s viewing of content can have additional benefits for society as a whole, for instance through his or her engagement in the democratic process as a more educated citizen.

Yes, viewers may be unknowingly educated by watching TV! And motivated to engage politically!

Oops – THERE’S NO EVIDENCE FOR THIS. NONE. NOT A SHRED.

Back to pragmatism, I guess, and opinion polling.