Senior Fellow Catherine Nicholson moderated a panel with heads of multiple European public service media, the contents of which generated multiple news stories.
The panel consisted of Catherine chairing Directors-General of Ireland’s RTE, Sweden’s SVT, and Lithuania’s LRT, and the Deputy Director General of the EBU.
Themes included how to engage young people in public service TV and particularly news, and issues around trust, impartiality and politics in relation to PSMs’ remits and output. It was produced by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU, or UER in French), which has 112 public service media organisation members in over 50 countries – including France 24, and the BBC.
Deadline Hollywood picked up on SVT’s Hanna Stjärne’s comments that SVOD platforms are not reliable partners for the TV industry; and there was pickup of comments by RTE’s Kevin Bakhurst that the licence fee funding model will likely have to change to ensure sustainable funding for PSM in future.
Catherine is European Affairs Editor at France 24’s English-language TV news network and currently mentors Sammy Cage, a Fellow on the John Schofield Trust’s new programme for undergraduate journalists.