ABSTRACT
American broadcasting can lead the world, especially in covering great public events responsibly, from wars to the exposure of political corruption. The proponents of wholesale commercial broadcasting like to assert that the licence fee is generally and deeply resented. The national Broadcasting Research Unit, which had a productive half-dozen years of life in the 198os, asked a score of broadcasters, reviewers, critics and well-informed outsiders what they regarded as the central principles of the Public Service idea. The Boat Race as a national event is an oddity born of the early Oxbridge days in broadcasting and of London fixation. Important programming implications and, more importantly, opportunities for both radio and television flow from the idea of public service broadcasting. The Broadcasting Research Unit’s later booklet Quality in Television is even sharper and speaks of programmes which ‘however perfect in performance are essentially meretricious’.
