ABSTRACT
Although public service broadcasting (PSB) in international comparison easily turns up as the European model of broadcasting, the notion is historically more specific. The concept of PSB is of British origin and characterises the social ethos of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as expressed by the first Director General of the corporation, Lord Reith (Scannell & Cardiff, 1991:319). In other European countries this tradition of broadcasting was more often identified as ‘public broadcasting’ describing the status of broadcasting as a public or state institution. As is well known, these institutions typically had a monopoly position in their respective home countries.
