ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways producers within the United Kingdom's television and digital media factual production sector understand public service media (PSM), the extent to which public service motivates the kinds of content that they make and work. As producers seek to balance their commitment to the purposes and characteristics of PSM against the economic demands of their production modes, a 'compact' is formed across the diverse production cultures involved in the creation of PSM. This chapter sets out an understanding of public service production cultures that is invariably contingent, networked, and conjunctural, shaped by an array of factors in play at any given moment of study. PSM only exists to the degree to which those who produce it believe in it, and share some sense of value. Overall, public service emerges as a culture that seeks to balance creativity, remit, and the forbearance of economic reward as highest priority in the production, economic, and textual practices of the sector.
