ABSTRACT
The first part of the chapter concentrates on changes in European broadcasting but sets these in the broader context of the processes of re-regulation, transnationalisation and marketisation across WMS. The chapter then outlines more recent changes in broadcasting and print media as these sectors converged. It was public service broadcasting (PSB) above all ‘which singled out European media systems from their counterparts elsewhere in the world’ (Williams 2005: 7). The weakening of the PSB system is thus an important element in our consideration of growing convergence in media systems. Since the 1980s, a series of developments has radically altered the media structures in all Western European countries. There have been shifts in the organisation and regulation of media, described by key terms such as liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation. The 1980s were marked by the increased influence of processes which earlier regulatory structures, especially in Europe, had sought to control, contain or ameliorate: marketisation, commercialisation, media concentration and transnationalisation.
