| MUMBAI:
Public service broadcasters (PSBs) in the Asia-Pacific region have widely different
views about their future, the 2006 Public Broadcasting International (PBI) conference
in Maputo, Mozambique, was told on Friday.
The secretary-general of
the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), David Astley, said that a recent ‘thumbnail
survey’ undertaken by the ABU showed that PSBs in the more advanced countries
were cautiously optimistic about their future, but those in developing countries
– many of whom were in transition from state broadcasting to independent
PSBs – were quite pessimistic. “Finding strategies to cope with the
erosion of audience share from the increased competition that the development
of digital broadcasting is bringing about was the major challenge identified by
the PSBs in the more advanced countries,” Astley was quoted as saying in
a report put out on the ABU website. “Audience behaviour
is changing as people respond to the growing choice in digital media, and broadcasters,
in turn, are having to respond to those changes by providing more content on demand
and on different platforms.“Generally the PSBs in the more advanced countries
are optimistic about their future but recognise that they must embrace change
and increase production of local content that is both distinctive and of high
quality, to differentiate themselves from commercial broadcasters.” Astley
said that broadcasters in the developing countries, many of whom were in transition
from being state broadcasters to independent PSBs, were mostly pessimistic about
their future. “The main issue that they identified was funding,”
he said. “Many are not confident that they will have sufficient funding to
meet their obligations as public service broadcasters. “Even without
considering the cost of digitalisation in the future, many do not have backup
transmitters or money for spares for studio equipment. “Some are being
pressured to go commercial in order to lessen reliance on licence fees or direct
government grants - but this might only be replacing political influence with
commercial influence. “In any case, few state broadcasters have staff
with the management and marketing skills to compete with their more experienced
commercial competitors.” | 
