Financing Public Service Broadcasting: A Comparative Perspective

Recently several European countries have abolished the traditional public service licence fee system, replacing it with direct public funding. But except for Iceland, the Nordic countries have not followed suit. The article discusses this development within a comparative framework of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) financing regimes in Europe, concluding that Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden may still be considered conventional, licence fee PSB countries, but with some interesting differences in relation to competitive and market oriented alternatives of resource provision