A Report on the Public Broadcasters International (PBI) 2019: Discussing “Creating Value for Society” for Public Service Broadcasting in the Digital Age

Published: February 1, 2020

The Public Broadcasters International (PBI) conference was held in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, from 9th to 11th September, 2019. PBI was established in 1991 with the aim of providing an opportunity where executives of public service broadcasters from around the world gather together to share challenges faced with public broadcasting and methods to solve them. The conference has been annually held since then.

The PBI 2019 took place under the theme of “creating value for society in a rapidly changing world.” With the advancement of digitalization, European countries see more and more viewers shifting from services provide by public service broadcasters to pay video streaming services, represented by NETFLIX, as well as information sharing and news distribution services on social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube. At the conference, public service broadcasters reported various types of trial–and–error efforts, in response to this trend, for creating values, winning viewers’ confidence, and reach more people. The paper reports insights gained from the conference, focusing on the current circumstances surrounding public service broadcasters’ content development and journalism as well as challenges facing them.

The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research

Akiko Ogasawara

in Japanese