RT Journal Article
T1 Covid-19 and public service media: Impact of the pandemic on public television in Europe
A1 Túñez López, Miguel
A1 Vaz Álvarez, Martín
A1 Fieiras Ceide, César
K1 Television
K1 Public service media
K1 PSM
K1 Broadcasters
K1 Chains
K1 Audiences
K1 Television programming
K1 Production strategies
K1 Covid-19
K1 Pandemics
K1 Coronavirus
K1 Advertising
K1 Platforms
K1 News
K1 Co-creation
K1 Interactivity
K1 Trends
K1 Europe
AB This article analyses the response of European Public Service Media to the crisis caused by Covid-19, especially the impact of the pandemic on Europe’s major public broadcasters, with a particular focus on technical and professional constraints, alterations in audience volume and habits, production strategies, type of broadcast content and journalists’ routines. The research is based on public information from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and 19 in-depth, structured interviews with a convenience sample of innovation and strategy managers from public broadcasters in Aus tria (ORF), Belgium (VRT and RTBF), Denmark (DR), Finland (YLE), France (France TV), Germany (ARD and ZDF), Great Britain (BBC), Ireland (RTÉ), Italy (RAI), Netherlands (NPO), Portugal (RTP), Spain (RTVE), Sweden (SVT), Switzerland (RTS) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The results indicate that the corporate projection of PSM was increased by emphasising their role as essential services and their defence of the values that characterise them. The pandemic forced the adaptation of programme production from technical standards to an emotional approach, accelerating a formal hy bridisation with native online contents. Dependence on software grew and newsmaking processes were altered towards ‘remote journalism’. Changes are drawn that may be maintained in the future.
PB El Profesional de la Información
SN 1699-2407
YR 2020
FD 2020-09-18
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/45001
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/45001
LA eng
NO Túñez-López, Miguel; Vaz-Álvarez, Martín; Fieiras-Ceide, César (2020). “Covid-19 and public service media:  Impact of the pandemic on public television in Europe”. Profesional de la información, v. 29, n. 5, e290518. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.sep.18
NO This article is a result of the research project (RTI2018-096065-B-I00) of the Spanish State Programme for R+D+I  aimed at the Challenges to Society of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIU), State Research  Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) on “New values, governance, financing and  public audiovisual services for the Internet society: European and Spanish contrasts.” The author Martín Vaz-Álvarez is the beneficiary of an FPU contract (ref. FPU19/06204) granted by the Ministry of  Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish Government.
DS Minerva
RD 3 may 2026