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Does EU Policy Challenge the Digital Future of Public Service Broadcasting?

An Analysis of the Commission's State Aid Approach to Digitization and the Public Service Remit of Public Broadcasting Organizations

Vrije University Brussel, Brussels, Belgium, kdonders{at}vub.ac.be

Caroline Pauwels

Vrije University Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

In this article the authors assess the impact of the European Commission's state aid policy on the public service remit of public broadcasting organizations in the digital age. The article consists of two parts. In the first part the authors give an overview of the policy and legal context in which state aid control of public service broadcasting evolves. Second, recent state aid cases that touch upon the issue of digitization and public service broadcasting are analysed. Whereas Member States fear too much Commission intervention, the European Commission, on the contrary, fears that Member States abuse the margins of the European Treaty in order to expand the digital public service remit in unauthorized ways, such as financing commercial digital activities. Whether the Commission is right to fear a `mission creep' on behalf of the public service broadcasters due to vague and overambitious digitilization plans, remains to be seen however.

Key Words: digitization • European Commission • public service broadcasting • public service remit • services of general economic interest • state aid

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