Public Service as Production Culture

This chapter examines the ways in which producers within the UK’s television and digital media factual production sector understand public service media (PSM), the extent to which it motivates the kinds of content that they make and the ways in which they work. How workers understand public service underpins what ends up on viewers’ screens as PSM. As producers seek to balance their commitment to the purposes and characteristics of PSM against the economic demands of their production modes, a “compact” is formed across the diverse production cultures involved in the creation of PSM. This chapter sets out what role this 'compact" plays in the production cultures of UK TV as it enters an era of convergence, and the pressures placed upon this fragile network in a period of rapid change.