Title: Increasing competition in the Spanish broadcasting context. The impact on Diversity and PSB policies.

Transcription

1 Conference Mainz, October 8 th -11 th Section 6.4.: In what ways and to what extend is the PSM ethos suffering with marketization and competition? What is in danger of being lost and how could that be preserved? Title: Increasing competition in the Spanish broadcasting context. The impact on Diversity and PSB policies. Dr. Eva Pujadas- Lecturer and researcher Mercè Oliva- Assistant Lecturer and researcher Roberto Suárez- Assistant Lecturer and researcher Members of UNICA research group at the Journalism and Audiovisual Department. Pompeu Fabra University. Barcelona, Spain. Presentation: This paper aims to present the main features of a research carried out in 2006 in order to evaluate broadcasting diversity in Spain. The project, funded by the CAC (Catalan Audiovisual Council), intended to measure both the whole degree of diversity during the day time, the prime-time, the week-ends, etc.-, as well as the contribution of every TV channel to the diversity offered to the audience what channels had a bigger contribution to the whole diversity and what was the role played by public broadcasters compared to private channels in terms of diversity. The research was entitled Design of a protocol to evaluate TV broadcasting diversity and can be consulted at the CAC website ( _Eva_Pujadas_abril_07.pdf). The development of this research was parallel to the launch of two commercial channels, Cuatro and La Sexta, so we tested the protocol to evaluate whether the amount of diversity had increased or decreased with the entry of these new channels, as more competition was introduced to the broadcasting market and the existing channels had to react and adapt their broadcasting strategies, specially public broadcasters. The underlying liberal assumption was clear: the more channels a TV system has, the more diversity is offered to the audience. The research has introduced several shades to such a simple statement. 1

2 In the following paragraphs, we briefly present the structure of our report; we summarize the wide theoretical framework supporting the research around broadcasting diversity and extend further on the results of the application, especially focusing in those related to PSB strategies regarding diversity. The paper is structured following these items: 1. Diversity and Public Service (summary) 2. The research of Diversity in Spain (summary) 3. Design of a methodology to evaluate TV broadcasting diversity 3.1. The object of our research 3.2. Theoretical framework about diversity (summary) 3.3. Dimensions of diversity and indexes of measure 4. Innovation on the research about diversity in Spain. 5. Sample 6. Results 7. Prospective and further discussion 1. Diversity and public service Western societies are extraordinarily complex and heterogeneous from multiple points of view, so diversity increasingly becomes one of the values through which to evaluate the broadcasting performance. Just to mention some cases, diversity appears mentioned in the UE broadcasting policy (High level Group Report, 1998), as well as in the national regulation of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Canada, the USA and also in Spain. However, the naming of diversity does not necessarily involve a development of its different dimensions, accountability policies or measuring indexes. Broadcasting diversity is usually linked to the number of TV channels available, which is frequently related to an increase of the freedom of choice for the audience. This is the basic assumption underlying one the classic report of the Thatcher era named Competition, Choice and Quality (London, Home Office, 1998). Following that premise, a considerable amount of comparative research has been carried out both at national level and international level. Most of those studies blatantly show that an increase in broadcasting time is followed by a decrease in the diversity of the offer (Ishikawa, 1996 as one of the first examples). Economies of scale, the channels fear to innovate, the copy of successful formats and repetition of successful programmes are the main causes for this phenomenon. 2

3 2. The research of diversity in Spain In the Spanish regulation diversity is a taken for granted concept, a value usually named by TV programmers to support any kind of TV contents and broadcasting policies based on covering the tastes of main stream audiences. After 50 years, the structure of the Spanish broadcasting market has extraordinarily changed. Since the two public channels were launched during Franco s dictatorship, there has been a considerable increase in broadcasting diversity, in any of its dimensions (ideological, cultural, linguistic, etc.). In contrast, in the Spanish context still remains unclear the impact of each TV channel public or commercial- on the global diversity of the offer. As TV landscape is about to suffer serious changes with the launch of new channels, the evaluation of diversity and the contribution played by each channel to the global diversity offer becomes an unavoidable task, specially as the value of diversity appears in every single document regulating broadcasting activity, which ever its scope (state level, regional or local level) is. Briefly, in the Spanish context diversity is interpreted from different points of views and perspectives, whether it is interpreted by state regulators, PSB companies, commercial channels or regional broadcasters. Unfortunately, it can be stated that Spain does not have a tradition on measuring broadcasting diversity. The concept of diversity is named at different legal documents, 1 but the measure of diversity and the contribution made by each TV channel to the global diversity remains untackled 2. Much of the contribution of this research project was to bring together the international research carried out about broadcasting diversity, its dimensions, indexes of measure, etc. in order to be applied to the Spanish television system. Since one of our main concerns was to establish a systematic method intended to last and to be applied regularly, we wanted it to be as objective and quantitative as possible, with the intention to enlarge it as it was increasingly known and accepted. In a second stage, it is our intention to continue the research about broadcasting diversity introducing qualitative measures and approaching TV content s diversity 3. 1 The Spanish Constitution (1978), the RTVE Statute (1980), the law of regional channels (1983), the reform of public television in 2000, the reform of the RTVE Statute (2006) and the document for good practices of CCMA (Catalan Public Media, including public radio and television) of Diversity as a value is mentioned in different occasions as political, social and ideological diversity (specially in newscasts), diversity of opinions and also religious, geographic, cultural and linguistic diversity; audience and taste diversity, representation of minorities, innovation and creativity frequently appear as values to be promoted but further than mentioning, there is no specification of any control or account of it. 3 The CAC decided to finance a second part of our research to measure broadcasting diversity during 2008 and 2009; our group is also working to enlarge the research to be applied to the whole system of Spanish regional television, so that comparisons between public and private companies can be done at a regional level as well as a State level. 3

4 Finally, as our research project coincided with the launch of two commercial channels (Cuatro and LaSexta), we decided to apply our protocol in order to measure the changes in the broadcasting strategies and their impact on the global diversity offer. 3. Design of a methodology to evaluate TV broadcasting diversity 3.1. The object of our research The object of our research was to evaluate broadcasting diversity in Spain. The analysis of broadcasting diversity involved the analysis of the global diversity as well as the contribution made by each TV channel to the global diversity. The broadcasting diversity is the result of TV broadcasting strategies, that is, of their schedules; it is not an analysis of TV contents diversity or an analysis of the diversity offer or the diversity consumed. To do so, we had as an instrumental goal to identify a measures or a set of measures a protocol- to evaluate broadcasting diversity. The measurement of diversity needed to be both objective and precise as one of our main concerns was to evaluate the impact of each channel to the global diversity to compare broadcasting strategies between public and private broadcasters and how they both react to an increase of competition Theoretical framework of the research about diversity (summary) As mentioned above, one of the main objectives of this research was to review the main trends of international research around diversity in order to apply them to the Spanish case. A wide theoretical framework has been explored with the aim to expand the notion of diversity, to explore its various dimensions and to assess its indexes of measure. As we started to figure the landscape of diversity, we placed it as the result of specific conditions within a media marketplace, which is different from any other market; so we followed the research made by numerous scholars who identify the main features of the media market as a previous stage of the diversity analysis (Van der Wurff, 2004; 2005; Van der Wurff and Van Cuilenburg, 2001; Hellman, 2001; Van Cuilenburg, 1998; Grant, 1994; Levin, 1971). We briefly summarize the main defining features of the media market (which are widely developed in our final report): - Oligopolic market (Aslama, Hellman and Sauri, 2004; Van Cuilenburg, 2000; Litman, 1992 and 1979; Lin, 1995; Li and Chiang, 2001; Dominick and Pearce, 1976). The media market is essentially oligopolic due to two reasons: on one side, it is not a perfect competition market that involves similar products and, on the other side, because of the particular cost structure of their products (the programmes). 4

5 - Hotelling s Law of excessive sameness of products (Van Cuilenburg, 1999). Competitive markets tend to homogeneity since for producers of goods, it is rational to make their products as similar as possible. - Competitive strategies in media market: Porter model (Van der Wurff, 2004; Van der Wurff and Van Cuilenburg, 2001; Van Cuilenburg, 2000). This model identifies three main strategies of media market (cost leadership; differentiation strategy and price competitive strategy). According to the saturation level of every market, broadcasters shall adopt one of them with its corresponding impact on the diversity offer and consumption. - Programme choice theory (Van der Wurff, 2004; Grant, 1994). Programme choice models explain, in a deductive way, why competition in broadcasting can result in program duplication (when only few broadcasters operate it is rational to offer main stream programmes; as the number of channels increase, it becomes more rational to focus on minority audiences). Considering these contributions, a model to explain how diversity works is proposed: in a market with specific number of channels and specific audience preferences, an increase the broadcasting time due to an increase of the private broadcaster companies results in a decrease in the global diversity of the offer. This paradox results from the fact that PSB broadcasters generally contribute to diversity in a more decisive way than the commercial ones. Therefore a proportional reduction of PSB time in relation to commercial channels (as new commercial channels operate) involves a decrease in the global diversity of the offer. This model allows establishing the following main hypothesis and sub-hypothesis: 1. An increase in broadcasting time, due to the release of new commercial channels, results in a decrease in the global diversity of the offer: a. PSB contribution to global diversity is stronger than commercial broadcasters; b. A proportional decrease in PSB is followed by a decrease in global diversity; c. An increase in broadcasting time, as a result of an increase in the number of channels, does not divert in a proportional increase of all TV genres; d. A higher increase in strong demand genres is observed; e. The decrease in public broadcasters proportional share becomes especially strong in the case of inflexible demand programmes ; 5

6 f. The global diversity of the offer tends to diminish in prime-time (Hotelling s Law) Dimensions of diversity and indexes of measure In order to design a protocol to analyze broadcasting diversity, the first task was to identify the diversity dimensions; after that, it was necessary to develop units and indexes of measure. Our final report summarizes the main research developed around the diversity concept and sets a specific proposal to be applied to the Spanish case. So, the design of our protocol basically consisted on: A. Choosing the appropriate diversity dimensions; B. Develop and apply the indexes of measure; C. Identify units of measure. A. Dimensions and definitions of diversity 1. Diversity as reflection, diversity as access and diversity as the number of channels (McQuail, 1992). Diversity as reflection makes reference to the degree in which media reflect the social structure; diversity as access refers to what extent the media allow different groups and social interests to be represented. Finally, diversity as a number of channels refers to the correspondence between the amount of channels and the diversity of opinions, cultural models and lifestyles. 2. Source diversity, content diversity and exposure diversity (Napoli,1997; Aslama, 2005). Source diversity evaluates diversity of ownership (content, outlet and workforce); content diversity deals with format or program-type diversity, demographic diversity, idea-viewpoint diversity, and finally, exposure diversity refers to the actually consumed diversity. 3. Reflective diversity and open diversity (Van der Wurff and Van Cuilenburg, 2001; Van Cuilenburg, 2000; McQuail, 1992). The first one evaluates whether media express different ideas or topics in the same proportion as media users prefer them; the second type of diversity assesses whether media express all reasonable ideas or topics in equal proportions, regardless of their public support. 4. Vertical/internal diversity and horizontal/external diversity (McQuail, 1992). Vertical diversity evaluates a specific channel diversity of the offer; horizontal diversity refers to the number of programmes or programme types available at a specific time slot. 5. Content diversity and diversity of access. (Van Cuilenburg, 1998). This debate expresses the paradox of media diversity consumption and how useless the efforts 6

7 made by the regulatory bodies in order to increase the degree of diversity of the offer can be. This author emphasizes the need to move the efforts from promoting media content diversity to guaranteeing media access. In our protocol, we decided to use vertical and horizontal diversity, since these two dimensions allow measuring very precisely slight variations of diversity. In addition, they would be a tool to understand the differences between the programming of public and commercial broadcasters, between first and second public channels, or during the prime-time. Assumptions concerning those issues are frequently just a result from intuition or viewing experience of the analysts. This project aims to offer a methodology that substitutes the intuition. B. Measuring Indexes Diversity can be defined as the distribution of the elements of a sample among a series of well defined categories (McDonald & Dimmick, 2003). It is a dual measure because it depends not only on the number of categories but also on the amount of elements allocated within each of them. Both variables should be considered when defining indexes in order to measure diversity. 4 In order to be measured, each diversity dimension requires different indexes. Among those used in this research, three of them were defined by previous research projects and two are an innovative contribution. The previously defined indexes are: - The relative entropy index, which measures the dispersion of broadcasting time among the genres (Hellman, 2001; Aslama, Hellman & Sauri, 2004; Oba, 2004; Park, 2005). - The Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index, which measures the concentration of broadcasting time among genres (McDonald & Dimmick, 2003) 4 Regarding television programming diversity, considering only the number of categories of audiovisual genres would not allow a complete perception of the real situation. Some of them could represent an insignificant percentage of the programming. Therefore, it is not only important to know how many genres are included in the programming but their weight within the total amount of broadcasting hours. Similarly, the perception about diversity would be also incomplete if only the percentage of broadcasting time dedicated to each genre would be considered. A programming that includes only two genres with 55% and 45% of time respectively is not the same that a programming with a genre that accumulates 55% of the broadcasted time but the rest of the time is shared among 9 different genres. According to Hellman (2001), another relevant issue to consider when analysing diversity is the difference between the programming grids of two channels. Individually, the might have a very low diversity due to the fact that they were specialized in a certain group of genres. Despite that fact, if their programming grids were very different, the diversity of the television system could be high. Opposite, a group of channels with a high individual diversity but with similar offer could result in a low diversity system. It could even happen that, in certain moments of the day, all the channels would offer the same kind of content/genre. This would affect to the choosing freedom of the audience. 7

8 - The Dissimilarity Index, which compares the programming of two channels (Dominick & Pearce, 1974; Hellman & Sauri, 1994; quoted in Hellman, 2001). The new indexes proposed in this research are: - The Choosing Options Index, which measures the amount of different genres that the viewer can access in a specific period of time (prime-time in this project). This index deals with diversity horizontally, considering the different genres offered by a group of channels in a specific period of time. Since vertical diversity considers the whole day, it does not provide an accurate perspective of the diversity actually offered to the audience. This research proposes a formula to calculate this index. - Relative Entropy Index applied to the genres. This alternative use of the relative entropy index allows determining how the total amount of time dedicated to a particular genre is distributed among the channels. The indexes detailed above are useful tools to detect even slight variations within the programming of a channel or a group of channels. C. Measuring Units: The genres In order to measure diversity, it was necessary to define a genre classification with clear categories. This task was carried out by means of considering three elements: the format (series, cinema, contests, late-shows, news, documentaries, reality television, magazines), the kind of content (cultural programmes, gossip programmes, educational programmes, religious programmes, sport, comedy) and the target audience (children/teenagers, minorities). Altogether, the result is a list of 16 categories. Moreover, two additional categories have been considered: strong demand genres and inflexible demand genres. The first type includes those genres whose increase within the programming results in a proportional increase of the audience (series, cinema, contests, reality television, gossip programmes and comedy). The inflexible demand genres include those programmes whose increase (in broadcasting time or number of programmes) does not involve bigger audiences or higher consumption (news, documentaries, religious, cultural, minorities and educational). Since these two kinds of programmes seem to be one of the differences between public and commercial channels, this duality becomes a useful tool to compare public and commercial channels broadcasting strategies. 8

9 4. Contribution to the research in diversity in Spain This protocol involves four new approaches to the research in diversity: A. Analysis of Vertical Diversity First of all, the proposed protocol allows analyzing the programming diversity and the programming concentration of the whole television system (all the channels). Vertical diversity analysis is especially relevant in order to compare and to distinguish the programming strategies carried out by public and commercial broadcasters. Moreover, it is also a way to contrast the programming of the first and second public channels. The vertical diversity analysis is a useful tool to determine the profile of the public channels, not only by means of the configuration of their programming grids but also considering the contribution of each channel to the diversity of the television system. Secondly, regarding genre distribution, vertical diversity allows measuring the weight of each genre as well as the diversity / concentration of genres in one channel or in the television system. As an innovation, this research introduces the analysis of the distribution of the strong demand genres and the inflexible demand genres in both cases: a single channel and the television system. Finally, whole day and prime-time results are compared. B. Channel contribution to global diversity of the offer The second innovation of this protocol is the possibility of analysing the contribution of each channel to the diversity of the television system. It also allows comparing the contribution by public and commercial broadcasters. C. Analysis of Dissimilarity Dissimilarity allows measuring how different two programming grids are concerning the genres and their distribution. The data obtained from this analysis shall help to determine each channel programming profile and its contribution to the global diversity. D. Choosing Option Index The Choosing Option Index allows analyzing the amount of genres that a viewer can watch in a specific moment, offering a more complete perception of the diversity. This index has been used to analyse the prime-time programming, using 15 minutes intervals. 9

10 By means of these four options, television programming diversity can be studied using objective indicators with scales of values that have been internationally agreed. 5. Sample This research was carried out parallel to the introduction of two new national channels in Spain: Cuatro and La Sexta. Therefore, in addition to the initial objective of measuring the diversity of the television system and the contribution of each channel, the project also aimed at evaluating whether the incorporation of those new channels would result in an increase of diversity (though it is not possible to identify cause-effect connections). The sample includes two programming schedules: one a week before the new channels were released and the second one year later, once their programming was established. 5 The objective was double: firstly, to detect the variations within global diversity; secondly, to assess the positive or negative contribution of each channel to the global diversity. 6. Results 6.1. More competition: impact on the Global Diversity of the offer Comparing the results of the analysis of the diversity of the offer in 2006 with those of 2005, the increase of competition on the overall Spanish broadcasting context has resulted in the following features: A. The increase of broadcasting time resulted in a higher diversity of the whole television system but the variation is almost imperceptible and not proportional to the increase of broadcasting time, so the working hypothesis of this research has been partly accomplished. In 2006, programming diversity slightly raised, although all channels reduced their inner diversity and increased their genre concentration. On one hand, this could be a consequence of the programming strategies implemented by the new channels. They included genres scarcely present within the other channels schedules. On the other hand, this could also be a result of the reaction of the already existing channels. Despite reducing their internal diversity, the differences between their programming grids were increased. 5 The analysed weeks were: : September 19 th -25 th : September 18 th -24 th From 07:00 a.m. to 02:00 a.m. the next day. 10

11 More broadcasting hours did not result in more choosing options for the viewers during the prime-time, when all the channels tend to offer the same genres (Hotelling s Law). In this case, the reduction of the weight of the public channels within the television system, resulting from the release of two new commercial channels, did not imply a decrease of the global diversity B. The diversity of the Spanish television system is very high and its concentration is medium. A wide range of genres is offered. However, the broadcasting time is unequally distributed among them. The main genres are news, series and programmes for children and teenagers. 11

12 C. Despite the high diversity of the system, the programming of each channel is only based on 3 or 4 genres, which represent more than 50% of the broadcasting time. Concerning this fact, there are no relevant differences between public and private channels. In fact, private channels have more inner diversity than the public ones. D. According to the results of the analysis, it can be stated that an increase in broadcasting hours implies a higher concentration of strong demand genres, although the variation is minor. Series, contests and comedy increase their presence percentage within the programming but inflexible demand genres, especially news, lose broadcasting time. That tendency is clear not only in the programming strategies implemented by the two new commercial channels but in those carried out by the existing channels, both public and commercial. The reduction of inflexible demand genres is not only a result of the decreasing weight of the public channels, but a consequence of the mentioned trend. 12

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14 E. Global diversity tends to decline during prime-time, as predicted by Hotelling s Law. In this time slot, there is less diversity and more concentration. Only a few genres are broadcasted. News and series almost represent 50% of programming. This figure implies an important increase of their average presence during the rest of the day. Sports are also important during prime-time More competition: PSB broadcasting strategies Spanish and Catalan PSB, facing the increase of competition PSB has in Spain a parallel structure at a State level and at a regional level, in both cases is composed by two different channels, whose strategies are both different and complementary. As stated above, this research deals with the comparison of diversity in two different years and also deals with the contribution of each channel to the global diversity of the offer. The increase of competition on 2006 due to the launch of two private channels, forced the four PS channels to adapt to the new situation, though they designed different strategies, which are summarized in the following paragraphs. State PSB: a). TVE: The first public channel of Spanish TV is one of those with the lower degree of diversity and with the higher concentration indexes among the eight channels analyzed. It broadcasts 9 of the 16 genres with a high degree of concentration: the top three genres take 80% of the 14

15 broadcasting time; these genres are news (44, 3%), gossip programs (20, 6%) and series (15, 4%). None of the remaining genres accounts for more than 7% of the broadcasting time. Comparing the broadcasting strategies of week-days and week-ends, there is also an interesting complementarity: during the week three major genres are broadcasted (news, gossip and series) and during the week-ends the two main genres are cinema and programs for children and teenagers. In prime-time, as with the rest of the channels, TVE1 shows a lower degree of diversity and a higher concentration, especially regarding the strong demand genres. Finally this channel shows a high degree of dissimilarity with its corresponding second channel (La2) and a more similar schedule design with the private channels. It is worth mentioning that the overall schedule design of TVE1 is the one that brings less diversity to the system, specifically it takes diversity from the system; if TVE1 did not exist, the overall amount if diversity would increase. Regarding the comparison of schedules before and after the launch of the new channels, TVE1 shows a lower diversity and a higher concentration index; it has increased the dissimilarity with the two existing private channels (broadcasting less series and more cinema). Second public channels and the new private channels seem to fight in a different arena. In prime-time, TVE1 has faced competition broadcasting more cinema, news and programs for young people and has reduced series, contests and educational programs. 15

16 b) La 2 The Spanish second public channel shows the higher degree of diversity and the lowest concentration among all the channels analyzed. La2 broadcasting strategy has become specialized in the genres scarcely present on the first channel and in those which are not broadcasted at all, showing an interesting complementarity between them. Its schedule is mostly based on children/teenagers programs (20%) and sports (28%). Paradoxically, in prime-time, it offers a similar schedule than the other TV channels, mostly based on news and series. Regarding dissimilarity, La 2 shows the highest rate of dissimilarity with its first public channel counterpart (TVE1) and the private channels. It is also a remarkable hint to mention that La2 has the higher contribution to the diversity of the whole system. Regarding the comparison of its schedules with the previous year (2005), La2 also shows a lower degree of diversity and a higher concentration. In 2006 La2 strategy has consisted on reinforcing its difference, that is, broadcasting more sports, children/teenagers programs and documentaries and also reducing educational, cultural and information programs. It has also slightly reduced its contribution to the diversity of the system. In prime-time it has also become more similar to the majority channels. Catalan PSB: a). TV3: Catalan first public channel shows the lowest degree of internal diversity and a high concentration index. Its offer is based on news (32%), magazines (23%), series (12%) and cinema (11%). It is worth to mention that Catalan television, both first and second channel proudly boast that they do not screen any reality TV programs nor any gossip programs. 16

17 As the rest of the channels, it offers a different schedule within the week: on week-days it mostly offers news (37%), magazines (33%) and series (10%), and during the week-ends news (20%), children/teenagers (23%), cinema (25%) and series (17%). During prime-time, TV3 shows one the lower degrees of diversity, especially during the weekends. Regarding dissimilarity, TV3 offer is more dissimilar to the second channels and the new private channels and more similar to the Spanish first public channel (TVE1) and the two existing private channels (T5 and A3). Regarding the comparison with the previous year, TV3 has also reduced its diversity and increased its concentration. It has not introduced major changes in its schedule: it broadcasts less series, sports, news and documentaries and more cinema, contests and magazines. During prime-time it does also increase the traditional genres of this slot: news, series, cinema and contests and decrease sports and cultural programs. Finally, in 2006 it does also diminish its contribution to the global diversity. Altogether TV3 strategy has been based on searching to maintain leadership by broadcasting strong demand programs and leaving inflexible demand programs to be broadcasted by its second public channels (C33), that is leaving aside cultural and documentary programs and increasing safer programs (from the point of view of ratings), that is, cinema, contests and humour. b) K3-C33: The second Catalan public channel shows similar complementarities with the Spanish second public channel. It is a TV channel mostly specialized on children/teenagers programs (33%), documentaries (27%), sports (16%) and cultural programs (12%). It does also broadcast programs forgotten by the first channel (educational programs, religious, minority programs and TV series). 17

18 K3-C33 also shows different schedules within the week: in week days it mostly broadcasts children/teenagers (45, 5%) and documentaries (29, 5%) and during the week-end sports (50%), documentaries (22%) and cultural programs (22%). During prime-time the overall diversity decreases, since it shows a more similar schedule than the rest of the channels (news and series). The degree of dissimilarity keeps low. Within the rest of the time, k3-c33 has a high dissimilarity index with the first public channels both Catalan and Spanish- and the existing private channels. Regarding the comparison with 2005 s schedule, it has also diminished diversity and increased concentration, though dissimilarity with the rest of the channels has increased. With the increase of competition, K3-C33 offers more documentaries and sports programs and less children/teenagers programs and cinema (gone to the first channel). In prime-time, there is also an increase on sports and decrease on documentaries, news, cultural, series and cinema) More competition: Comparative analysis between public and commercial channels Though the analysis of vertical diversity does not heavily differ between public and commercial channels, the main differences between them rely on the kind and weigh of the genres broadcasted. Moreover, it is necessary to differentiate between the first and the second public channels, whose offers are complementary. The comparison between them with the commercial channels will contribute to a better understanding of the programming strategies implemented by PSB. 18

19 The first public channels base their programming on strong demand genres, especially series, cinema and, in the case of TVE1, gossip programmes, which represent almost 30% of the scheduling time. News is the only inflexible demand genre that can be found in these public channels, which also takes 40% of scheduling time. The second public channels are semi-specialized in sports and programmes for children and teenagers, which represent almost 50% of their total broadcasting time. Moreover, they also include inflexible demand genres in their grids (i.e. documentaries, educational, cultural, religious and minorities programmes). These genres, which represent 40% of broadcasting time, are not usually found within the rest of channels. Strong demand genres only represent 10% of the total programming of the second public channels. Finally, private channels mostly include strong demand genres within their programming, especially series, gossip programmes, contests and cinema. They represent 60% of the total broadcasting time. News, the only inflexible demand genre present in their schedules, accounts for 25% of their broadcasting time. Consequently, it can be stated that the offer of the first public channels is quite similar to the offer of commercial channels. Opposite, the second public channels are very different from the rest of channels. This is a first hint concerning the programming strategies implemented by the Spanish public service broadcasters Dissimilarity of PSB: reinforcing and diluting brand strategies As previously mentioned, the patterns concerning the presence of certain genres in the programming of the public and the commercial channels are corroborated when analyzing the dissimilarity. First of all, it is important to notice that the dissimilarity between the first and second public channels is very high, both at national and regional level. Opposite, the dissimilarity between the first national public channel and the analogue regional one is lower (with a similar result for the second channels). These facts confirm the difference and complementarity that characterize these two types of channels. Secondly, dissimilarity between commercial channels and second public channels is higher than the one observed between the former and the first public channels. This reinforces the argument that first public channels are implementing programming strategies that resemble the commercial ones. Concerning the second public channels, their offer shows the higher dissimilarity index. 19

20 Dissimilarity (2006) Cadena TVE La2 TV3 C33 T5 Antena3 Cuatro La Sexta TVE 1,195 0,561 1,605 0,694 0,698 1,133 1,162 High Medium Very high Medium Medium High High La2 1,222 0,743 1,446 1,382 1,158 1,118 Very high Medium Very high Very high High High TV3 1,585 0,905 0,863 1,135 1,083 Very high High High High High C33 1,707 1,685 1,140 1,367 Very high Very high High Very high T5 0,624 0,840 0,887 Medium High High Antena 3 0,672 0,743 Medium Medium Cuatro 0,739 Medium Contribution to the global diversity by channels The contribution to the diversity offer of public channels (TVE1, La2, TV3 i K3-C33) is higher than the one made by commercial broadcasters. Nevertheless, it is important to notice that this is only true when considering all the public channels as a group due to the complementarity between the first and the second public channels. Therefore, it is relevant to point out some differences between the public channels: - The contribution to the global diversity by the second public channels is higher than the one made by the first channels. As previously mentioned, the diversity of the former is not very wide but they broadcast genres that are not often included in the programming of the rest of the channels (especially inflexible demand genres: documentaries, culture, children, religious, educational or minorities programmes). - The contribution to the global diversity made by the first public channels is very low and even poorer that the one made by the group of commercial broadcasters. Their programming includes the same genres that are broadcasted in the commercial channels (series, cinema and news). If the first public channels would disappear, it will not affect the global diversity and commercial channels would occupy their space. In the case of TVE1, its contribution to diversity is negative. It means that without TVE1, the diversity of the television system would be higher. - The contribution to the global diversity offer by each single channel is almost imperceptible. This demonstrates that none of the channels operating within the Spanish television system displays a clear different offer. Nevertheless, it is also important to consider that the second public channels are those that contribute the most to the global diversity (especially C33/K3). 20

21 6.3. Programming strategies implemented by the Public Service Broadcasters in Spain. The first public channels directly compete with the commercial channels using a very similar broadcasting policy. Their programming is characterized by a significant presence of strong demand genres like series and cinema or, in the case of TVE1, gossip programmes. The only difference between public and commercial channels is the higher presence of news in the former. Consequently, the offer of the first public channels does not contribute to increase the diversity of the television system. The enrichment of the overall system is exclusively carried out by the second public channels. Their programming grids include genres with a low presence in other channels due to their difficulties to reach mass audiences. Those genres are not included in the first public channels because they might reduce their competitiveness. 7. Prospective and further discussion Since the design of this protocol is a pioneer contribution to the Spanish research about diversity it shows interesting possibilities of application, especially considering the considerable increase on the number of channels and TV operators in the near future. The whole research summarizes and clarifies the international research about diversity, describes its different dimensions and indexes of measure and suggests a specific protocol to evaluate the offer of global diversity but specially, the contribution made by every single channel to the global diversity. The continuous application of this protocol shall allow us to identify the main trends of 21

22 broadcasting regarding diversity and account for the role played by public and commercial broadcasters, at a State level and regional level. In the near future we re extending the implementation of this protocol to the analysis of a whole year schedules (four TV seasons) and we re also working with the project of extending it to the analysis of the rest of regional public broadcasters, since we ve just covered the Catalan case as the project has been financed by the CAC. We re also aware that the analysis of diversity needs to cover content analysis. Genre classifications are useful since they allow dealing with groups of similar programs but they are not enough to describe the enormous variety of universes of reference involved in TV broadcasting. As an example and regarding series it is not the same to broadcast House than Los Serrano or Rex. The shift towards the analysis of diversity contents involves a qualitative gap that may need a further discussion. Last but not least, there are still two considerations we d like to make: on one side, how new patterns of TV consumption are going to affect the analysis of diversity. How diversity is going to be measured when TV is increasingly consumed through the computer? On the other side, from the theoretical framework, the analysis of open diversity arises as one of the most interesting features that sets the perhaps- strongest paradox around diversity: diversity is a political goal and regulators stress their policies in order to emphasize its presence in broadcasting but the audience may not appreciate diversity, since once their tastes are established, the more diverse a broadcasting schedule may be, it does not result in an increase of diversity consumption. References: ASLAMA, M.; HELLMAN, H.; SAURI, T. (2004) Does Market-Entry Regulation Matter?: Competition in Television Broadcasting and Programme Diversity in Finland, Gazette: The International Journal For Communication Studies. Vol. 66(2): ASLAMA, M. (2005) Digitalizing European Public Service Television: the Case of Programme Supply in Finland Paper presented at: First European Communication Conference Amsterdam DOMINICK, J.R.; PEARCE, M.C. (1976) Trends in Network Prime-time Programming, Journal of Communication. Vol. 26 (1) GRANT, A.E. (1994) The Promise Fulfilled? An Empirical Analysis of Program Diversity on Television. Journal of Media Economics. Vol. 7(1): HELLMAN, H. (2001) Diversity An End in Itself? Developing a Multi-Measure Methodology of Televisión Programme Variety Studies. European Journal of Communication. Vol 16(2):

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24 VAN CUILENBURG, J. (1999) On Competition, Access and Diversity in Media, Old and New. New Media & Society. Vol. 1(2): VAN CUILENBURG, J. (2000) On Measuring Media Competition and Media Diversity: Concepts, Theories and Methods. A: Picard, R. G. (Ed.) Measuring media content, quality, and diversity. Turku, Finland: Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, p VAN DER WURFF, R. (2001) Impact of Moderate and Ruinous Competition on Diversity: The Dutch Television Market Journal of Media Economics. Vol. 14(4): VAN DER WURFF, R. (2004) Supplying and Viewing Diversity: The Role of Competition and Viewer Choice in Dutch Broadcasting. European Journal of Communication. Vol. 19(2): VAN DER WURFF, R. (2005) Competition, Concentration and Diversity in European Television Markets. Journal of cultural Economics. (29):