Between cultural promotion and nation building: Analysing the drivers of Basque public television consumption over a decade

Abstract

Public broadcasting systems are tasked with providing citizens with high-quality information and exposing them to diversity, based on professional autonomy and political independence. In polarised pluralist systems like that of Spain, public broadcasters often face politicisation, and political attitudes are strong predictors of media exposure. In Spain – alongside the national public broadcasting service (RTVE) – several regional broadcasting systems were established by regional governments during the decentralisation of the 1980s to strengthen regional cultural identities and promote minority languages. However, the predictors driving the consumption of these regional broadcasts have remained unexplored. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the predictors of exposure to Basque public television (EiTB) over an 11-year period (2009–2020), drawing on four post-electoral studies and covering four Basque regional elections. Through logistic regression analysis, we examine how national identity, Basque nationalism, mother tongue and place of birth predict EiTB consumption, while controlling for variables such as age, sex, education level and ideological position on the left-right spectrum. The findings reveal that voting for Basque nationalist parties and feeling exclusively Basque are the key consistent predictors for EiTB consumption over time. We discuss the normative implications of these findings and argue that the role of Basque public television has fluctuated between cultural promotion and nation building.