The use of international television formats by public service broadcasters in Australia,Denmark and Germany

Abstract

Today, the use of internationally licensed television formats, developed in one market and sold for local adaptation, is a widespread practice amongst commercial broadcasters around the world. But how has this trend impacted on public service broadcasting? Public service stipulations include the provision of content that informs and educates, helps imagine the nation, enriches the lives and culture of its citizens and provides an inclusive public sphere to support democracy. Can internationally franchised programmes fulfil these remits? And to what extent are they employed by public service broadcasters? Responding to criticisms of the international, commodified character of formats in general and their staple, reality TV and lifestyle entertainment more specifically, this article provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the use of international formats by Australian, Danish and German public service broadcasters. The article hopes to contribute to media policy debate and concludes by arguing that, even in the relatively few instances where formats have been employed, the benefits outweigh the concerns raised.

Keywords

Citizenship democratisation of public sphere factual entertainment lifestyle television popular entertainment public service broadcasting public value reality TV scheduling analysis television formats

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adriaens

Biltereyst

(2012) Glocalized Telenovelas and national identities: A ‘Textual Cum Production’ analysis of the ‘Telenovela’ Sara, the flemish adaptation of Yo soy Betty, la Fea. Television and New Media 13: 551–567.

Agger

(2005) Format trade and TV drama: Friends for life. In: Højbjerg

Søndergaard

(eds) European Film and Media Culture, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, pp. 179–203. .

Anderson

(1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London: Verso.

Anon (2010) X-Factor Skal til Public Service-Eftersyn. Politiken, 24 January 2010, http://politiken.dk/debat/ledere/ECE886564/x-factor-skal-til-public-service-eftersyn/ (accessed 10 December 2012).

Armstrong M, Jordan T and Hudson M (1998) Australia. In: Goldberg D, Prosser T and Verhulst S (eds) Regulating the Changing Media - a Comparative Study. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Attallah

(2000) Public broadcasting in Canada: Legitimation crisis and the loss of audience. International Communication Gazette 62: 177–203.

Beeden

de Bruin

(2010) The office: Articulations of national identity in television format adaptation. Television and New Media 11: 3–19.

Bennett

(1998) The uncivic culture: Communication, identity, and the rise of lifestyle politics. P.S: Political Science and Politics 31: 741–761.

Berlant

(2008) The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture, Durham: Duke University Press.

10.

Billig

(1995) Banal Nationalism, London: SAGE.

11.

Biltereyst

(2004) Public service broadcasting, popular entertainment and the construction of trust. European Journal of Communication 7: 341–362.

12.

Biressi

Nunn

(2014) ‘Walking in Another's Shoes’: Sentimentality and philanthropy on reality television. In: Oullette

(ed.) A Companion to Reality TV, NY: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 478–498. .

13.

Bondebjerg

(2008) Virkelighedens Fortællinger, Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur.

14.

Bourdon

(2012) From discrete adaptations to hard copies: The rise of formats in European television. In: Oren

Shahaf

(eds) Global Television Formats: Understanding Television Across Borders, London: Routledge, pp. 111–127.

15.

Brealey M (2012) Head of Policy and Administration at ABC Television, personal conversation with Pia Jensen, Sydney, September 2012.

16.

Brennan

(2012) A political economy of formatted pleasures. In: Oren

Shahaf

(eds) Global Television Formats, London: Routledge, pp. 72–89.

17.

Bruun

(2005) Public service and entertainment. A case study of Danish television 1951–2003. In: Ferrell

Jauert

(eds) Cultural Dilemmas in Public Service Broadcasting, Göteborg: Nordicom, pp. 143–162.

18.

Carlsen J and Frandsen K (2005) Nytte og Livsstilsprogrammer på Dansk TV. Working Paper, Aarhus: Aarhus University.

19.

Chalaby

(2010) The rise of Britain's super-indies: Policy-making in the age of the global media market. The International Communication Gazette 72: 675–693.

20.

Chalaby

(2011) The making of an entertainment revolution: How the TV format trade became a global industry. European Journal of Communication 26: 293–309.

21.

Chalaby

(2012) At the origin of a global industry: The TV format trade as an Anglo-American invention. Media, Culture and Society 34: 36–52.

22.

Corner

(2004) Afterword: Framing the new. In: Holmes

Jermyn

(eds) Understanding Reality Television, London: Routledge, pp. 290–299.

23.

Coyle

Siciliani

(2013) The economics of public service broadcasting: A research agenda. In: Picard

Siciliani

(eds) Is There Still a Place for Public Service Television? Effects of the Changing Economics of Broadcasting, Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, pp. 57–69. .

24.

de Bruin

(2012) NZ idol: Nation building through format adaptation. In: Oren

Shahaf

(eds) Global Television Formats, London: Routledge, pp. 223–241.

25.

Ellis

(2003) Big debate is happening everywhere but on TV. Broadcast 2003: 11. 27 June.

26.

Esser

(2007) Audiovisual content in Europe: Transnationalization and approximation. Journal of Contemporary European Studies 15: 163–184.

27.

Esser

(2009) Audio-visual content in the EU: Production and scheduling. In: Rooke

(ed.) European Media in the Digital Age. Analysis and Approaches, Harlow: Pearson Education, pp. 82–215. (with Esser A).

28.

Esser

(2010) ‘Format’iertes Fernsehen – Die Bedeutung von Formaten für Fernsehsender und Produktionsmärkte. Media Perspektiven 11: 502–514.

29.

Esser

(2013) The format business: Franchising television content. International Journal of Digital Television 4: 141–158.

30.

Ferrari

(2012) ‘National Mike’: Global host and global formats in early Italian television. In: Oren

Shahaf

(eds) Global Television Formats, London: Routledge, pp. 128–147.

31.

Flew

(2007) Understanding Global Media, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

32.

Giddens

(1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Cambridge: Polity Press.

33.

Gill

(2007) Gender and the Media, Cambridge: Polity Press.

34.

Graham

Hajru

(2011) Reality TV as a trigger of everyday political talk in the net-based public sphere. European Journal of Communication 26: 18–32.

35.

Hartley J (1996) Popular reality: Journalism, modernity, popular culture. London: Arnold.

36.

Hay

Ouellette

(2009) Makeover television, governmentality and the good citizen. In: Lewis

(ed.) TV Transformations. Revealing the Makeover Show, London: Routledge, pp. 31–44.

37.

Hill

(2005) Reality TV. Audiences and Popular Factual Television, London: Routledge.

38.

IP Network (2013) Television 2012. International Key Facts, Luxembourg: IP/RTL Group.

39.

Jäger

Behrens

(2009) The FRAPA Report 2009 – TV Formats to the World, Cologne: Hürth.

40.

Jensen

(2005) Formatversionering – et Overblik. MedieKultur 39: 4–13.

41.

Jerslev

(2005) Vi ses på tv: Medier og intimitet, Copenhagen: Gyldendal.

42.

Jensen

(2007) Danish and Australian television: The impact of format adaptation. Media International Australia 124: 119–133.

43.

Jensen

(2009) How national media systems shape the localization of formats. In: Moran

(ed.) TV Formats Worldwide, Bristol: Intellect, pp. 163–186.

44.

Jensen

(2012) How media system rather than culture determines national variation: Danish Idols and Australian Idol compared. In: de Bruin

Zwan

(eds) Adapting Idols: Authenticity, Identity and Performance in a Global Television Format, Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 27–39. .

45.

Jensen

(2013a) The use of format adaptation in Danish public service programming. Critical Studies in Television 8: 85–103.

46.

Jensen

(2013b) The use of format adaptation in Danish television broadcasting: Public service broadcasters compared to private broadcasters. Paper presented at the Nordmedia conference in Oslo. August 2013. Oslo: Nordmedia, pp. 1--25.

47.

Larkey

(2009) Transcultural localization strategies of global TV formats: The Office and Stromberg. In: Moran

(ed.) TV Formats Worldwide, Bristol: Intellect, pp. 187–201.

48.

Lumby C (1999) Media culpa: Tabloid media, democracy and the public sphere. Sydney Papers 11(3): 112--123.

49.

McCabe

Akass

(2013) TV's Betty Goes Global. From Telenovela to International Brand, London: I. B. Tauris.

50.

McMurria

(2008) Desperate citizens and good Samaritans. Television and New Media 9: 305–332.

51.

Madsen JJ (2012) DR: Derfor er X-Factor Public Service. Journalisten, 9 March 2012, http://journalisten.dk/dr-derfor-er-x-factor-public-service (accessed 10 December 2012).

52.

Meier

(2003) Beyond convergence: Understanding programming strategies of public broadcasters in competitive environments. European Journal of Communication 18: 337–365.

53.

Moe

van den Bulck

(2014) Comparing ‘Public value’ as a media policy term in Europe. In: Ferrell Lowe

Martin

(eds) The Value of Public Service Media, Göteborg: Nordicom, pp. 57–76.

54.

Moran

(2009) TV Formats Worldwide: Localizing Global Programs, Bristol: Intellect.

55.

Moran

(2013) Global television formats: Genesis and growth. Critical Studies in Television 8: 1–19.

56.

Ndlela

(2012) Global television formats in Africa: Localizing Idol. In: Oren

Shahaf

(eds) Global Television Formats, London: Routledge, pp. 242–259.

57.

Oren T and Shahaf S (eds) (2014) Global Television Formats. London: Routledge.

58.

Oullette

(2004) Take responsibility for yourself: Judge Judy and the neoliberal citizen. In: Murray

Ouellette

(eds) Reality TV. Remaking Television Culture, NY: New York University Press.

59.

Palmer

(2004) ‘The New You’: Class and transformation in lifestyle television. In: Holmes

Jermyn

(eds) Understanding Reality Television, London: Routledge, pp. 173–190.

60.

Reichstein A (2013) Director ZDFE.entertainment & New Media, ZDF Enterprises GmbH. Email Correspondence with Andrea Esser, 12 July 2013.

61.

Ritzer

(1993) The Mcdonaldization of Society, Thousand Oaks, USA: Pine Forge Press.

62.

Schulz

(2008) Der Programmauftrag als Prozess seiner Begründung. Media Perspektiven 4: 158–165.

63.

Torre

(2012) Reversal of fortune? Hollywood faces new competition in global market trade. In: Oren

Shahaf

(eds) Global Television Formats, London: Routledge, pp. 186–200.

64.

Trappel

(2014) What media value? Theorising on social values and testing in ten countries. In: Ferrell Lowe

Martin

(eds) The Value of Public Service Media, Göteborg: Nordicom, pp. 127–144.

65.

Van Zoonen L (2005) Entertaining the Citizen: When Politics and Popular Culture Converge. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.

66.

Waisbord

(2004) McTV – Understanding the global popularity of television formats. Television and New Media 5: 359–383.

67.

Ward M (2005) (at the time) Head of Policy and Administration at ABC Television. Interview with Pia Jensen, Sydney, November 2005.

68.

Weeds

(2013) Digitisation, programme quality and public service broadcasting. In: Picard

Siciliani

(eds) Is There Still a Place for Public Service Television? Effects of the Changing Economics of Broadcasting, Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, pp. 9–20. .

69.

Winslow

(2010) Comforting the comfortable: Extreme makeover home edition's ideological conquest. Critical Studies in Media Communication 27: 267–290.