In this chapter, the broadcasting of television and radio are analysed from an economic point of view. Broadcasting has public goods characteristics that shed light on public policy in the sector. The state typically has been involved in its provision and, in many countries, broadcasting has been provided and financed exclusively by the state – and it still is in some countries. In addition to economic reasons, however, because broadcasting is so important as a means of mass communication, the state has typically regulated it to promote acceptable standards of reporting news and events, to give equal opportunities to all political parties and to minority communities and languages, and to ensure there is sufficient public service element to broadcasts. These and other reasons also lie at the back of the strong state regulation of broadcasting that is observable in all countries, and has been there since the beginning. A feature of particular interest to cultural economists is the question of the finance of public service broadcasting (PSB), which, in some ways, shares similar features to the discussion of subsidy to the arts.

Radio and television supply programmes to an audience and, as mass disseminators of cultural content, they are creative industries; as such, they share economic properties with other creative industries, and are closely linked in the case of radio to music and to film in the case of TV. Watching TV and listening to the radio are the most popular of all cultural participation activities and people spend more hours ‘consuming’ them than any other cultural product.