I attended the ‘From Secret Service to Public Service‘ international conference at the Central European University in Budapest on Friday.

Great event. As I have written before, people who think that Hungary sits at the remote edge of Europe really have no idea how much energy and fresh ideas are brewing there.

One couldn’t help feeling at this event, however, a great deal of pessimism about the future of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) in Europe. It was on the keynote speakers’ lips, it was discussed heavily … there is a nearly-impossible search underway for ‘optimal’ PSB structures:

Optimal funding structures. How will Europe fund PSBs? A funding model should neither undercompensate nor overcompensate a PSB. But it’s nearly impossible to attain an error-free funding allocation. We heard about new funding models underway or planned in Georgia and Latvia — each apparently based on a formula tied to the overall government budget or the GDP. Formulaic and prone to type I / type II error? Yes. But perhaps that method is sufficiently insulated from politics. Miklos Haraszti of the OSCE championed a method whereby commercial broadcasters subsidise the public broadcasters. Talk about a recipe for disaster! That’s all a PSB needs - a commercial rival always complaining to the government about how much they have to pay for PSB inefficiency.

Optimal governance structures. Time and again we are told that a true PSB should be independent of politics. But that’s also nearly impossible. PSBs often sit at the heart of politics - they deliver news and current affairs and are supposed to engage the citizenry. PSB leaders are also typically appointed by, or accountable to, government officials. In this regard, several speakers commented on the frail state of the Hungarian PSB, Magyar TV. In a sense, this was Hungary airing its dirty laundry in front of the EBU and friends. Viviane Reding, on the panel where this was discussed, could offer nothing other than sympathy and unhelpful words about the importance of sharing culture. And of course, the BBC offered the humourous example of how its news reporters doorstepped Tessa Jowell (about her husband’s Italian connections) the same day the Beeb was discussing license fee issues with her.

Optimal PSB remits. Everyone says the obvious: PSBs should have the ability to exploit all of the benefits of digital technologies to fulfill their remits. It’s obvious - PSBs need to deliver high def programming - they need to be online - they need access to the best talent. Yet at the same time, PSBs must not unduly distort the competitive marketplace. This balance, yet again, is nearly impossible to achieve. PSBs will affect nascent industries. And PSBs — if overly-indulged or otherwise endowed with poor governance structures — will undoubtedly waste taxpayer money.

And lurking in the background — or to use a better metaphor — racing ahead, are the content giants and their new media friends, perhaps only a few years away from swamping these PSBs with choice and content against which they have no hope of competing. So, in Europe, the search for an optimal environment for PSBs continues, with regulation — not competition — at its very heart.