4th Private Television Conference

The Value of Commercial Television And ways for European and national policy makers to support it (or not)…

Much has been said and written about private media and the way in which they contribute or fail to contribute to society, cultural identity, democracy, the production of high quality content, etc. In recent research more academic attention has been triggered for the topic. Often, research remains somewhat ideological, already from the outset refusing any added public value can be created by private media players. However, some scholars have shown that also private media can and should play their part in democratic societies.

The idea of this conference is to focus on different faces of commercial media and their role in contemporary European democratic societies. It sheds light on questions such as:

•    How do commercial media companies see their role in society?
•    What is the social and economic value of content on commercial television?
•    How can the industry maintain investments in local content?
•    What should European and national policy makers do (or not do) to support the sector? Is the review of the Audiovisual Media Services directive a good step to strenghten European audiovisual companies?

The conference brings together insights from academia, industry and policy. It has attention for trends in areas as diverse as content production, business models and diversification of activities, the European Digital Single Market, etc.

Distinguished speakers from Discovery Communications, Medialaan, SBS Belgium, Association of Commercial Television in Europe, Associate Perspectives, Nielsen, IHS Screen Digest, European Commission DG CONNECT, University of Oslo, King’s College, etc. will present their insights on the abovementioned topics.