In the process, it should not be afraid to ask an unsettling question: can public service broadcasting survive at all? It is simply the need for an acknowledgment that the rationale underpinning public service media is being challenged more fundamentally than at any point in its history. Alongside this, a long-mooted plan to reorganise France’s public media under a single holding structure has repeatedly stalled, provoking industrial action and parliamentary resistance. [ RTÉ radio at 100: Brendan Balfe on a century of Irish broadcasting ]The most dramatic recent crisis, however, has unfolded in the UK. The contradiction between high aggregate trust and intense vocal hostility from particular constituencies captures the dilemma facing public service broadcasting across Europe.

Source: The Irish Times January 06, 2026 13:30 UTC