The UK’s media regulator, Ofcom, recently stated that the role of public service broadcasters “includes providing a wide range of informative and entertaining programmes that reflect the diversity of the nations and regions of the UK and are freely available to all.” With the BBC in Northern Ireland just having passed the one hundredth anniversary of it broadcasting from Belfast, this is a good time to reappraise the role of Public Service Broadcasting: how does PSB contribute to Northern Irish society? What challenges do the PSBs face, particularly in relation to funding? And what opportunities are there likely to be in the future, in the midst of a changing media system?

This panel is sponsored by the Centre for Communication, Media and Cultural Studies, in the School of Communication and Media at Ulster University. The Centre is comprised of a team of academics whose research focuses on all forms of media and culture in Northern Ireland and beyond. It can trace its history back to the late 1970s, when Ulster University pioneered research-led teaching in Media Studies.