Swedish governmental report shows that Public service media has a positive impact on the market contrary to what the commercial sector has argued

The Swedish government and the Swedish Broadcasting Authority (MRTV) have undertaken a year-long investigation and analysis of the impact of public service broadcasting companies on the Swedish market. The MRTV's result is that PSM is not disproportionately affecting the market on the basis of the public broadcasting role. The authority draws the conclusion that, on the basis of their allocated missions public service companies cannot be considered as acting in a way that clearly prevents competing actors from establishing, running and developing their media operations.
In addition, a number of independent researchers demonstrate in the report that strong public service broadcasting in the future is more important than ever and that PSM is in fact contributing to, rather than inhibiting, the positive development of the media market by helping to drive and create digital behaviour.
The report also notes that the major changes in the media landscape, which both public service broadcasting and commercial actors, must manage result from the technology shift; i.e. the fact that the media market is becoming ever more global and where the major competitors are digital giants such as Google, Facebook, YouTube and Netflix.

Translation of the summary (unauthorized) of the report made by Swedish Radio as follows

The assignment
The results of two government assignments are reported in this document. The first assignment is to analyse how the activities carried out by the public service broadcasting companies Sveriges Television AB, Sveriges Utbildningsradio AB and Sveriges Radio AB affect the media market and to examine and analyse the development of their supplementary activities. The report is intended to provide a basis for the review which is to be carried out after half of the authorisation period, i.e. 2016, according to a Parliamentary decision (Ku2013/2522/MFI). The second assignment is to review the system of prior approval of new services offered by public service broadcasting companies and to investigate whether there is a need to reinforce the requirement to submit new services, given that no new service has yet been submitted (Ku2014/1030/MFI).
The contents of this report therefore constitute a basis for reasoning on the subject of the role that the public service broadcasting companies play and should play in the changing media landscape, for example by means of a view of what should be considered to constitute their core activity and supplementary activities, which effects the public service broadcasting companies should have and how the prior approval process should work.

Our overall assessment
Our assignment has been to identify and describe how the public service broadcasting companies' activities affect the media market. It is natural that such an impact exists, but the authority also feels that it should be noted that the largest impact upon the media market is caused by the ongoing process of digitalisation and globalisation. Having said that, the authority's overall image of the public service broadcasting companies' activities is that they essentially have a positive effect on the media market as they offer both a broad and narrow range of programming to the Swedish media consumer, on both traditional and new platforms. However, they also have a negative impact on parts of the surrounding media market, primarily in that their activities compete for consumers with the actors who provide media commercial activities. Such effects must at the same time be seen to be expected and part of a public service system which is financed by licence fees.

According to the authority, the activities of the public service companies therefore have both a positive and negative impact upon the media market. Despite the negative aspect, it is the authority's overall assessment, against the background of the material that we have analysed, that on the basis of their allocated missions the public service broadcasting companies cannot be considered as acting in a way that clearly prevents competing actors from establishing, running and developing their media activities.
The market impact of public service broadcasting companies
During the process of examining the development of supplementary services, we have observed that the public service broadcasting companies are increasingly investing in activities not simply restricted to the production and linear broadcast of programmes. The public service broadcasting companies continuously develop their activities by making accessible materials involving both sound, images and text on the Internet and in social media. The companies closely follow – and in some cases are at the cutting edge of – technological developments in the media market.
In the report we have more closely investigated certain areas in which affected actors have specifically stated that an impact can be observed. These areas are the public service broadcasting companies' role in a changing media landscape, the companies' news reporting activities on the Internet, their specific circumstances in terms of linear distribution through the terrestrial network, UR's publication of educational programmes on the Internet, the companies' programming and finally the roles of the public service broadcasting companies as purchasers, commissioners, rights holders and recipients of sponsorship.
The public service broadcasting companies can generally be seen to have an effect on the media market in that they have a broad mission to also provide content on the new platforms. This impact must therefore also be seen to be expected.
Regarding the public service broadcasting companies' news reporting activities on the Internet, the limited research and available investigations in the area do not provide any unanimous image of how the public service broadcasting companies affect the market. However, we have not found any grounds to state that it is the activities of the public service broadcasting companies that have caused the closure of other media operations, such as newspaper companies, in recent years. From a democratic point of view, it is important that there is free access on the Internet to content such as news, but at the same time there must be viable commercial news provision. A special investigator has analysed the need for new media policies in this area.
The public service broadcasting companies have a special position as a result of their specific conditions relating to the linear distribution of analogue radio, in which SR is the only company with national coverage, and terrestrial TV, in which SVT and UR broadcast using technology that more households have access to and the companies also have a large broadcast space. These conditions can be justified by the companies' specific mission.
Another area which has been highlighted is UR's digital and free educational programmes and the additional content linked to these. We consider that the decline of the educational materials industry is largely due to digitalisation and not to UR's actions or services.

We have not been able to find any grounds for the statements that SVT and SR's programme content has become more similar to that of the commercial actors and that these companies have thereby increased their impact.
SVT competes with other actors to acquire the screening and broadcast rights for events such as sport. This competition can be considered to be positive for the rights holders but negative for other programme companies. It must be seen to be within the company's mission to acquire such rights. SVT and SR are major commissioners of radio and TV productions, which is to a large extent positive. With a strong position as commissioner, however, it is important that this role is performed in an impartial and businesslike manner.
Another issue which has been raised is the extent to which SVT should clear screening and broadcasting rights for situations such as retransmission. However, it is not within our remit to take a position on this issue. The question of who should ultimately bear the cost of copyright issues or remuneration levels should be resolved by the relevant parties within the framework of copyright law.

Overview of the system for prior approval of new services
Within the context of this overview, we do not take a position on whether some services should have been submitted for the approval of the government. However, we can note that there are varying interpretations of what can be seen to constitute an important service and what should thereby have been submitted for approval. With respect to this, and the fact that the EU Commission has stated that it has received indications that Sweden may not currently be fulfilling its responsibilities in this area, we feel that it may be necessary to examine how the system of prior approval can be made more effective. We therefore suggest that interested parties should be given a formalised opportunity to request assessment of whether a service should be subject to the prior approval process. The Swedish Broadcasting Commission should be given a clearer assignment to assess whether a service should be submitted, on the basis of a request by an interested party and the public service broadcasting companies' own annual reports of how their mission is being fulfilled. However, taking into account the provisions of the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression in protection of the freedom of speech, the public service broadcasting companies should independently determine whether a submission should be made for cases where the Swedish Broadcasting Commission has found that a particular service should be submitted