Public service television in the age of subscription video on demand: Shifting TV audience expectations in the UK during COVID-19

Abstract

This article asks how the rise in use of SVOD in the United Kingdom during 2020 impacted people’s expectations of public service television (PSTV). Drawing on 56 qualitative interviews with 28 UK participants conducted in 2019 and 2020, the article uses the COVID-19 lockdown to explore how disruption to the context of viewing might shape the cultural meanings people attach to PSTV. Challenging dominant approaches that measure audience assessments of public service media (PSM) against normative criteria, this article focuses instead on the processes through which people’s cultural meanings about PSTV are formed. Examining the interplay of their encounters with, expectations and evaluations of television, it reveals the divergent meanings our participants brought to linear and on-demand television. The article concludes by examining the implications of these expectations for PSM policy and for the ways in which we research people’s viewing experiences and choices amidst the rise of VOD.