Abstract

This is the synthesis of Giuseppe Richeri's Introductory Report to the discussion of the international panel of researchers gathered at Mc Gill University, Montreal Canada, in January 2005. The crisis of the historical motives of state intervention in broadcasting is pointed out as well as the fading of those motives in the programme supply of public service broadcasters increasingly commercialised. Meanwhile, the analysis of economic and cultural trends in the affluent multichannel television systems highlights the survival of old and the birth of new reasons of public consideration and policies in broadcasting. The paper ends considering the forms of a public initiative aiming some social and cultural interests of the viewers, in a television system totally market oriented.