| Abstract: | The public interest goals of television sometimes collide with the goals of market-driven broadcast industries. Because market forces have a pronounced effect on the broadcast sector in most countries, it is important to understand the relation between market competition and public interest goals like program diversity. To find a general pattern governing TV programming in a commercial environment, this study examines the relations between competition and diversity trends for programs oriented toward the public interest and for entertainment shows. The results show that overall diversity is a decreasing function of competition, but that competition's effects on diversity differ for informational and cultural programs and dramas. Both the degree of competition and broadcasters' goals for each program genre have important effects on the diversity of television programming. |
