The total income of public service media grew by only 2.7% between 2006 and 2011, although after inflation the true evolution of total income equated to a 7.4% drop, a new report by the EBU’s Media Intelligence Service has revealed.

Published this month, Funding of Public Service Media 2012 compares this figure to the top 12 European commercial TV groups, which enjoyed a healthier real terms growth of 1.8%.

Additionally, advertising revenues earned by EBU Members have been in continuous decline for several years, increasing their reliance on public and licence fee funding.

Among the 52 EBU Members studied, revenues from the licence fee remain predominant, representing 83.4% of all public income in 2011, down from 88.1% of five years earlier. Making up this shortfall, however, has been an ever increasing reliance on public funds, typically in the form of government grants. This source of income grew from 11.9% in 2006 to 16.6% in 2011.

Leading the research was Dr Roberto Suárez Candel, Head of the EBU Media Intelligence Service, who said: “There is no question that economic self-determination is desirable for public service media, because financial independence fosters managerial and editorial independence. Clearly this is an issue that needs to be monitored closely.”

Another key finding of the study is that people in the EBU area pay on average €2.99 per month towards their public service media. This suggests that PSM are leading the field in terms of value for money, when compared to other forms of leisure or content provision.

Accessible only to EBU Members, the report considers 52 EBU Members in 40 markets. Its analysis falls into five distinct areas, namely: total funding; funding mix; public income; commercial income; and comparison with major European commercial TV groups.