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Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the role of Public Service Media (PSM) in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals 18 (Communication for All), from facilitating dialogue within community to acting as a critical watchdog over business and government. We look to issues of public value theory and performance measurement with a view to strengthening PSM’s role towards remaining strong arbiters of SDG18. Argumentation It views the lineages of the current public value debate for PSM as a useful exercise for answering questions surrounding the fundamental change in the news media industry and independent journalism, the challenges that PSM and are currently facing under the impact of sustainability, and the grounding public value theory and performance management thinking offers for PSM research and practice in understanding the breadth and complexity of these challenges. We argue that PSM benefit from improving the efficacy of their public value remit by exploring the Public Value Scorecard (PVSC) model which measures public value from an audience perspective. If PSM output and services are to improve the public value for audiences, it needs to consider criteria such as improving the well-being of individuals and communities across a wide range of dimensions. Findings We find that critical debates into public value theory and performance management practice can help improve our understanding of the challenges of PSM trying to add value to programming output and service quality as perceived by audiences. In our view, the PVSC is an effective framework to generate valuable insights to needs of increased audience engagement of public value creation for PSM. Measuring public value outcome on multiple dimensions comes as a defining moment of PSM wishing to improve outcomes for media audiences and stakeholders towards meeting SDG18 objectives, given the need that PSM become measurably more efficient and accountable. Originality / value This study critically examines the public value concept and empirically proves both economic value and societal welfare of PSM offerings. It adds value to discussions about the fitness of PSM and their role as guarantors of public value for society in meeting the SDG18 goals.

Seit dem Frühjahr 2016 ist die Finanzierung des öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunks in Deutschland erneut zum Thema kontroversieller Debatten geworden. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt wurden steigende Rundfunkbeiträge für die Beitragsperiode 2021 bis 2024 prognostiziert. Das Kapitel nimmt die entsprechenden Entwicklungen und Debatten zum Anlass, sich mit der Finanzierung von ARD und ZDF auf der Organisations- und Institutionenebene auseinanderzusetzen. Dabei werden aktuelle, mit der digitalen Transformation und Strukturoptimierung der öffentlich-rechtlichen Medienanstalten verbundene Entwicklungen seit Einführung der Haushaltsabgabe beleuchtet. Der mit der Festsetzung der Beitragshöhe verbundenen Policy-Prozess wird auf seine Zukunftsfähigkeit geprüft, und die Einführung einer Indexierung des Rundfunkbeitrags, vorerst gescheitert im November 2019, werden diskutiert.