Public media, whether TV, radio or newspapers, attract sizeable audiences and are the market leaders in many countries. Without exception, the western European public broadcasting channels examined in this survey attract one-third or more of the national television audience. In contrast, audiences for public service channels in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as the United States, tend to be significantly smaller. Public media are funded by a variety of sources, including license fees (assessed only to television set owners with revenues reserved for the media organization), direct government funding (general tax revenues), taxes on commercial media or telecommunications.
