ABSTRACT
With the creation of nation states in the late 17th century often came the creation of national print media (Straubhaar 2007). What has changed since then is not only the nature of the nation state (Nye 2011) but also the missions and core identities of most of the traditional national media, some of which have developed into global enterprises. Today, as Straubhaar (2007) has argued in the case of television, nearly all television systems operate within long-term patterns of language and culture that sometimes coincide with nation states, but that are often either larger (e.g., Arab-speaking world) or smaller (e.g., various states in the same country with a distinctive cultural identity). The story told here is about an industry that not only is changing its mission and core purpose but that indeed must also adapt to a constantly changing environment. The increased scale of the competition raging in media markets worldwide has led to a particular need for international broadcasting businesses to clearly defi ne their mission and distinctive purposes. They also have to adapt their content and programming, in line with demographic developments, as well as their distribution systems as new technologies (such as satellites and mobile phones) become available.
