The study aims to identify the challenges PSB faces in Macedonia compared with similar dilemmas in Western democracies. Two major challenges to PSB of relevance to Macedonia are identified in the literature with respect to the digital age: (i) commercial pressure and pressure from European competition regulation, by which it is claimed that PSB is pushed to the margins, making it obsolete, and (ii) technological pressure.

This paper is based on three main claims which will be further explored. First, Macedonian Radio-television (MRT), on top of challenges of commercial pressure and pressures from new technologies, faces the pressure of political authoritarianism as its most important predicament. Second, MRT has a future in the specific socio-political context only if it moves towards a ‘participative model’ to match the pressures from societal groups for participatory democracy, and, thirdly, establishing an enduring relationship with the public and civil society is the first condition for PSB to regain trust and legitimacy in the society.

The paper was produced within the project “The prospect and development of public service media: Comparative study of PSB development in Western Balkans in light of EU integration” that investigates the position, role, functioning, and the future of public service broadcasters in seven countries in the Western Balkans – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia, taking into account the specific context in which these services developed and the role the European Union played in such processes. The project is implemented by the Center for Social Research Analitika in partnership with the University of Fribourg.

This project is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation, through the SCOPES (Scientific cooperation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland) programme.