On the regulation of public broadcasting

A hallmark of public broadcasting has been the long-standing restriction on commercial advertisements, a policy that is intended to benefit the viewers. Using a model with a public broadcaster competing against a private counterpart, we show that banning commercials on the public platform actually harms the viewers. In response to this policy, the public broadcaster invests less to improve program quality and raises the subscription fee, which causes the private broadcaster also to price higher. The private broadcaster chooses a higher quality and earns a higher profit but total social welfare is reduced relative to the case of unregulated public broadcasting.