Public service broadcasters of the EBU in the Web environment: A case study in Armenia, Portugal, Russia, and United Kingdom

Public service broadcasters were forced to adapt to the new "normal" in a complex, constantly changing, and competitive international broadcasting environment, where the World Wide Web becomes the most important tool to inform audience. Taking into consideration the following parameters: positioning, engagement, origin of the audience and device for access, the websites of four Public Service Broadcast companies in Europe were examined. In general, the time spent by users on websites is limited, bounce rate parameter is high, the main audience of the broadcasters come from the country itself and the most commonly used device to access the websites are mobile phones and tablets. Presence in social networks was studied in the position of Facebook page availability and number of followers. Results show that websites of the analyzed Public Service Broadcasters are not user friendly, not well-structured, not informative, and do not meet users’ expectations.