This article builds on a legal institutionalist approach to assess market-based regulatory change in British television production over the last three decades. It explores how formal rules governing television production constitute market relations, and whether these rules are likely to be evaded by television producers and commissioners in a context where contracting depends heavily on social norms of cooperation, reciprocity and flexibility. Using qualitative data, this article suggests that changes in law and terms of trade intended to promote a market in television production have not had a straightforward or linear effect: compulsory independent production quotas and licensing models of terms of trade have redrawn organizational boundaries in unexpected ways, disturbed the public service remit and engendered new financial flows. Formal rules were nonetheless central to the trajectory of the television production industry, as they were a constitutive element of changes in the power structure of the sector towards producers’ interests.

In this article, I explore the conditions of the media in Italy by taking into consideration a variety of elements: the context of media legislation and media concentration that have favoured the interests of Silvio Berlusconi, and the role of progressive agency (media professionals, citizens' groups) as they worked within those constraints to keep alive the flames of democracy during the ‘Berlusconi era’. This perspective is intended to provide an alternative interpretation to what has become the prevailing view of contemporary Italy: an ‘abnormal’ country; the ‘Sick Man of Europe’; worse yet: a country of ‘servants’. The framework of analysis includes the influence of the media-magnate-turned-politician on media legislation and the television sector, but also evaluates the important roles that media professionals and citizens have played to improve pluralism. The article argues that despite extreme levels of media concentration and an unprecedented conflict of interests, a commitment to engage in political discourse has continued to characterise Italy's political culture. This commitment has been expressed by a multiplicity of actors, from journalists and media professionals to citizens' organisations and media activists.

National (and international) trends in the employment of older workers show a decline in the economic participation of older people, and especially older men, since the 1970s, and general evidence of age discrimination in the workplace. This case study of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) examines statistical patterns in the fortunes of staff aged 50 years and over in a company with good reason to buck the trends. The BBC is a large, publicly-funded, equal opportunities employer endeavouring to reflect a diverse nation in its staff composition. The research is in two parts. First, we carried out a comparison at five-year intervals of the age profile of the Corporation and observed trends in official retirement at age 60 and the employment of staff working beyond retirement age, from 1978 to 1993. Secondly, an age-related analysis of departures, recruitment and part-time working was undertaken for a 12-month period, from 1992 to 1993.

The research revealed the increasing marginalisation of older workers at the BBC. This accelerated during a period of substantial contraction in the latter part of the 15-year study period and led to an age profile far younger than in other public sectors such as Local Government. Pressures to become ‘lean and efficient’ appeared to have been at the expense of older workers, who were unprotected in the workplace.