Measuring the technical efficiency of public service broadcasters : an application of DEA in Spain

The excessive debt of the Spanish economy in the last few year raises the issue of efffciency in the management of public resources. Within this context, this research measures the technical effciency of regional public service broadcasters (PSBs) in Spain using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The results indicate that several corporations are not effcient and they need to make decisions regarding some of their inputs to guarantee their sustainability. In addition, those PSBs following a management model based on outsourcing are more effcient. This research also provides a theoretical framework and a methodological application for the measurement of effciency in the public service media sector.