Greek state TV closure: do we need PSB?

Greece was rather stunned to have their equivalent of the BBC, ERT, abruptly switched off this week. The EBU (European Broadcasting Union) has stepped in, seeing this as an unacceptable state of affairs, and is broadcasting the network's programming over satellite. The Greek government, rather curiously, is issuing threats to anyone involved with this, despite having to pay nothing towards the operation.
Can you imagine a UK landscape either without a BBC or with a privatised, ad-funded BBC? By 2013 (and indeed, a decade+ ago), that has become the norm across the western world. Take Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi utterly dominates the media (print and broadcast) to a degree even Murdoch can (for now!) only dream of, and the under-funded state broadcaster, RAI, has been seen as very vulnerable to interference from Berlusconi - who has been Italian PM on and off for most of the past decade and more, despite constant scandals (often involving teenage prostitutes). Scandals which much of the Italian media won't report. His government coalition has always included a Fascist party, the Northern League (imagine Murdoch as PM, with the BNP - who consistently reject any attempt to put the label fascist onto them it should be fairly pointed out - in government as coalition partners).
Perhaps this helps to see why state PSBs are still important?

See guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/13/ert-greek-tv-switched-on. More Media Guardian articles on this here.