Other countries have followed government licensed (England's BBC, supported through license fees on radio and television receivers) or state run broadcasting systems (China or Cuba). More recently, most countries have some developed some combination of advertising and state support.
The reliance on advertising as a form of revenue tends to result on a focus on "lowest common denominator" programming that is not challenging or provocative. The other problem is a tendency to focus on the 18-34 year old audience to the exclusion of other age groups. Because advertisers feel that the young adults are more likely to be making a major purchase, there is not only a disproportionate percentage of programs for this age group, but the media are not afraid to offend other age groups if they can attract the young adults.
State-supported systems have a couple of problems,
too. First, they tend to have a disproportionate number of "highbrow"
educational and cultural programs at the expense of what might be more
popular. Second, there is a tendency for the government to interfere with
programming choices including censorship of ideas.
So all systems seem to have inherent problems.
It is not clear whether an alternative model will emerge that can offer
solutions to all of the existing shortcomings. But the bottom line here
is that the nature of the funding mechanism plays a large role in shaping
the content, including whether the primary focus is information or entertainment.