Digital Broadcasting: Policy and Practice in the Americas, Europe and Japan

Citation

du Preez, M. (2007), "Digital Broadcasting: Policy and Practice in the Americas, Europe and Japan", Online Information Review, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 385-386. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520710764168

Digital television is transforming both broadcasting and, as a result of convergence, the larger world of communications. This new publication, considers the effects of digital television on the availability, price and nature of broadcast services in the Americas, Europe and Japan – something that will greatly affect households in the developed as well as developing world.

Digital Broadcasting originated in a conference at Waseda University in Tokyo, where papers were presented on the development of digital television by authors from Asia, Europe and the USA. Editors Martin Cave and Kiyoshi Nakamura extended the material by adding additional perspectives from a greater number of European countries and from Latin America. They believe this volume provides an account of the state of play in a number of major countries, as well as analyses of where digital broadcasting is likely to go.

The volume addresses a number of thematic issues in three parts. The first six chapters provide a number of country or area studies tracing the development of digital broadcasting. Three chapters discussing rights issues are followed by four chapters analysing various aspects of platform competition in digital broadcasting.

Chapter 3 examines the issues associated with the switch to digital television (DTV) in the developing world, specifically in Latin America, with a particular focus on the ongoing debates about spectrum management reform, DTV standards and the opportunities associated with interactive TV as a low‐cost platform for the delivery of information services. This is especially important at a time when mainstream commercial broadcast models in the developed world are losing favour; it is widely argued that the media in developing countries like those in South America are the real trailblazers for twenty‐first century content distribution models. Leapfrogging technologies means traditional phases of evolution can be quickly overcome, and even developing societies can become world leaders in digital content production.

Another important issue is that of copyright and copy control. Chapter 10, on copy control of digital broadcasting content, adopts an approach to controls over copying digital broadcasting material based on the economic literature. This chapter has a wider application than only digital television and is especially important in the context of mobile content proliferation as well as in an era of peer‐to‐peer file sharing – transaction cost in peer‐to‐peer file sharing is not only lowest, but also illegal. Chapter authors Koji Domon and Eulmoon Joo are of the opinion that digital broadcasters will be forced to confront the same issues as the music industry. They stress that copyright infringements will not disappear, and this will force action to be taken; and those actions must take account of the effects on indirect appropriation.

This volume offers broad coverage of the economic and commercial issues involved in digital television in major regions and countries around the world. Regulators, executives and consultants in the broadcasting and communications sectors will find much of interest in the volume. It can also be useful additional reading for students in media or business studies. The bibliographies appearing at the end of each chapter will stimulate academic debate. A useful index concludes the volume.