Broadcasting is Dead. Long Live Digital Choice

Abstract

Drawing on examples from the United Kingdom and Germany, this paper sets out to explore the potential impact of digital television on broadcasting, and to identify what implications its introduction might have for audio-visual plurality and diversity. Through an analysis of current trends in television, it examines the difficulty of applying traditional broadcasting policy norms, and how digital technology itself is far less important than the deregulation and commercialisation of the analogue broadcasting sector in recent years. The paper argues that strategies developed by public service broadcasters and policymakers at both a national and European Union level may not be sufficient to counter longer term threats to plurality and diversity. These threats stem from the lack of a clear role for the public sector and from the increasing domination of the emerging digital television market by a small number of companies, who are active across converging industry sectors, and who control the key chains of production and distribution.