From Media Policy Towards a National Communications Policy: Broadening the Scope

Abstract

Due to all kinds of technological and economic developments the traditional media sector and the telecommunications sector are becoming increasingly related. On a technical level the broadcasting infrastructure is gradually being integrated with the telecommunications infrastructure, which makes it possible for public telecommunications operators to enter the broadcasting domain. The introduction of CATV has in itself led to broadcasting orientating towards narrowcasting for highly segmented audiences (pay-TV). Furthermore, new technologies enable broadcasting organizations to provide commercial services to business users (data casting, business television). These developments have important implications for media policy. It is no longer possible to sustain the regulatory and policy separation between media and telecommunications. Government media policies can no longer be exclusively guided by cultural values, and telecommunications policy should also pursue objectives outside the technological and economic field. In this article an integration of media and telecommunications policy is called for (policy convergence), leading to one `national communications policy'.

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