Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Notes on contributors
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Questions of principle in broadcasting regulation
- Part III Institutional approaches in various jurisdictions
- 8 Policymaking and policy trade-offs: broadcast media regulation in the United States
- 9 The European Union
- 10 Competition policy and sector-specific economic media regulation: and never the twain shall meet?
- Index
- References
9 - The European Union
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Notes on contributors
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Questions of principle in broadcasting regulation
- Part III Institutional approaches in various jurisdictions
- 8 Policymaking and policy trade-offs: broadcast media regulation in the United States
- 9 The European Union
- 10 Competition policy and sector-specific economic media regulation: and never the twain shall meet?
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
An overview of media markets shows that rapid growth and the integration of some of the most dynamic market segments are characteristics of this fast-moving industry. The main players are the established incumbents upstream and the delivery segments of media downstream. The presence of incumbents, inheritors of previous public monopolies, has led Member States to use regulation in a complementary role with competition.
In these markets, strategies to deliver new products and services and to serve new geographic markets focus less on organic growth than on alliances and mergers in order to create multi-media offshoots, bid for control of content rights, increase the diffusion of products and services, and develop technologies for conditional access and transmission standards to capture advantages through proprietary technology. As a result, vertically integrated dominant positions either upstream or downstream have tended to emerge. There is nothing wrong with vertical integration except when there is market power at one stage of the vertical chain.
Indeed, as far as the media industry is concerned, there are some specific challenges at the European level. The new EU regulatory framework grants some specific competition principles which can be integrated into ex ante regulation. EU merger control may also prevent potential distortion of competition resulting from the creation or the strengthening of a single or collective dominant position in the media sector at a horizontal level, or from foreclosure effects at a vertical level.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Economic Regulation of Broadcasting MarketsEvolving Technology and Challenges for Policy, pp. 280 - 309Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007