Control of access to content has become a vital aspect of many business models
for modern broadcasting and online services. Using the example of digital
broadcasting, the author reveals the resulting challenges for competition,
broadcasting, and telecommunications. Controlling Access to Content
explores the relationship between electronic access control, freedom of
expression and functioning competition. It scrutinizes the interplay between
law and technique, and the ways in which broadcasting, telecommunications, and
general competition law are inevitably interconnected.
European law has widely harmonised the way conditional access is regulated in
the Member States of the European Union. The author comments in detail on the
relevant rules in European Court of Justice and the European Commission in its
function as watchdog of European competition law. The relevant provisions in
European broadcasting law, such as the right to short reporting and the
so-called list of important events, are discussed extensively, as are the
conditions that overrule the free-TV culture that was the essence of
traditional broadcasting law. The broad and systematic screening of the
existing regulatory framework makes this book an essential resource for all
those who are concerned with the electronic control of access to content.
With its in-depth analysis and explicit conclusions, Controlling Access
to Content amply supplies the crucial understanding of this complex
field that policy makers, regulators, and academics require. It investigates
the implications of electronic access control, digitalization, and convergence
for broadcasting, as well as the effects of the regulatory framework on
innovation, competition, and consumer access to content. It demonstrates
clearly at which points the chosen approach could backfire and generate
undesirable side-effects, and what lessons can be learned from the pay-TV case
for other digital service sectors. Using many examples, the author explains
for lawyers, consumer and industry representatives the main lines of the
regulatory framework that apply to access-controlled broadcasting, how their
interests are affected, and what changes the future might bring.
