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Although FCC policy has mostly focused on broadcasters, the digital transition of television has involved a number of other players, notably cable television, DBS, and other multi‐channel video providers (MVPDs). What have been the economic effects of this transition on these various industry players and on viewers? The paper aims to answer this question.

This paper assembles an historical database to compare changes over time in consumer spending, television advertising revenue and related economic data extending back to the 1950s.

The authors show that non‐broadcast suppliers of TV programming, especially cable operators, have been able to take much greater economic advantage of the digital television transition than have broadcasters. Cable and DBS systems have used digital technology to greatly expand the amount of programming available and to more efficiently price discriminate on the basis of program quality – including the direct sale to consumers of broadcast and other HD programming. The result has been rapidly rising cable and DBS revenues since the mid‐1990s, and a general shift from advertiser to direct payment support for television services. Overall, digital transition has enhanced the economic viability of cable and DBS delivery, and decreased that of broadcasting. It is evident that consumers have much higher quality and variety of programming available as a result, though usually at higher prices.

The statistical analysis of this paper has been broad. Other factors have undoubtedly affected the aggregate trends.

The overall pattern of television industry trends makes evident that FCC digital conversion policies have worked to the disadvantage of the traditional broadcast model.

Analyses the evolution of China’s telephone and cable systems, in terms of the public interest, discussing current bureaucratic conflicts and policy debates over convergence, and construction of an independent broadband cable network. Looks in depth at China’s problems and the different problems for its citizens with regard to poverty levels and access to the Web.

The cable television industry began to expand greatly in the 1970s as a consequence of several court decisions forcing the Federal Communications Commission to lift its previous restraints. Originally, cable had been seen chiefly as a means to improve reception in isolated areas. Today, however, this same cable has revolutionized what we have come to see on television.

The purpose of this paper is to review current policy and practice in management of analogue‐digital switch in broadcasting.

The paper adopts a case study approach.

The paper finds that with regard the objectives of switch‐off, the broad policy aims of clearing spectrum, modernising infrastructure, and improving the services to the consumer are shared across the major countries studied. Uncertainty about the cash value and potential alternative uses of spectrum is natural given rapid technological change, but the common potential broadcasting uses include mobile television, high definition digital terrestrial television, and more digital broadcasters and channels, including regional and local developments.

The study is restricted to Europe, Japan and North America.

The study has implications for assessment of European switchover strategies and role of Digital Terrestrial.

There are some overviews, but none of so up to date, nor with this geographical coverage.

A year into the launch of TiVo—the “revolutionary new personal TV service that lets you watch what you want, when you want”—John Tebona, VP of business development, was faced with important decisions about TiVo's revenue model and strategic alliances. With television's move from a network-based model to an interactive one, he had to decide what role TiVo would play in the emerging industry landscape. Would TiVo be just a set-top box or would it live up to the vision of revolutionizing the television viewing experience? What revenue streams should it emphasize to capture the most value? What strategic relationships must TiVo form in an environment where companies were cross-investing in multiple technologies across different industry segments? How could it expand its customer base and accelerate its revenues before competitors like Microsoft's WebTV became the default standard?

To understand that disruptive innovation from a value creation standpoint may not mean a profitable or viable business from a value capture standpoint; products are far easier to create than robust business architectures with solid profit engines; the future of interactivity is clouded by the conflicting visions of the varied players; and control over standards is a valuable choke point.

Examines policy implications of over‐the‐air’s impending demise to cable and direct broadcast satellites in the USA. Looks at policy questions and the different types of broadcasters. In conclusion, says that TV has been going through a gradual but fundamental change, but stresses that on the other hand, radio is a wonderful means to reach many people simultaneously, although TV has only a visual modality, whereas radio is best for people on the move.

This bibliography concentrates on literature sources currently published (as in the case of periodicals) or generally published during the past three years. Annotations are provided for periodicals and books, noting strengths of the sources. Selected journal articles, including several pre‐1980 citations, are included without annotations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the internet as an emerging video distribution platform and to analyze the corresponding emerging economic and legal issues.

The paper describes the historical evolution of the business model for the television business and, using a layered model of communications, identifies issues that accompany the growth of the internet as both a complement and a competitor to existing distribution platforms.

As video is increasingly distributed using the internet, a new business model is developing that possesses characteristics such as, unbundled content, irrelevance of geographic exclusivity, irrelevance of structured time or structured release, and new business combinations, alliances, and ventures.

Public policy makers throughout the world are faced with the need to update, replace, and/or revise existing regulations that govern the relationships between and among traditional video distribution platforms, such as over‐the‐air and cable/satellite providers, as the internet emerges as a viable video distribution platform.

The paper provides a summary of key economic (such as the network‐affiliate relationship) and regulatory issues (such as leveraging economic power in the physical and logical layers into the applications and content layers and the extension of content regulation) that are developing as the internet emerges as a video distribution platform.

Introduction The case of broadcast television has long presented economists with a paradox: The broadcast television signal is in the nature of a privately‐provided public good, for which exclusion costs are presumably prohibitive and marginal costs are zero (i.e., once a television signal is broadcast, the owner of the transmitting apparatus cannot prevent any television viewer from simply turning on his TV set, at no cost, and receiving the signal). The conclusion which has followed is that broadcast television is optimally provided by the standards of Paretian efficiency, with p = mc = 0 (1).

Interactive television is something that is becoming quite widely talked about these days. In the United States they are going to have 500 television channels but not all of them will be interactive. I understand that there is one called the fish channel, or fish net, or something like this, and it just consists of fish swimming round in front of your eyes for nearly 24 hours out of 24; so it might be very relaxing but I do not know if you can really interact with them much, unless you just open your mouth in the same way they do. Our speakers are going to talk about interactive television. They are going to tell us what it is exactly. They are going to tell us about the transmission technologies that you are able to use, how you actually interact with the programmes. They are going to talk about who is involved in interactive television, and why, and they are going to talk about potential services that one can have available with these devices. Our very first speaker is going to tell us about what interactive television is — Judith Jeffcoate. She is an independent consultant specialising in new markets for information technology, she was the lead author on a report by Ovum on interactive television multimedia, and she has just written a book on introduction to multimedia technology and applications.