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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.

The UK Government has set targets for its services to be available online by 2005. It is hoped that electronic public services will improve quality and efficiency of delivery, enhance public access to essential services, and achieve cost economies. While attention initially focussed on the Internet as the key platform for online public service delivery, digital television may eventually become the platform of choice. Television's wider penetration and familiarity gives it an edge over the Internet. A number of pilot projects and initiatives have been instigated by Government to explore the potential of digital television (DTV). This paper presents a review of early evidence to emerge about DTV services and public opinion from DTV pilots. While DTV can provide wider access than the Internet in terms of demographic reach, its limited interactivity and the relearning that viewers will need to undergo may limit its initial applications and adoption. Significant problems remain with the usability of basic DTV services, resulting in certain sectors of society being excluded. This exclusion is more pronounced when considering the most complex applications of DTV, such as interactive services. Widespread acceptance of the digital switchover will require a shift in mindset of the television audience as a different paradigm of television use comes to the fore.

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.

The present paper analyzes the implementation of Open Digital Television (Televisión Digital Abierta or TDA) in Argentina. It takes up a sociotechnical standpoint and considers TDA as a public policy designed to foster social inclusion.

The ideas presented in this paper are derived from a sociotechnical perspective, both at a theoretical and at a methodological level. The main postulates of this perspective are based on constructivist criteria; they explain outcomes as a result of the constant interplay of technical and social realities. Thus, this relation is intrinsic and continuous. We work with the concept of technology in its broadest sense. That is to say, TDA is not seen as just a mass communication infrastructure, but as a technology which involves knowledge, production practices, and content broadcasting, as a result of the interrelation of cultural, political, social, economic, scientific, and technological factors. The study of TDA in Argentina as a public policy for social inclusion shows how the constant sociotechnical interrelations have to be taken into account (technical standard, antenna features, social actors involved, produced content, etc.) throughout the whole process, from the conception and design of public policies to their implementation, but mainly at the stage of results analysis.

We concluded that throughout the implementation of the TDA public policy, a determinist view of technology prevailed. This can be seen in relation to both the role of television as a medium for social inclusion and the actions regarding the role of the user. The idea of viewer in the traditional sense prevailed over the idea of an active user. This stage provides significant data to assess the range and the limitations of the current public policy, and to think of improvements to implement in the future. These observations suggest a new challenge lying on the horizon: to construct a new concept of television; that is, to analyze TV as a social actor that is crucial for social inclusion rather than simply a medium of mass communication.

The sociotechnical perspective sheds light on the actors involved in the development, implementation, and production of a public policy designed for social inclusion. It focuses both on the government plan and the usage practices of the users themselves. The approach we propose for the study of the relation between technology and public policy is consistent with the notion of an active government.

The value of this paper lies in its theoretical and methodological approach, since a sociotechnical analysis grounded on relativism is a different view to the one that is dominant in studies in the field of communication and public policies. This view offers innovative insights into the problems regarding TDA by exploring the interrelations between actors and the power relations embedded in the public policy.

The television business, traditionally static and conservative, is undergoing a deep transformation process in the multimedia age. Technological (r)evolutions are driving important changes in the market offer and broadening the boundaries of the television business. These are becoming fuzzier and fuzzier and opportunities for new entrants have been largely increasing. This article provides an exhaustive review of the ongoing processes changing television and proposes a strategic reference framework for comprehending the new structure of the television business.

Digitization of terrestrial television enables government to reallocate a portion of spectrum to satisfy the 5G low-band spectrum demand. To accelerate the digitization process, the Indonesian Government has distributed digital terrestrial television (DTT) decoders for households in several DTT trial areas so that the recipients are able to experience DTT broadcasts on their analogue television. To ensure that the DTT is adopted sustainably, this study aims to provide evidence-based policy recommendations by first understanding underlying factors of the intention to purchase a new DTT receiver, either a new DTT decoder or an integrated digital television (DTV).

This study uses 2018 survey data collected by Badan Aksesibilitas Telekomunikasi dan Informasi. The samples consist of 433 DTT decoder recipients in nine DTT trial locations in Indonesia. Two logistic models are used, one model for the DTT decoder and the other for integrated DTV. The two models have identical predictors, including respondents' demographics, television media use, technology cluster and DTT-related factors as innovation attributes.

The results indicate that the two models share some relevant variables but varying in sign and magnitude, namely, respondents' geographical location and the DTT picture and sound quality. The results also show that pay-television subscription, TV viewing and the difficulty of using the DTT decoder are other factors significantly associated with the intention to purchase a new DTT decoder.

This study has several limitations. First, the coefficients of determination are low, indicating that more independent variables should be included in the estimation models to obtain better insight about DTT adoption so that a better policy can be stipulated accordingly. Second, even though most of the predictors and proposed recommendations can be applied in general, all respondents of this study were DTT decoder recipients. Thus, future research can be more inclusive. Third, this study is designed based on the correlational model. This might cause the inability of the results to provide a conclusive direction of the relationship.

Demand-side and supply-side approaches are proposed to drive sustainable adoption of DTT, including the provision of subsidy or free DTT decoder for low-income households, increasing competition intensity among DTT devices manufacturers and distributors by allowing more players enter the Indonesian market, driving nationwide DTT infrastructure deployment and stipulating a national standard of the DTT devices.

This study enriches the understanding of the DTT adoption by incorporating geographical location variables for the proxy of infrastructure availability into the diffusion of innovation model, which has never been addressed by previous studies in the context of DTV adoption. In addition, this study focuses on a specific context in which all samples are free decoder recipients so that they have the same chance to experience DTT broadcasts.

This article focuses on Brazil’s migration to digital television. It shows how, in the case of Brazil, unicasting solely reflected the interests of commercial broadcasters. Comparing Brazil to France and the United Kingdom, it explains why the European choice for multicasting is one of the reasons for the success of digital television penetration in these two countries.

By analyzing viewing shares and the financial relevance of the public broadcasters, BBC, and France Televisions, to the national broadcasting spaces, the study concludes that these European traditional broadcasters profited from digital television, despite their exposure to a more competitive environment.

As I will discuss, the model chosen in Brazil continues to hamper Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) and national audiovisual industries’ developments, as well as slowing digital take-up. In Brazil, public broadcasting continued to play a marginal role in the national broadcasting space and the audiovisual market, concentrated in a few local companies.

The findings of this comparative study, developed from a political economy perspective, provide important insights into both Brazilian and European telecommunications policy.

Since 1939, with the introduction of television at the World Fair in New York City, the television business has gone through many changes from the introduction of color to multichannel offering through cable and satellite. Recent years have brought an accelerated pace of change driven in large by the proliferation of digital platforms. Change that is manifested in the way consumers view television. Technology adoption is more of an evolutionary process than a full-fledged revolution. As such, learnings from consumer adoption of interactive television can provide a footprint for other industries. An example is digital health that includes applications and platforms, which are applied toward improving healthcare delivery or the healthcare systems.

This chapter will provide a comparison between the television and health industries as they transition into the digital age. It juxtaposes learnings from changing business models and consumer adoption from both industries and offers a possible roadmap for other industries on the quest to engage and grow their consumer base in the digital age.

The following paper highlights the findings from Nickelodeon UK's digital study designed to better understand the changed viewing dynamics in digital homes and how that will impact upon building brand loyalty. The findings have been captured in two models: viewer segmentation in cable and satellite, and digital environments and channel/brand loyalty in cable and satellite and digital environments. These two models show how the various segments of viewing will shift in a world of increased competition and how achieving brand loyalty will be more challenging. This is the first set of findings published on digital kids in the United Kingdom as it pre‐dates all audience measurement systems.

To achieve its objective of having virtually all its services (central and local) online by 2005, the Government must close the “digital divide”, i.e. provide access for those sections of society not yet linked to the electronic, computer‐mediated communications environment. There is a need to consider user psychology as well as demography, as shown by research that has evaluated the use and effectiveness of health information and advice services provided via the television. The assumption is that simply providing access to online public services via the country’s most widespread and popular mass medium will guarantee their success, but this assumption is naïve in terms of its understanding of viewer psychology. To ensure success, it is essential to know more about the usability and application effectiveness of interactive services provided through television. This paper explores key concepts of platform availability, use and access, service and information access, service use and application effectiveness.