Regulating digital television in a convergent world

This paper introduces a symposium on the economics and regulation of pay broadcasting. First it reviews the costs of providing combinations of analogue and digital television programming and telecommunication services using a variety of possible combinations of technologies and discusses demand for such services. It then summarizes the extent of developments in digital television to date in a number of countries. This is followed by an analysis of competition issues likely to arise in the sector and a discussion of the capacity of competition policy and regulatory instruments to deal with them.