Executive Summary - From: Digital Broadcasting: Review of Regulation Volume One: The implications for regulatory policy of the convergence between broadcasting, telecommunications and the internet
Download full report (PDF, 5mb)The media and telecommunications sectors are undergoing a period of profound change. Technology is evolving rapidly, enabling content to be created, distributed and consumed in a variety of new ways. New platforms, new business models, new services and new market entrants are the result. Mobile TV, IPTV, social networking, blogging, and online virtual worlds: none of these ‘businesses’ existed even a few short years ago. This technology and market evolution is accompanied by dramatic changes in consumer behaviour.
The changes signal new and significant threats to broadcasting’s traditional value chain. Growing consumer control, an increasingly global media market and new market entrants’ ability to go direct to consumers and by-pass sections of the broadcasting value chain, contribute to a riskier and more competitive environment. In particular, the growth in media choices, availability of global content and the rising cost of reaching mass audiences creates some critical risks to the creation and distribution of local content.
New market entrants and platforms are also subject to significant risk and heightened competition. The telecommunications industry and internet service providers (ISPs) are responding to the converging environment by diversifying their businesses, which relies upon the development of attractive consumer propositions, requiring both investment in infrastructure and the development of new business models. The challenge persists of how to make sufficient and sustainable returns on new platforms and services which have uncertain future growth patterns.
This paper includes a summary of research on the current market status and regulatory environment in New Zealand. This is followed by an analysis of trends across international broadcasting markets and the identification of key regulatory responses. The review’s findings suggest that international policy makers and regulators are generally reacting to the same market and technology trends. However, they are adopting a relatively wide range of regulatory responses.
The three main components of the broadcasting value chain, content, distribution and networks, are reflected across the report to provide some logical structure and clarity for the reader. However, it should be noted that the boundaries between these elements of the value chain are becoming increasingly blurred and so some of the issues rightfully appear in more than one part of the value chain (e.g. content distribution). Competition, standards and intellectual property rights issues are considered as key themes across the whole of the value chain.
The future role of regulation and its impact on New Zealand’s broadcasting value chain is explored through a combination of specific research on the New Zealand market, external experts’ views and study of international comparators. A scenario analysis is then used in order to identify some of the most important future risks to New Zealand’s broadcasting markets. This analysis provides the basis of the paper’s conclusions, which pose a series of questions on policy and regulatory issues that should be addressed in support of developing New Zealand’s digital broadcasting environment.
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