International Journal of Digital Television - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2014

The concept of media influence has a long history in media and communication studies, and has also had significant influence on public policy. This article revisits questions of media influence through three short case studies. First, it critically analyses the strongly partisan position of News Corporation’s newspapers against the Labor government during the 2013 Australian Federal election to consider whether the potential for media influence equated to the effective use of media power. Second, it discusses the assumption in broadcasting legislation, in both the United Kingdom and Australia, that terrestrial broadcasting should be subject to more content regulation than subscription services, and notes the new challenges arising from digital television and over-the-top video streaming services. Finally, it discusses the rise of multi-platform global content aggregators such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and others, and how their rise necessitates changes in ways of thinking about concentration of media ownership, and regulations that may ensue from it.

This article aims to provide an overview of the current state of digital television in Greece. By examining the latest digital developments in the middle of financial crisis, it suggests that the Greek government adopted a purely market-driven approach leaving the private forces to take up digital terrestrial television. The closure of the public broadcaster, ERT, has accelerated the neo-liberal market-driven policy and Greece has ended up as one of the countries that have left the development of digital terrestrial television entirely to the private sector.

Taking the re-introduction of revamped television station VIER in the Flemish television landscape as a case in point, this article wants to contribute to the discussion about the future of linear broadcast television in what is often considered as the post-linear era. It does so by means of an empirical analysis and evaluation of the current importance of two characteristics of linear television: scheduling and continuity techniques that are key in creating and maintaining channel identity. Analysis of a diachronic sample of television schedules and of evolving continuity techniques for Flemish television channels één, VTM and VT4/VIER and these channels’ evolving continuity techniques, combined with interviews with senior management and an analysis of audience ratings reveals that scheduling and continuity techniques remain top of mind of television management and still influence audience behaviour. At the same time, there are indications that these techniques are being adjusted to the non-linear, converging television and multiplatform media environment. Disucssion of the results aim to contribute to a better understanding of the potential of linear television in the post-linear era and of the shifting communicative relationship between broadcast media and their audiences throughout broadcast history.

This article focuses on TV broadcasters adopting co-opetition strategies for launching online video services. It is claimed that the emergence of online video platforms like YouTube and Netflix is driving TV broadcasters to collaborate with their closest competitors to reduce costs and reach the necessary scale in the global marketplace. The article sheds light on online video platforms that were developed following a co-opetition strategy (Hulu and YouView). The establishment of joint ventures in online video, however, has been scrutinized by competition authorities which fear that collaboration between close competitors lessens rivalry and reduces consumer choice. Therefore, several co-opetition projects (among others BBC’s Kangaroo and Germany’s Gold) have been prohibited by competition authorities.

Most communication policy debates and academic research focus on either ‘in front of’ or ‘behind’ the screen developments. The article argues that this dichotomy between ‘content’ and ‘transmission’ is false and considers how developments ‘behind’ and ‘inside’ the screen influence ‘in front of’ the screen aspects and, in turn, the user experience. It examines the growing complexity of the value chain of video distribution in the Internet age, explains the often contradictory interests of participants, and refers to relevant developments in Britain. The article discusses how transmission issues shape access to content and audiences. Increasingly, responsibility for the transmission, exchange and termination of digital content traffic lies with private commercial players who favour technological solutions, market and business models that are premised on exclusion and commercial priorities, and which as a result threaten universal, equitable, easy and affordable access to content. The resulting exclusion is in contradiction to inclusive discourses regarding content. The article therefore on the one hand highlights the argument that the dichotomy between content and infrastructure is artificial and on the other it points to the societal significance of the need to consider the interdependence between transmission and content.

When we think of digital television we think of newness, both in terms of the relatively recent mass conversions from analogue sets that have taken place across much of the globe and an uncertain but potentially exciting future – Apple TV, Google glasses or nano clothing? And will the Internet swallow television, vice versa or none of the above? The next turn remains unclear. But fantasizing it allows us to revel in the cheeky, cheery technological determinism of cybertarians.

The Social Use of Media, Helena Bilandzic, Geoffroy Patriarche and Paul Traudt (eds) (2012) Bristol/Chicago: Intellect, 202 pp., ISBN: 9781841505121, p/bk, £25

Shut-Off: the Canadian Digital Television Transition, Gregory Taylor (2013) Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 232 pp., ISBN: 9780773540491, p/bk, $29.95

Private Television in Western Europe: Content, Markets, Policies, Karen Donders, Caroline Pauwels and Jan Loisen (eds) (2013) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 296 pp., ISBN: 9782248027543, h/bk, £55