This book analyzes the effectiveness of the federal government's vacillating regulatory policy toward the cable television industry.

This study of cable rate regulation finds that unregulated monopoly may be superior to regulate monopoly, even in the presence of legal entry barriers. By comparing how rates, quality and volume changed during the periods of deregulation and reregulation in the cable industry, the authors show that cable rate regulation deals with a real problem, monopoly power in local cable markets, but has typically proven perverse in effect.

Network industries comprise a large sector of the US economy. This text shows that public policy concerns are not accidental, because such industries often embody two major and widely recognized forms of potential market failure: significant economies of scale, and externalities.

The significant changes that have swept the television industry over the last two decades, most notably a shift to deregulation in broadcast media, prompt a discussion on how to ensure that meaningful content is available to the viewer. Television and Public Policy analyzes the current state of television systems in a selected group of countries by exploring the political, economic, and technological factors that have shaped the sector in such a short span of time. Consequently, by positioning the television sector within issues of media policy and the regulatory framework, the book questions what these trends mean for television, and the historical, political, and cultural role in our societies. Television and Public Policy distinguishes itself in several ways: *It is a global project in its comparative scope and subject area. Contributors represent countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. *It is contemporary and filled with information largely absent in current literature. *It offers original analysis of the contemporary television sector. This book speaks to a broad range of academics, postgraduate, and undergraduate students, and can serve as a key resource for courses ranging from media studies, to development studies, international relations, and law.

Explores the achievements of European broadcasting and attempts to assess the potential for maintaining its public function in changing circumstances. It also surveys the different values which European media systems have sought to protect.