business today regulation
Regulators are not just law enforcers,
they have the power to make and
break markets and, consequently,
broadcasters. Joe O’Halloran considers
the implications on our market.
Responsible regulation?
T
here you are. You have the fact of life that the regulator will broadcasting. Thus the FCC established
right product, at the right always be there to impede business? 17 March as the deadline for stations
time, in the right place. And Won’t it always be like the strict parent to elect their final transition date and
even better, you know that that says no to everything? permitted stations to transition before
there is a huge end user That’s a simple but surprisingly 12 June but no sooner than 16 April
demand for your product. commonly held view and even when 2009. The FCC insisted that
And you even have the cash that you the regulator does say yes, it still gets broadcasters waited until it adopted
need in order to keep your business criticism for acting incorrectly. And in new procedures before filing their
up and running for the time it takes many cases there is absolutely nothing planned timing and decided that
for revenues to trickle, then stream the industry can do because regulators stations may be permitted to transition
and then pour in. What else do you heed a lot more closely the wishes of between 16 April and 12 June as long
need and what could go wrong the governments who appoint them as early transitions ‘address[ed] public
(human frailties of the people in rather than the industry they serve. interest concerns’.
charge notwithstanding)? And that is the bottom line. On the face of it, this seems
In most businesses, not a lot; in But what is fair for the broadcasting sensible. A new government giving
broadcasting there is something else industry to criticise is regulators the industry more time to get ready
to consider. A something else that can moving goalposts round at a whim - for a major transition that affects a
be a necessary evil, a joker in the theirs or their political masters. And whole broadcasting ecosystem such as
pack, a spanner in the works or such a case happened earlier this year broadcasters, multi-channel video
maybe all of these at the same time. in the US when the regulator changed programming distributors (MVPDs), set
That something else is the regulator. the date of the digital TV transition. and device manufacturers and what
What can be
Taking the first element first, then it For the last couple of years - NB: not the FCC called eligible
argued, very
can’t be argued that the role of the months or weeks - the US telecommunications carriers (ETCs).
regulator in any country isn’t necessary.
clearly and
broadcasting industry has had to Surely granting additional time would
No country exists that doesn’t have
loudly, is
prepare for the transition to full digital be welcome by all, meaning that
some type of broadcasting regulator. that TV services, a profound occurrence that when the switch actually took place
But what can be argued, very clearly could transform for the better the then things would work seamlessly?
excessive
and loudly, is that excessive regulation nature and the prospect of the One the reasons cited for a delay by
regulation is
is bad; bad for the business but also for country's broadcasting industry. And Congressmen was that US consumers
the end consumers who want to
bad; bad for
again, in these recession-hit times, were simply not yet ready for the
engage with content in the manner in
the business
you’d think that sticking to the original digital switchover.
which they do. And given this
but also for
plan and respecting the multi-billion Well yes, but who’s to say that
engagement is, in broadcasting, of a dollar investment by the US players things weren’t on track for the original
the end
fee-paying nature then excessive would be paramount. Not at all. February deadline? And hadn’t all of
consumers
regulating may be making hard- The original digital TV transition was those interested parties been working
who want to
pressed economic circumstances even agreed under the Bush administration for a long period of time to meet the
worse. You’d think that regulators
engage with
yet one of the first acts of the new deadline - a process that involved
were smart enough to realise this?
content in
Obama government was to move the spending not just a considerable
The job of a regulator seems self original transition deadline from 12 amount of time but also a considerablethe manner
implicit: it’s a government body that February to 12 June 2009. amount of money, and were expecting
in which
basically says what’s allowed on our As late as the end of January, the US to recoup that investment as soon as
they do.
screens - whether that is a TV, a congress mandated the FCC, the US possible? ‘Only’ four months difference
computer or a mobile device (including broadcasting regulator, to implement may seem like nothing to end users,
even watches these days) - and under the DTV Delay Act, which extended the but to the service providers the delay
what terms the broadcasters can offer deadline for full power TV stations to represents four months’ worth of lost
these services. Isn’t it just a necessary complete their transition to all-digital revenues and that’s hugely significant
6 l ibe l march/april 2009 l www.ibeweb.com
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