Digital Television and the Challenges for International Public Policy

Posted on | November 15, 2010 | No Comments

Found this paper recently that I gave to the Pacific Telecommunications Council in 1997. In my conclusion I state that “IPTV may fall on the scrapheap of history, like ISDN, but it’s apparent both the telco and the television industry will continue to go through substantive changes. Two apparent changes are its increasing globalization and the offering of a multiplicity of services.” IPTV is facing difficult challenges, mainly because viewers are giving up their landlines, and that includes TV. What I examine here though is the role of multilateral trade agreements and the institutional environment for international digital TV, particularly as TV comes to fall under the rubric of e-commerce. As IPTV business models draw on e-commerce models it raises a number of questions about whether it should be viewed under the GATT which covers the cross-border movement of goods and duties imposed or the GATS which governs the cross-border of services. Given that IPTV will largely deal with the cross-border flow of copyright protected entertainment and education content it will also attract the attention of WIPO and the enforcement measures of TRIPs.

http://www.ptc.org/past_events/ptc07/program/papers/M21_AnthonyPennings.pdf

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Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2002 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.

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