International Journal of Communications Law & Policy

THE EU REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AND THE COMMISSIONS PROPOSAL FOR A DECISION ON A REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR RADIO SPECTRUM POLICY IN THE COMMUNITY
Concerns of and Consequences for public broadcasters in the EU
By Michael Libertus

Download the Paper in PDF Format: IJCLP Web-Doc 10-6-2001

Abstract

Fundamentally, even public broadcasters can share the European Commission's horizontal approach to the regulation of communication infrastructures, on the one hand, and content-related electronic communication services, on the other. Moreover, they endorse the political objectives underlying the Commission's proposals, in particular the aim to safeguard competition, to secure open access to infrastructures on non-discriminatory terms and the prevention of a "digital divide" between users. Nevertheless, the proposals for the new regulatory framework fail to take sufficient account of the existing "links", in other words, the connections and interdependencies between the infrastructure and the content it transports. The author comments on these proposals from a public broadcaster's point of views.