The Impact of Next Generation Television on Consumers and the First Amendment
Consumers have access to an ever increasing inventory of video content choices as a result of technological innovations, more readily available broadband, new business plans, inexpensive high capacity storage and the Internet’s ability to serve as a single medium for a variety of previously standalone services delivered via different channels. They increasingly have little tolerance for “appointment television” that limits access to a particular time, channel and device. Access to video content is becoming a matter of using one of several software-configured interfaces capable of delivering live and recorded content anytime, anywhere, to any device and via many different transmission and presentation formats. Technological and marketplace convergence eliminate the viability of judicial and regulatory models that apply varying degrees of First Amendment protection as a function of the medium delivering the content. With the Internet serving as a single conduit for a variety of information, communications and entertainment (“ICE”), ventures can offer a bundle of services that span two or more regulatory classifications, e.g., the ability of wireless handsets to make telephone calls, to receive video programming and to access the Internet. This paper will examine the ongoing migration from channels to software-configured platforms for accessing video content with an eye toward assessing the impact on consumers and the First Amendment. The paper identifies the need for significant amendment of the Communications Act of 1934 to provide a light-handed and limited, but explicit statutory basis for the FCC to resolve predictable disputes between stakeholders and to remedy anticompetitive practices.
The Future of Online Video: An Economic and Policy Perspective
Online video streaming now accounts for a high proportion of Internet traffic, signaling the significance of online video entertainment to the future of the Internet. Especially in an environment where leading ISPs and MVPDs have substantial national market shares as well as ownership of content supply, the online video market highlights the importance of FCC policies that promote competition and robust entry opportunities. In the first part of the proposed paper, we document with the most recent available data the central features of the online video industry, including: revenue and market structure of its five major segments (subscription, a la carte sales and rentals, advertiser-supported professional content, user generated content, and MVPD-authenticated online-offline packages); prevailing programming windows; and content aggregation patterns through both portals (Hulu, Netflix) and devices as content platforms (Apple TV, Roku). In the second part of the paper, we explore three related economic factors that will determine the future of the online video industry: 1. The development potential of large scale online aggregation of over-the-top suppliers and competition from MVPDs (including IP-based delivery): Can the limited development to date of over-the top delivery of individual cable networks without MVPD subscription authentication be attributed to straightforward economic incentives? What competitive advantages may potential collaborations between MVPDs and other firms (e.g., Comcast and Apple) have? 2. The willingness of program suppliers to grant online distribution rights (in effect, the development of programming windows and programming exclusivity): What conditions are required for online windows to be simultaneous with, or before, offline delivery? What parallels can be drawn with development of other media, such as monthly subscription cable networks? How do windows depend on development of effective advertising and other revenue models? 3. ISP pricing models and their relationship with online video pricing: How does bandwidth-sensitive ISP pricing influence the effective price to online video consumers? Considering recent network neutrality changes, is it likely that online video prices will reflect the true cost of delivery in the long run across a range of near-future policy outcomes? How might pricing models develop? What parallels can be drawn with relationships between the multi-sided relationships of MVPDs and cable and broadcast networks. In the concluding section, we will consider the potential role of FCC regulatory authority (with or without network neutrality rules) on the behavior of established ISPs and MVPDs, and on the pricing, quality and variety of online video entertainment. Our answers to the above questions will necessarily be limited and in some cases speculative, but will be informed by economic theory. Although we may stop short of specific policy prescription, we believe that a sound economic understanding of industry incentives, strategies, and relationships, and their market outcomes, is the best path to effective policy.
Implementation of Tourism Satellite Account: Assessing the Contribution of Tourism to the Croatian Economy
Compiling the indicators of tourism consumption and the output of tourism industries, Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) provides a framework for internationally harmonized measurements of direct macroeconomic contribution of tourism. Ivandic and Marusic provide a detailed methodological approach for the transfer of TSA theoretical concepts to the assessment of tourism economic contribution on the case of the Croatia. Giving that the TSA compilation is still characterized by a surprisingly wide range of ‘styles’ used, the chapter contributes to a better understanding of the issues related to measurement of direct tourism impacts. It also gives a set of baseline criteria for resource allocation within tourism policy and the further evaluation of its effectiveness.