Impacts of New Technologies on Free-to-Air TV industry: Lessons from Selected Country Cases

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the impacts of new technologies, especially of the digital TV, on the industry of terrestrial TV in selected countries. Taking the evolution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a background scenario, the transformations provoked by digitization of TV on the following aspects are analyzed: (i) the market structure of terrestrial TV (or free-to-air TV broadcasting), (ii) the plurality and diversity of TV programming. Based on secondary data and on recent studies on the technological trajectory of terrestrial TV in selected countries, one concludes that digital TV may provide great opportunities for development in such industry, but the magnitude of its benefits is strongly conditioned by socioeconomic factors and by how the service was regulated. Such findings may contribute to Brazilian debate on development opportunities opened by technological change to the television sector.

Digitalization in the Development of Media Systems: The Impact of Youtube on Traditional Television

“…The main advantage gained by traditional TV media due to the process of digitalization is technological one. The digitalization of television has provided an opportunity for integration and convergence with other communication networks, where television services can be provided using high-speed networks using Internet protocols (Menezes and Quadros Carvalho 2009 ). Media convergence is defined as “the ongoing process of consolidation and expansion that enables global media companies to become larger, integrated, and networked” (Sueres 2016 ).…”

Broadcast market structures and retransmission payments: A European perspective

“…Apart from a few telecommunications operators that leveraged their existing network infrastructure to successfully enter the multichannel video business, the multitude of new players in broadcasting is involved in content production and programming. As switching costs are likely to be higher between distributors than broadcasters (viewers tend to switch more easily between channels than between platforms), this may add bargaining power to distributors (Menezes and Quadros, 2009). Finally, market players tend to reduce substitution effects by differentiation strategies.…”

Remediation, convergence, and big data

“…All those data streams provide real-time access to the interest of the users which can further be sold to marketers. In such a big data repository, data can be more easily compared, analyzed, contextualized (Menezes and Carvalho, 2009), and monetized.…”