Joanne Jacobs Monash University

1. COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH FORUM SECTION 3C: MEDIA 'Public Sector Information Provision: Realising public interest objectives in a market-driven communications sector' Joanne Jacobs Monash University

2. Outline • 'Public Good' and the communications sector • Competition versus accountability • Datacasting and Netcasting definitions • Datacasting, netcasting and 'backdoor broadcasting' • National filtering and incentives programs • Market realities • Conclusions

3. Public good and the communications sector • Universal service and public fiduciary principles • 'Public interest' and economic feasibility • Protection of 'new' industry players in the subscription television market “the (broadcasting) market has become not a means to an end, but an economic notion of the public good, itself" (Craik et al, 1995, p42) • Traditional regulatory measures - licensing

4. Competition versus Accountability • The communications sector and self-regulation • Changes to 'accountability' • Laissez-faire economics and community concerns over content • The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and the Online Services Schedule • 'Entrenched protection' (Papandrea) • Alternative regulatory options?

5. Datacasting & Netcasting definitions • Datacasting - 'non-broadcasting' content received via digital terrestrial television infrastructure. • Limited in terms of capacity to deliver 'broadcasting-style’ content • Subject to licensing conditions • Netcasting - (non-broadcasting) either streaming or cached video or audio content received via internet (telecommunications infrastructure) • No limitations on delivery of 'broadcasting-style' content • Regulated only in terms of the Online Services Schedule

6. Datacasting, Netcasting & ‘Backdoor Broadcasting’ • BSA1992 Amendment: no additional commercial players to the FTA television market until 2006 • Review into the scope of datacasting 1998-1999 • 'Backdoor broadcasting' • Tradional protection and new market exclusion • Netcasting via datacasting receivers?

7. National filtering & incentives • Public transmitter model and recommendation process (Levi-Fauer) • Guides to programming offered through public information service provider • Incentives program for content providers • Service provider role subject to licensing conditions, where content providers act on a contractual basis • Nationally oriented (proxy-based) filtering provides seamless mechanism for addressing community concerns

8. Market Realities • ... and HDTV - cost and purpose of sets not understood • ... and datacasting - without broadcasting-style content, spectrum is less valuable. • ... and netcasting - MPEG and alternative video and audio compression codecs make broadcasting-style content achievable, not a 'distant prospect' • ... and policy-development - entrenched players will seek to protect market share at all costs. Policy decisions recognising the development of diversity in emergent technologies will need to be 'brave'

9. Conclusions • Large scale alteration of industry imperatives (competition, deregulation) not politically feasible • Market-driven communications sector will fail community concerns over rights of access and generic concerns over content which may be inappropriate for some audiences • Portal-oriented model of delivering non-broadcasting (but broadcasting-style) content allows for some centralised filtering and a testing market for emergent technologies • Unconstrained access and the 'public good' - participation and mature adoption of service and content providers could be a successful realisation of the public interest

10. Contact Details Joanne Jacobs National Centre for Australian Studies Monash University Clayton VIC, 3800 Ph: (+61 3) 9905 9091 Fax: (+61 3) 9905 5238 Mobile: 0419 131 077 Email: joanne@joannejacobs.net Internet: http://joannejacobs.net/