Globalisation Convergence And European Telecommunciations Regulation

This book provides an up-to-date account and analysis of the development of the European Union's regulatory framework for telecommunications in a globalising world. A key feature is its treatment of the EU's regulatory policy response to technological convergence in the information and communications sector, through its new Electronic Communications Regulatory Framework. The book explores in detail the dynamics of the complex relationship between technological and globalisation pressures, economic interests, and European and national policy responses. The authors also examine the achievements and limitations of over twenty years of EU efforts to liberalise markets and to harmonise regulation.

Media convergence is often propounded as inevitable and ongoing. Yet much of the governance of the media sector’s key parts has developed along discrete evolutionary paths, mostly incremental in character. This volume breaks new ground through exploring a diverse range of topics at the heart of the media convergence governance debate, such as next generation networks, spectrum, copyright and media subsidies. It shows how reluctance to accommodate non-market based policy solutions creates conflicts and problems resulting in only shallow media convergence thus far.

Through a comparison of the telecommunications sectors in four small EU-countries, an outstanding cast of contributors explore how regulatory authorities at international, EU-, national and regional level within and between sectors coordinate their regulatory decisions in order to provide coherent regulation of markets.

This new book presents a clear conceptual framework for understanding the transfer of policy ideas between EU states, together with an empirical study of regulatory change within European utilities. Policy transfer is a new instrument for understanding EU policy-making. This volume shows how the nature of institutions, interdependence between trans-national and national jurisdictions and social systems, relate policy actors across geographical boundaries, identifying four basic types of EU policy transfer and learning: ‘uploading’– how member states compete to shape the EU agenda in line with their own institutional arrangements and policy preferences ‘downloading’– how states adapt to changing EU incentives and constraints ‘socialization’ – how EU policy norms are internalized in the belief systems of domestic actors ‘information exchange’ between national actors in the course of EU interactions leading to a horizontal diffusion of policy ideas. The authors use an institutionalist perspective to show how these forms of policy transfer operate across the diverse systems of governance found across the EU. Policy Transfer in European Union Governance will be of great interest to students and scholars of European Union politics and policy, comparative public policy and political economy.

The on-going constitutionalization of Europe has led to various changes in media and communications, opening up areas of debate regarding the role of traditional and new media in developing a specific European public sphere as part of the wider European Project. This timely volume addresses the little understood relationship between old and new media, communications policy at the European level, issues of regulation and competition within the EU, the role of the European Parliament in media policymaking, and the questions emerging about the sustainability of traditional public service broadcasting. To understand the concrete significance of these debates two contributions address specific practical areas, i.e. the potential of online environments and specific developments in European media contexts, such as channel strategies, web-related services, iDTV and community networks. Consequently, Mediating Europe provides an original and important contribution to understanding the role of the media in shaping a European public sphere.

The areas of media and cultural policy offer a unique prism through which to understand wider processes of European integration. Questions of European identity, citizenship and community or polity-building clearly resolve themselves as questions of the (non-)emergence of a European ‘communicative space’. At the same time, as a more specific area of policy study, the role which has or may be played by the European institutions themselves in the fostering of such a ‘communicative space’ raises questions as to both the effectiveness and the legitimacy of their interventions. This volume in the European Studies series brings fresh, interdisciplinary insight into this relatively understudied area, making the case for a renewed look at the trajectory of cultural and media policies in the EU. Distinctively, the collection offers a historical and socio-political analysis of major media policies in the European Union, allowing for the contextualisation of recent developments; turns its attention to areas largely neglected by scholarly publishing, such as the press, the culture of the newsroom, and the role of media in an enlarged Europe; and addresses media and cultural policies as an interrelated part of EU construction, through questions of identity and political representation. Media and Cultural Policy in the European Union will be of interest to scholars and students of Cultural and Media Studies, European Studies, and European Integration, as well as appealing to broader Social Science audiences concerned with the politics and policy of cultural diversity.

This edited collection brings together leading academics in their respective fields to examine the European Union's impact on media and public policy. It provides an analysis of the broader areas of EU policy and links these together to give a greater appreciation of the nuances and scope of EU regulatory initiatives and their impact on the member states. Under a broad public interest perspective, the authors provide an assessment of the success of EU policy in protecting the public interest in the culture industries and respecting certain normative principles and balancing these with market dynamics.

Governing European Communications provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the emergence, dynamics, and evolution of European-level communications governance in the post-war era, focusing on telecommunications and television policies and regulation, and their technological convergence. Concentrating on the EU, the book embeds governance within broader economic and political developments in a global context and demonstrates that European governance has been more about the character rather than the level of regulation.