European television in the digital age. Issues, dynamics and realities

Book abstract:

This volume addresses the issues, dynamics and realities of Western European television at the start of the 21st Century. Organised in two parts: the first offers an overview of European television and the second examines the new ways that television content might be delivered to the viewers.

Chapter one deals with the effects of deregulation that took place during the 1980s and 1990s and the discussion moves on in chapter two to examine the development of the digital market in Western Europe. It forecasts that digital television will become reality in the years to come and will bring challenges to public broadcasting and particularly in the area of funding as explored in chapter three. The changes in traditional funding and the role of advertising, sponsorship and bartering are discussed in chapter four which also examines innovative forms of funding through PPV (pay-per-view); NVOD (near-video-on-demand) and VOD (video-on-demand), as well as the development of pay-TV in Western Europe.

The concentration of power and ownership within the European media industry at the EU level and the extent to which governmental influence will become inhibited by these larger communications groups is the focus of chapter five. The relationship between television and politics is explored in chapter six expressing the view that the falling public interest in politics has less to do with television than the real decline of politics in a new post-cold-war era.

The explosion in the number and variety of available television channels within the EU is examined in chapter seven and chapter eight explores the rise in news channels that has happened at both local and international levels. Similarly, the expansion of sports channels is addressed in chapter nine which discusses the inflation of TV sports rights bringing with it TV interference in sporting events and calendars. Music channels are the focus of chapter ten and chapter eleven deals with channels for children and the entry of these channels onto the Internet. The growth in the number and thematic streams of TV channels is seen to follow the pattern of the US.

The convergence of television and Internet is explored in the final concluding chapter, which goes on to discuss the nature of growth in the digital market observing the supply driven aspect and commenting on the need for a stronger voice from the customer which will be necessary to influence and constrain the power of the media oligarchies.

The work will interest students, scholars and practitioners in the fields of media and communication, cultural theory, European Studies and national policy studies.

Stylianos Papathanassopoulos is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies, National University of Athens.