[EcInfCom] New | Contents | Home | OGU Home

"Platforms for the Development of Digital Television Broadcasting and the Internet in Japan ," Chap.12, Martin Cave and Kiyoshi Nakamura (eds), Digital Broadcasting: Policy and Practice in the Americas, Europe and Japan, Edward Elger, U.K., 2006, pp. 230-252. Paper also presented at the Fourteenth Northeast Asia Economic Forum held at Shenyang, China, September 20-21, 2005.
[Outline]

In Japan, digital television was introduced in 2000 for satellite broadcasting and in December 2003 for terrestrial broadcasting. Because of historical, political, and other reasons, this change is taking place in the form of merely replacing analogue content for digital one; it has accompanied few change in business practices or in the industry structure. Accordingly, the benefits of the digitization are considered to be limited to technical improvements such as spectrum saving, noise prevention, finer images (HDTV), and multi-channel capability.

It is understood, however, that the impacts of the digitization of television in the long run will reach far beyond those technical improvements, since it has now become possible to increase the value of the content to viewers by processing it with computer and storage technologies. For instance, "TV Anytime," a TV-receiving device to let viewers watch programs at a time and in an order chosen by them, might decrease the effectiveness of TV commercials; a consequence would be gradual replacement of traditional free TV with subscribed one. TV programs may become to occupy only a portion of the content markets, although nobody can forecast exactly the future state of copyright issues as we learned from what took place in the past with music content.

This paper attempts to deal with the impacts of digital television broadcast in conjunction with the power of computer and storage technologies. It will focus on the need for, and the implications of, forming "platforms" for digital business, a way to establish "efficient division of labor" in the digital world, in relation to digital television. One aspect is to consider platforms useful for competition and coordination of digital television and the Internet. The paper attempts to identify political and regulatory impediments of smooth formation of such platforms and to offer policy recommendations for overcoming them.

Top of Page

[Keywords]

digital television, IP-TV, content, Internet, competition platform, copyright, copy-once restriction, cut-and-paste-once restriction, TiVo, B-CAS card, server-type television, vertical integration, vertical separation, internal cross subsidization, infrastructure, monopoly, monopoly front, price-taker requirement, convergence in telecommunications

Top of Page

[Presentation Slides]

Top of Page

[Miscellaneous]

Top of Page

Back to Pub List Index | Back to Pub List Index (Japanese)

Top of Page | New | Contents | Home | OGU Home

Hajime Oniki
ECON, OGU
3/12/2009
HTML4.0