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Smith, Paul A. (2004) The politics of UK television policy: the introduction of digital television. Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
This thesis aims to achieve two main objectives: first, to provide a detailed account of a vital period in contemporary UK broadcasting history, namely the introduction of digital television and the making of UK government digital television policy from around the mid-1990s until mid-2002; and secondly, to highlight the changing nature of UK television policy making, focusing on a shift in the power to control the policy making process and policy outcomes away from the UK government and towards dominant commercial interests, chiefly BSkyB.
In summary, this thesis traces the emergence of a more complex system of UK television policy making, a shift from government to governance. At least partly as a result of this trend, the capacity of the UK government to control the digital television policy process and determine policy outcomes has been relatively limited. Most significantly, the UK government has failed to prevent BSkyB from translating its domination of UK analogue pay-TV (established during the early-mid 1990s) into a similar domination of UK digital television. By around mid-2002, BSkyB's digital satellite service was by far the most popular digital delivery platform in the UK; it had established control of the digital set-top box 'gateway' to pay-TV viewers; and had also successfully retained control of key pay-TV premium content rights, most notably English Premier League (PL) football. Essentially, it is argued here that the UK government's failure to effectively challenge BSkyB was the result of two interrelated factors: first, a loss of control over market entry into UK television, due to a combination of technological changes and the increased role of the European Union (EU) in the regulation of UK television; and secondly, the adherence of successive UK governments to free market principles, which, combined with the first factor, led to a reliance on general competition policy, and/or economic regulation carried out by broadcasting and telecommunications regulators, to tackle BSkyB's dominance. However, as this thesis makes clear, the application of competition policy and/or economic regulation has, to date at least, proved no match for the underlying market power of BSkyB.
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