Category Archives: Forschung

New Report from Reuters Institute ‘The Economics of Television in a Digital World’

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism frequently publishes high profile research. Patrick Barwise and Robert G. Picard’s report ‘The economics of television in a digital world: What economics tell us for future policy debates’ is one of the latest pieces in this series. In this study, 47 pages in length, the two scholars provide an analysis of the economic factors underlying televison in the digital world. They focus on the UK context and, as you would expect, base their arguments on welfare economics. This means that they regard media content and services as merit goods, associating with them positive externalities which could be underprovided for in the free market economy and, therefore, require the active role of the state beyond the provision of a level playing field.

Having  provided a historical contextualization, the authors detail television’s three demand side markets: the audience market, the advertising market and the consumer payment market. They discuss the three main types of television funding – licence-fee, advertising, and subscription – and demonstrate how these compete and coexist. Subsequently, Barwise and Picard turn to the impact of digital switchover for television economics. Continue reading