Audiovisual Regulation under Pressure：Comparative Cases from North America and Europe

The book is an interdisciplinary investigation of trends in audiovisual regulation. The book considers recent trends towards deregulation and for policy in this field to pursue trade and industry policy goals rather than traditional cultural and democratic objectives, notably media pluralism and diversity. This book explores regulatory policy in the following jurisdictions: the United States, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, the ‘Benelux’ countries, and the European Union and compares the very different responses to the issues of liberalisation, deregulation and the attainment of cultural objectives. In looking at regulation in different jurisdictions the book will lead to a better understanding of the path dependencies in cultural policy measures as applied to audiovisual media, but also a greater knowledge of the pressures of regulatory competition and the profound technological changes that call for new regulatory design.

Thomas Gibbons is Professor of Law at the University of Manchester, specialising in media and communications law and regulation. Professor Gibbons Served as a specialist adviser to the (Puttnam) Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Bill 2002. and is a joint editor of the Journal of Media Law.

Peter Humphreys is Professor of Politics at University of Manchester, specialising in comparative media and telecoms regulation and policy. Professor Humphreys is chair of the communications law and policy division of the International Communications Association (ICA).