Content management and digital television: technology, regulation and policy

The landscape of digital television is changing rapidly, with new channels, new broadband networks, and new high definition and interactive formats. This article focuses on a neglected but important feature of the new platforms: their capacity to offer novel forms of content management, that is, control over the accessibility and usability of content delivered into viewers' households. In the US the 'broadcasting flag' proposal generated considerable public controversy, while in Europe the DVB group's CPCM has continued its development. Apple's iTunes, the US networks' Hulu, and the BBC's iPlayer all incorporate different models of content management for television programming over the broadband Internet. Content control is now also a feature of everyday household technologies such as HDMI, a popular interface for consumer electronics. The BBC is now seeking to incorporate content management technologies in its new free-to-air high definition services. An understanding of how these diverse systems operate provides important context for audiovisual policy more broadly. This article considers digital content management as a new challenge for policy. We review the basic elements of content management and raise some of the policy problems involved. What has driven the shift towards digital rights management? What are the implications for national and international digital media markets? What are the implications for the cultural and social policy settlements embodied in public service broadcasting?