Why Did TV Bits and Radio Bits Not Fit Together? Digitalization and Divergence of Broadcast Media
This article examines the development of digital terrestrial broadcasting systems from the perspective of the political economy (Mosco, 1996). It studies the international and intermedial relations between radio and television technology development proje
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Introduction
Back in 1995, Nicholas Negroponte assumed that because all spectrum used in a digital world would be bits, “they may be radio bits, TV bits or marine communications bits, but they are bits nonetheless, subject to the same commingling and multi-use that define multimedia” (Negroponte, 1996: 54). Now, almost 20 years later it is easy to see that while he recognized the potential of digitalization, he also misidentified its true essence and neglected the political, economic, and cultural aspects of system standardization. Digitalization as such is not a natural force producing convergence; rather, it is a tool, which can be used in blurring market boundaries for implementing expansive business strategies and more market-oriented policies. For example, in terrestrial broadcasting, digitalization has not resulted in any significant convergence, but rather increased divergence. In the analog days, there were only three major systems for television and two for radio broadcasting. Now there are altogether five types of digital TV broadcasting systems and four types of digital systems for terrestrial radio broadcasting worldwide. And even if both radio and TV are sometimes broadcast in digital, radio bits and TV bits are in most cases still strictly separated. However, it would be unfair to argue that the development of digital broadcasting systems has failed to increase convergence, because that has not been its original goal. A historical analysis reveals how the policies and politics for developing new digital broadcasting systems have been driven by strong economic and political motives since the beginning, but usually not by intentions for digital media convergence. Both broadcasters and other organizations involved in the development have usually been more interested in protecting and maintaining the existing structures than striving for convergence or merging mediums together. M. Ala-Fossi (*) University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland e-mail: [email protected] # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 A. Lugmayr, C. Dal Zotto (eds.), Media Convergence Handbook - Vol. 1, Media Business and Innovation, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-54484-2_15
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Neither convergence nor divergence even requires digitalization. European countries were unable to agree on a common standard for monochrome TV in the 1950s and for color TV in the 1960s. However, in the early 1980s, the representatives of the leading TV broadcasting organizations from the US, Japan, and Europe made preparations for a joint proposal for new and improved global standards for analog TV production and transmission. But just before the proposal was about to be accepted in 1986, the European countries and the European Commission turned against it. It was felt that a global standard for a global market was too risky, while a separate standard for the common European market would help to protect the European electronics manufacturing and broadcasting industries against foreign competition. That decision to strive for divergence has th
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