Open Standards and Interoperability in EU Digital TV: Economics and Policy Issues

Nicola Matteucci, Polytechnic University of Marche

Abstract

The quest for interoperability of interactive TV has been a major concern of the EU Institutions. Its policy foundations were built on the enabling role of open standards, whose peculiar standardization process should guarantee affordable and widespread IPRs availability. After having received considerable public support and financial funds, the ITV roll-out appears disappointing, and the diffusion of the main concerned standard, the MHP, stagnates. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of the main markets facts and passages of the ITV policy, to derive a multifaceted assessment of its technological, economic and institutional drivers. Several important issues stand out. Beside the inner complexity of the policy, a few normative inconsistencies and conflicting aims adversely impacted its feasibility. Several logical ambiguities also dampened the correct choice of instruments. In particular, the existing literature clarifies two main points: open standards cannot be uncritically assimilated to open source software, and the role of open standards along the broadcasting value chain is largely unexplored. Consequently, their effects here might differ from those experienced in traditional ICT markets. Finally, a certain evidence of regulatory capture of the EU policy-maker emerges.