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This post is a part of a series about media, regulation and technology. It is aimed to encourage conversation and exchange opinions, and is not a legal advise or a single comprehensive article.
Regulators are facing new and complex challenges in the recent years, when new technologies are changing the way people consume media.
In The Past Things Were Simple
In the past years, Media and Medium were one. In this post I define media as the type of content being delivered (TV show, Radio Show, etc), and medium as the carrier technology (Broadcast TV, cable, RF, etc). In this environment, regulators that were in charge of the medium, in a way of providing licenses, could control the content itself.
Also content had one main format - all TV shows were moving pictures seen on TV sets. All radio shows were audio delivered via the air, based on regulated spectrum regime, and so on.
Another important angle was that cost of delivery was relatively high - broadcasting requires considerable investment in technology and licenses. The requirement for such an investment was an automatic filter that enabled only large companies to play this game.
