Shut off : the canadian digital television transition / Gregory Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taylor, Gregory.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Digital television--Canada.

Digital television.

Digital television--Government policy--Canada.

Television broadcasting policy--Canada.

Television broadcasting policy.

Digital communications--Government policy--Canada.

Digital communications.

Government policy.

Digital television--Government policy.

Canada.

Physical Description:

xii, 216 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Montréal, Québec : Mcgill-Queens Universuty Press, 2013.

Summary:

Digital technology has revolutionized modern television, but what exactly has changed? The history of the digital transition is one of great scientific achievement, expensive failures, and significant political and industrial power struggles. In Shut Off, Gregory Taylor examines the technology, institutional players, and the policies that have shaped Canada's efforts to switch from analogue to digital television broadcasting. Taylor shows how digital television is part of a global media movement by comparing the Canadian experience with the ways in which the digital transition has been managed worldwide. Shut Off is about more than television - the digital transition is also a precursor for new developments in mobile digital media. The wireless spectrum freed by the move to digital television is a multi-billion dollar public resource that will soon be for sale. This book reveals how digital broadcasting has been the site of dramatic change in the political economy of Canadian media, and questions the market-driven process through which the still incomplete transition has unfolded. Considering wide-ranging issues such as equal access and television as a public good, Taylor highlights public and institutional actors in the policy process to provide an analysis of government and industry. Succinct and insightful, Shut Off is a timely assessment of a period of technological and economic upheaval in Canadian broadcasting. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Detours along the Way 23

2 Early Policy Development in Canada and the United States 43

3 The Global Transition 59

4 Broadcasting Distribution Undertakings 78

5 Over-the-Air Broadcasting 110

6 Other Voices 141.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [187]-199) and index.

ISBN:

0773540482

9780773540484

0773540490

9780773540491

OCLC:

818414591