Reinventing the market? Competition and regulatory change in broadcasting

The reforms instituted by the Broadcasting Act 1990 led to a period of turb ulence and upheaval within broadcasting with results that were at best unin tended and, at worst, seriously undermined the ideal of public service broa dcasting. A Hayekian economic perspective would suggest that the reforms fa iled because they did nor go far enough in the direction of full 'marketiza tion'. The paper develops an alternative perspective, based on an adaptatio n of systems theory within the context of law and economics. This approach offers a broader methodological foundation for the understanding of 'econom ic law' and a different normative perspective on the broadcasting reforms. It is suggested that the difficulty with these reforms was not their failur e to go further in the direction of the market, but rather their lack of cl arity in articulating a clear alternative to the market as the basis for th e organization of television production.