Television and the public interest

The communications revolution has thrown into question the value of imposin g public interest obligations on television broadcasters. But the distincti ve nature of this unusual market-with "winner-take-all" features, with view ers as a commodity, with pervasive externalities from private choices, and with market effects on preferences as well as the other way around-justifie s a continuing role for government regulation in the public interest. At th e same time, regulation best takes the form, not of anachronistic command-a nd-control regulation, but of (I) disclosure requirements, (2) economic inc entives ("pay or play"), and (3) voluntary self-regulation through a privat ely administered code. Some discussion is devoted to free speech and antitr ust issues, and to the different possible shapes of liability and property rules in this context, treating certain programming as a public "good" akin to pollution as a public bad.