Pay-per-view Television: Consequences of a Ban

In the future, a ban of pay-per-view broadcasting will arise on certain events included on national lists in each EU country as put forward in the new "Television Without Frontiers" Directive from the 16th of April, 1997. This paper analyses theoretically the consequences of such ban when the alternative is financing the events purely by TV-commercials. Results on economic efficiency does not provide much reason for a ban. However, a ban increases consumer surplus which may support a ban for distributional reasons.