Regulating the Digital Television Infrastructure in the EU - Room for Citizenship Interests?

This article argues that the regulation of the DTV infrastructure cannot be limited to economic concerns and that it must also address citizenship values. The analysis focuses on the regulatory framework for electronic communications (eCommunications) in the European Union, with a particular emphasis on the control of bottleneck facilities. The argument for bringing public policy considerations under the European framework on eCommunications faces major difficulties. This could be achieved only in the long term and is dependent on the shaping of the European democratic dimension and on a greater supranational competence in matters such as pluralism and diversity in the communications sector. Under the current framework, public policy concerns in the communications sector are gradually forgotten, while the regulators are giving in to commercial pressures. The maintenance of the status quo commits the protection of citizenship values to an uncertain future and, unless we are prepared to look beyond economic interests in eCommunications, the commodification of the public will become an irreversible aspect of a market-dominated reality