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28 Communication Theory & Research
The doctrinal impact of ‘more choice’ on British broadcasting policy was
especially notable. Unlike Italy, where a decade of de facto non-regulation and
competitive chaos preceded the de jure regulation of providers and programmes
(see, for example, Mazzoleni, 1990), in Britain the Thatcher government set out
to dismantle the ‘cosy duopoly’ of BBC and ITV public service broadcasting via
legislation to ensure more and different providers with scant regard for prior
policies of universal provision, quality and diversity. It remains to be seen if the
consequences of the recent television franchise auction will mirror those of cable
deregulation in the US: more channels, ownership concentration, subscription
fees and programme duplication.
In other Western European countries, where less is more has long been the
received wisdom of public broadcasting, the prospect of increased foreign
(mainly American) imports to fill the gap between programme hours on the new
services and Euro-production has fuelled national, EC and US debate over
quotas in the EC Television Directive of 1989. In the event, the new channels,
9
such as Spain’s Telecino and Antena 3, the Netherlands’ RTL-4 and Greece’s
Mega and Antenna, have brought more US films, soaps and game show formats
to Europe (Married ... With Children is very popular in Greece); but they have also
increased opportunities (by as much as 50 percent) for local programming. 10
However, the equation ‘more providers equals more channels equals
programme diversity’ is a half truth that ignores the extent to which broadcast-
ers’ own choices are constrained by programming and production economics,
questions about the extent of audience demand for ‘more choice’ and increased
subscription costs for pay-per-view or cable services. (Conversely, the oppo-
nents of ‘More’ often overlook the apparently universal thirst for escapist visual
entertainment.) [...]
The ‘More’ myth, then, sounds plausible. It fits with the globalization world-
view of material and symbolic goods interdependence and with the technology
of distribution, but fits less well with the cultural logic of particular media
markets (e.g. where mixed economy public service broadcasting has flourished
and defined itself as a service rather than a product).

The Myth of ‘Time and Space Have Disappeared’

‘Time and Space Have Disappeared’ recalls nineteenth- as well as twentieth-
century prophecy, hyperbole and inflated expectations about, respectively, the
wonders of electricity and electronic media uniting the world. But the early
oracles were not alone in linking communication technology to globalization.
Much ‘information revolution’ rhetoric from the 1970s onwards has dwelt on
the facts and fantasies of communication abundance from converging computer,
fibre optic, cellular, digital and satellite technology. This myth assumes their
consequences are those of rendering distance in space and variance in time
irrelevant: i.e. they have ‘disappeared’ as constraints on business or personal life.
Thus, industrial policy based on information technology (IT) as the key to eco-
nomic competitiveness has rationalized technology as the key to future national
and corporate prosperity. 11