Competition workshop (2017)

Keynote Speakers

Program

See our printable program

Scientific Background 

The goal of the conference was to bring together EU and US academics working on media and communication-related issues and to foster interdisciplinary interaction between economists and lawyers. Still, academic scholars of the two disciplines have different approaches and often move in different policy circles. While a growing number of both lawyers and economists work on media and communications-related topics, most often the two groups work independently from each other. As shown by the success of the three previous TILEC workshops on the topic, there is much to be gained by bringing these groups of scholars together.

The fields of media and telecommunications policy have been subject to significant changes in the new century. First, while both fields used to be separate disciplines before a process of convergence has resulted in the gradual blending of media and telecommunications services and markets. Second, in struggling with the (de)regulatory response to convergence of media and telecommunications, policymakers in Europe and the US have started playing catch-up with each other. Third, in regulating this complex process of convergence between media and telecoms, the disciplines of law and economics are increasingly becoming intertwined in the regulatory and competition policy practice.

Hence, it is essential that media and communications scholars from the two disciplines in both the EU and the US share their expert knowledge in order to propose high quality competition policy and regulatory interventions to policy makers.

The objective of the TILEC workshop on ‘Competition Policy and Regulation in Media and Telecommunications Markets’ is to have economic and legal contributions of the highest quality, but effort in presenting it to a mixed audience is expected. Economists are expected to bring in reasons to regulate, and how to regulate according to economic theory, lawyers to bring in knowledge of the current regulation, of court decisions and of the legal feasibility of regulation proposals.

Each presenter had been assigned a discussant. Theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented articles were welcome.

Topics (Non-Exclusive)

• The impact of convergence and digitalization
• The digital single market in the EU, including regulation of geo-blocking
• The EU Copyright reform, in particular value gap and a publisher’s right
• Network neutrality
• The Revision of the Audiovisual Media Services directive in the EU
• Cloud computing
• Big data and data portability in media markets
• Impact and regulation of fake news and filter bubbles
• The EU Regulatory framework for Electronic Communications
• The goal of public intervention: efficiency versus pluralism
• Media market structure and political outcomes
• Media mergers and pluralism
• Media bias: measurement and determinants
• Scope for public ownership and public service broadcasting
• Financing of public service broadcasting
• Regulation of advertising and media content
• Media as two-sided markets
• Piracy, peer-to-peer, copyright
• Exclusive contracts
• Vertical integration between distribution and content provision
• Price discrimination, dynamic pricing, versioning, and bundling
• Vertical integration between telecommunications and media
• Bundling in new and traditional media markets
• Local content in digital markets
• Privacy, anonymity, security, digital rights management, trust
• Scope for public subsidies in old and new media
• Advertising regulation in the old and new media

Scientific committee