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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Daithi Mac Sithigh
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Edinburgh University Press, 2017.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
From 2010 to 2015, video-on-demand services in the UK were regulated by the Authority for Television on Demand (ATVOD), under an agreement with the statutory regulator Ofcom and applying the pan-European standards introduced through the 2007 EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive. A key question for the regulators and for service providers was whether any given service fell within the ‘scope’ of the law – that is, which services met the legal definition of an on-demand audiovisual media service. This is a study of how Ofcom exercised its role as the final arbiter of that definition, through a close examination of its 15 decisions in appeals against initial determinations by ATVOD. The use of the legal test for ‘comparability’ with conventional television services, and the regulatory focus on ‘TV-like’ on-demand services, has demonstrated the significance of production and aesthetics as a determinant of regulation. In particular, production decisions regarding titles, credits, and duration, as well as a range of issues of perceived quality (audio, video, voiceover, editing, and the like), have been taken into account. It is contended that Ofcom has relied on focus group research, rather than on wider insights from television studies research, in assessing these factors, and that the underlying Directive may have been flawed in its concepts and definitions.
Author(s): Mac Síthigh D
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of British Cinema and Television
Year: 2017
Volume: 14
Issue: 4
Pages: 464-484
Print publication date: 01/10/2017
Online publication date: 30/09/2017
Acceptance date: 31/08/2016
Date deposited: 09/10/2017
ISSN (print): 1743-4521
ISSN (electronic): 1755-1714
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2017.0389
DOI: 10.3366/jbctv.2017.0389
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