city university london school of social sciences convergence of ...

Regarding the integration of regulatory agencies, OECD states that „minimising thenumber of regulators that an enterprise needs to deal with is important in order tominimise regulatory costs, and reduce the potential for uncertainty andinconsistency‟ (OECD:2007 p.49).OECD has proposed a model for reform in order to meet the challenges created byconvergence that has many similarities with the initiatives of EC which will beexplained in the following section. The main lines of this model are summarisedbelow: A horizontal approach in which carriage and content have separate regulatoryarrangements should be structured. However it is important to keep in mindthat decisions on some carriage matters can have an effect on cultural andsocial objectives and vice versa. So it may not be possible to speak of anabsolute separation in regulation of content and carriage. Access of consumers to basic services - universal service obligations- shouldbe provided. Cultural diversity should be provided by production of domestic programmesand audiovisual services. Plurality of voice objective should be achieved by using the capacity providedby digital technologies. Objectives of plurality and diversity should be achieved by financiallysupporting public broadcasting. More efficient use of spectrum should be encouraged in order to achievesocially desirable outcomes. New regulatory framework should be structured taking into account theimportance of protection of consumers.Regarding the social and cultural side of convergence regulation, OECD states that itis important to assess whether convergence requires a change in policies to achievesocial and cultural objectives in a country and highlights that it may not be optimumto impose common regulations applying to all services. According to OECD, „thedegree of influence of free to air radio and television may justify a more intrusive29